How to Take the Lead

Have you heard about unlearning? It sounds like the opposite of what we are all about here at How To Take The Lead - learning, growth and development. But understanding what we need to unlearn as leaders is key to that growth and development. In this episode we cover: what we mean by the concept of unlearning why unlearning a crucial part of our leadership journeys how you know what you need to un...

What is your risk appetite as a leader? It's well evidenced that high-performing teams are those who are willing to take collective risk. But it's not easy to get to that place, especially if it's outside of your comfort zone. In this episode, we chat all things risk and why your approach to it matters. We discuss: how we define risks and how our approaches vary risk awareness versus risk-taking h...

Is being a disruptor about making trouble? We don't think so and it's one of the things we explore in this conversation about disruptive leadership. In this episode of How To Take The Lead we consider how disruptive leadership can support your teams/ organisations. We discuss: what being a disruptive leader really means? the challenges disruption can cause how to take other people on a journey of...

Should you be a thought leader? WHAT exactly does it mean to be a thought leader? In this week's How to Take the Lead, we discuss our thoughts on this topic, arguing the case for more leaders to talk out about things they're expert in. We explore: whether anyone can become a thought leader or if it's hierarchical what you need to bring to be a thought leader - and our equation that makes a thought...

What is self-leadership? Why is it important? How do you practice it? These are all questions we discuss in this episode of How To Take The Lead. Self-leadership is about how you show up as a leader and this can mean many things. It might be the boundaries you set and communicate. Perhaps it is how you are using your time and what this demonstrates to those around you. And it could be you need to...

We've talked a lot about culture and how it impacts performance, morale and organisational reputational. If you've been a long-term listener you will have heard our own experiences of working in organisations with poor culture and toxic behaviours. But in this episode we want to tackle it head on and explore what can be done about overcoming toxicity in organisations. We discuss: how we define tox...

Are you spotting future leadership talent? And if so, are you clear what to do next? In this episode we discuss how you can identify future leaders in your organisation and what you can do to support them. We cover: how you can identify future leaders what happens when you spot leadership potential how to ensure your leadership aspirations for someone are aligned with their own recruitment process...

Do you have a personal leadership strategy? Often we can focus on organisational strategies and lose our own purpose and intent along the way. In this episode Carrie-Ann and Lee explore what it means to have a personal leadership strategy, why you need one and how you go about getting one. We discuss how: your personal strategy differs from an organisational one we've approached and developed our...

In this episode of How To Take The Lead, we ask the question 'is leadership for you?'. We are into our fourth series of the podcast now and we realised we hadn't ever really addressed this question. We share our own experiences and the reasons why we have chosen to step into leadership positions. Our conversation is broad and wide ranging covering the following: the difference between leadership a...

We are back with series 4. And as we're getting to the end of the year we thought it would be the perfect time to check-in on the state of leadership. We last did this in 2022, so we wanted to see what had changed, what stayed the same and what we think it all means for next year. In this episode we discuss: what we both got up to over the summer, including some side-hustle / sister / cousin podca...

You know we can’t resist a cheeky bonus episode. As we end the series we take the opportunity to reflect on which episodes really resonated with us and with listeners. And we use this episode as an opportunity to cover things that cropped up between our conversations that we didn’t get the chance to discuss. We share our own views, thoughts and experiences: 04:22 – finding your fire again – the “s...

It’s the last episode of this series and we are all about staying curious. We discuss how we define curiosity in leadership and whether it is a core leadership skill. We are not just talking about being curious about others, but being curious about your own approach to leadership and how a culture of curiosity can impact your teams and organisation. We share our own views, thoughts and experiences...

Can you believe it’s the penultimate episode in this series already? In this episode we tackle the topic of power in leadership and how power dynamics show up. We talk about some of the misconceptions in relation to power, challenge some of the stereotypes of how power can play out for leaders and how we can better understand how we can use our power for good as leaders. We share our own thoughts...

Leaders or not, we are all human, so mistakes are inevitable right? Whether it is making a bad decision, moving in the wrong direction strategically or not listening to stakeholder feedback, it’s the way we deal with our mistakes that can make all the difference. We share our own views, thoughts and experiences: 06:01 – the BBC v. Gary Lineker 08:36 – warning signs you’re getting it wrong 14:50 –...

While we might have 40 years of professional communications experience between us, we are super clear that leaders have to take the lead in communicating and engaging for their organisations, not leave it to their corporate communications team. Organisational performance and communications go hand in had for us and we explore this further in this episode. We share our own views, thoughts and exper...

We’ve already discussed the leadership landscape and how challenging it is for leaders at present. In this episode we talk about how, as a leader, you can avoid overwhelm, recognising when you might be heading towards burnout and how to support your wellbeing. We also share our own personal experiences of dealing with overwhelm. We share our own views, thoughts and experiences: 03:38 – the stats –...

As leaders we have a platform and opportunity to use our voice and our influence, whether we like it or not. In this episode we explore how and when you might choose to use your voice. We share our own views, thoughts and experiences: 5:37 – representing what matters 8:23 – what does it mean to have a voice? 13:53 – individual v. organisational views 28:14 – testing alignment 36:56 – persistent an...

Having difficult conversations is part and parcel of being a leader, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. In this episode we talk about how to have a difficult conversation with individuals, teams and in public. We share our advice and tips for how you can prepare for a challenging conversations and what you might want to consider from the point of view of the person/ people you are talking with. In t...

Confidence is something that comes up in so many of our conversations with leaders and aspiring leaders. In this episode we explore what confidence means in relation to leadership – both in terms of your own leadership and how you create confidence for others. In this episode we share our own views, thoughts and experiences: 05:18 – confidence is subjective 10:30 – loud doesn’t equal confident 13:...

Organisations have a huge role to play in developing leaders but not all organisations do this well. In this episode we discuss what support leaders need, how organisations identify future leaders and what leadership development programmes need to consider: 05:22  – talk about leadership early 10:28 – organisational mindset shift 14:30 – floundering out of the funnel 17:31 – closing the devel...

We are back with our third series, and in this first episode we are talking about how you can lead when things are tough. We are all tired, we have moved from one crisis to another with no time to catch a breath, we have lots going on in life AND we still need to lead. In this episode we share our own views, thoughts and experiences: 04:08  – knowing where to start 05:10 – working out what yo...

Well, we’ve got two series of the podcast under our belts now and we couldn’t finish 2022 without a bonus episode. It’s a bit of a review of the year, what we have learned about leadership, what we’ve loved and loathed and also a look ahead to our leadership hopes for 2023. 04:23  – is it important for leaders to make time to reflect and reset? 10:53 – how do I take steps to have the impact I...

In this episode we explore quiet quitting, what it is, how it is impacting people and whether or not it's a gen Z phenomenon. The conversation flows toward boundary setting more than once as we discuss the reasons people are disengaging in the workplace. And we talk about the different demographics who are choosing to quiet quit. 04:36  – what is quiet quitting? 09:03 – sticking to your...

We share our thoughts in this episode about whether culture trumps strategy and how we as leaders can consider this in our work. Strategy is, of course, important, but the culture you create impacts on so many factors, including how effective you are as a leader.  As always we share our own views, thoughts and experiences: 05:06 – culture isn’t it’s own workstream 07:54 – culture supporting a...

In this episode we share our thinking for leaders who may well be questioning if they should stay or if they should leave their organisation. At various points in your career you may find yourself in the situation where you feel like it might be time for you to move on or there might well be signals that you should be considering your next steps as a leader. We talk about the things you should con...