The Leader's Kitbag

Giving Feedback at the Right Time Some years ago, I was sitting on a train opposite a couple. She was heading into her mid-year review, and when he asked how she thought it would go, she replied, "Well, I’ve not been told I’m crap lately." Her boss only ever gave feedback twice a year. They kept a little notebook for each person in the team, and everyone knew that whatever went in it would come ou...

How to Ask for Feedback at Work and Get Honest Answers From Your Team “How am I doing?” It’s a well-intentioned question. And it almost always gets the same answer: “Yeah, fine. All good.” Over the last two episodes of The Leaders Kitbag, I’ve looked at how to give feedback well. In this episode, I flip it round. One of the questions I’m asked most often on my leadership programmes is how to get f...

“I want to talk to you about your timekeeping. You’re always coming in late at the moment.” If someone said that to you, what would your first reaction be? For most of us, it’s something like: “What do you mean, always? That’s not fair.” And just like that, the conversation has gone sideways. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I build on the previous episode about sharing feedback; if you’ve n...

In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I want to pick up somewhere most conversations about feedback stop: the moment after someone's taken it on board and actually improved. I was coaching a senior leader recently. She had a team member whose performance wasn't where it needed to be. She'd tried giving feedback before, nothing really changed, and she'd been putting off having the conversation aga...

If you've ever wondered how to run effective meetings when everyone in the room seems to work differently, this episode is for you. Some people get energy from a meeting the moment it starts. Ideas come out as they talk, and the room moves with them. Others need quiet beforehand just to get their thinking straight, and being put on the spot leaves them scrambling to catch up. In the last episode o...

How to Be Heard in Meetings as an Internal Thinker Have you ever left a meeting thinking, I didn't say enough? Maybe everyone else seemed to be talking, and you sat there processing, listening, staying fairly quiet. If that's you, this episode is about how to be heard in meetings, even if you're not the type who talks the most. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I look at why quiet, internal t...

Leadership Availability vs Productivity If you've ever promised yourself you'd switch your phone off for an hour, only to find your hand reaching for it ten minutes later, this episode is for you. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore why being unavailable, something most leaders find genuinely uncomfortable, might be one of the most useful things you can do for your team. We've all had...

Over the next few weeks, a lot of us will be packing the work bag for the last time before heading off on holiday. And if you're a leader, there's a good chance you'll be carrying a quiet, nagging worry alongside the suncream and the out-of-office: what's going to happen while I'm gone? In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore why how your team performs in your absence tells you more about...

Most leaders I work with know they should delegate more. They say it regularly. And yet, somehow, the same decisions, meetings, and projects stay on their plate. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore why effective delegation is so difficult - not in theory, but in practice - and introduce a simple process to help you let go of the right things with more confidence. It turns out the prob...

High Performance Teams Don't Just Work Hard - They Reset Think about the last big project your team completed. What happened the moment it was done? My guess is - not much. A brief exhale, perhaps a quick well done in the next team meeting, and then straight into the next thing. Because there’s always a next thing. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore one of the most common patterns I...

Why the Best Leaders Treat Themselves Like Elite Athletes If you’ve ever made it to a holiday only to spend the first two days flat on your back with a cold, this episode is for you. That pattern is more common than we think. And it isn’t just bad luck. It’s a signal worth paying attention to. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, recorded in the Brecon Beacons, I explore one of the most overlook...

In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore something that most leaders experience but rarely address: walking into a meeting still carrying the weight of the one before it. Research on emotional contagion tells us that your team picks up on your state within seconds of you walking into a room. If you’re stressed, distracted, or mentally still in the last conversation, that transmits, and it...

In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore one of the most common and draining patterns I see when working with leaders, moving from one meeting straight into the next with no pause, no reset, and no time to think. While back-to-back meetings might feel unavoidable, the reality is they come at a cost. They narrow our focus, reduce our ability to be present, and limit our capacity to learn an...

If you’re someone who feels constantly busy, moving from one thing to the next with very little time to pause and think, then this episode is for you. In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore why reflection is not a “nice to have” but an essential leadership skill. Too often, leaders prioritise action over thinking, filling their days with meetings, emails and outputs, while neglecting th...

In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore a simple but powerful idea that can transform the way you lead: you can’t lead effectively if you’re constantly in the thick of the action. Filmed at Berkhamsted Castle - a place steeped in history following the events after 1066 - I reflect on how great leaders throughout history positioned themselves not in the chaos of battle, but above it. From...

Time management is something we talk about constantly as leaders. But the reality is… time isn’t something we can actually manage. It keeps moving, regardless of what we do. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore a more effective and sustainable approach - shifting our focus away from managing time and towards managing our energy and attention. Because when we’re constantly juggling comp...

Work–life balance is something we talk about a lot. Many of us say we want better work–life balance. Many organisations encourage it. And yet for many leaders, it still feels frustratingly difficult to achieve. Part of the problem is that we often chase the idea of work–life balance without ever really defining what it means for us personally. In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore why...

Where do your best ideas happen? For many of us, they don’t appear when we’re sat at our desk trying to force a solution. Instead, they arrive when we’re walking, driving, swimming, or doing something routine. In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore why that happens and what neuroscience can teach us about thinking more effectively as leaders. I explain the difference between two key bra...

Over the past 13 years of coaching and training leaders, one of the phrases I hear time and again is this: “I just need my people to step up.” And yet, here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve had to learn myself. It’s very hard for people to step up if their boss has their foot on their chest. Not intentionally. Not maliciously. But through subtle, well-meaning behaviours that quietly hold people back...

In the last episode, we introduced the Leadership Equaliser - an idea that helps us visualise how much time we spend doing, managing, and leading, and why so many leaders unintentionally let the “leading” dial drop to zero. If you missed it, you can find it here . In today’s episode, we’re staying with the basics of how to be a leader in the truest sense of the word - not just someone who gets thi...

In the last episode, we explored the crucial balance between leadership and management,  and why it’s never a case of choosing one over the other.  If you missed it, you can find it  here .  In today’s episode, I’m building on that idea by tackling one of the most common and damaging traps I see leaders fall into… Leading In&nbs...

In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I’m busting one of the biggest leadership myths out there: the idea that we must choose between being a leader or a manager. Here’s the truth - real leadership isn’t an ‘either/or’ game. It’s about mastering both disciplines and knowing when to step into each mode. Whether you're leading a small team or steering the ship at the top of an organisation, this ep...

You may have the title, but do you have followers?    In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore the often-overlooked side of leadership: followership.    We focus on three powerful behaviours that effective followers demonstrate, and how we, as leaders, can enable and encourage them.    From creating clarity to fostering intelligent disobedience, this episode...

Team development is not something you can half-arse.    In this episode, I share my own lessons from both sides of the fence; leading teams and facilitating team-development sessions.    I reflect on why I no longer deliver one-off off-sites, and how those well-intended but poorly followed-up sessions often do more harm than good.    Through a full English breakfast a...

Not every group of people reporting to the same person should be treated as a single team.    In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I share a personal story that highlights what happens when we force people into team structures that don’t reflect how they actually work together.    It’s a real-world example of what I talked about in the previous episode: if your people don’t...