Ryan Castle, Dr Mike Ashby

Business Leader Breakthroughs

Business EN ↓ 148 episodes

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs where we help unlock the potential in you, your teams and your business. Hosted by Ryan Castle, along with Dr Mike Ashby, we share insights, experiences and stories on achieving breakthrough successes in business and life. In addition to a podcast, The Breakthrough also specialises in delivering management training that actually sticks, is cost effective, and easy to implement at scale to sustain change from the inside out.

Author

Ryan Castle, Dr Mike Ashby

Category

Business

Podcast website

thebreakthrough.co

Latest episode

Jul 17, 2025

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Episodes

S3 E3 - Chris Morsley, the CEO of CMC Global, on charismatic leadership 11.04.2023

Our guest is Chris Morsley, an accomplished entrepreneur and business consultant based in Australia. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Chris is the founder and CEO of CMC Global, a leading consulting firm that provides innovative solutions in strategic planning, marketing, and business development. Throughout his career, Chris has helped numerous clients to achieve their goals and...

S3 E2 - Nadine Tereora, the CEO of AA New Zealand, on how you become a leader worth following. 14.02.2023

AA is one of the most trusted and recognised brands in New Zealand, and with over 1300 employees spread across Aotearoa, the leadership responsibility is a big one. Nadine shares that in the first few weeks in her role with the AA, she deliberately spent time on the road with her staff, even learning how to tap starter motor. Nadine shares her top three leadership insights; a great combination of...

S3 E1 - Mark McConnell, L&D Manager at Argenta, on 6 C's of leadership. 31.01.2023

Ryan is joined by Mark McConnell, the Global Lead of Learning and Development at Argenta, the world's only CRO/CDMO for animal health. Mark shares his 6 C's of leadership that he sees as the foundational pillars of any great leader. He helps us explore those pillars and shares insights on how they've been observed and applied during his 20-year career.    Mark is also a speaker and an author.  Mar...

S2 E7: How to attract and retain your stars 29.11.2022

Talent is becoming more demanded. Employees have a wealth of opportunities today and the market is very much in their favour. So join Ryan and Mike to see how to keep people at work and how to develop your managers to increase productivity with the people you have. We'll also discuss how to succeed in the labour market through competitive advantage. To attract, keep and get the best from good peop...

S2 E6: How to Have Difficult Conversations 16.11.2022

Difficult conversations are part of life. We might want to avoid them, but it is about three things: what happened, feelings and how to keep your balance. Sometimes all you need to do is acknowledge other feelings. Each party will have their version of reality. There’s no such thing as ‘facts’ in a difficult conversation, there is only our interpretation, which is coloured by things like the Truth...

S2 E5: Alicia Purtell, CPO of Lion Co, on Unlocking a Greater World Through Flexible Thinking 24.10.2022

Alicia Purtell is a Chief People Officer at Lion with 20 years of experience in People and Culture, strategy, change and organisation development. Alicia has a passion for Coaching and Positive Psychology, bringing this passion to life as a Senior Associate with the Positivity Institute working with not for profits and the education sector. In this episode, Alicia shares her top three leadership i...

S2 E4: Sources of Stress at Work and How to Combat Them 10.10.2022

There can be many sources of stress in the workplace, this for the most part is unavoidable. These sources lead to a sense of overload – too much, too hard and/or too soon. What you can control is how you deal with those situations. In this podcast, Mike and Ryan discuss the power of gaining control over the situation and your decisions. If you want to reduce your sense of overwhelm, it's time to...

S2 E3: David Mair, CEO of Skellerup, on How to Grow Your NZ Business Using Japanese Business Practices 19.09.2022

David Mair is the CEO of iconic South Island brand Skellerup and Deloitte Top 200 ‘CEO of the Year 2021’. As a part of the team at Panasonic in Japan, he developed a deep understanding of Kaizen / Kaikaku and Product Development that has helped him develop rapid ways of improving businesses regardless of size. We all know of the famous Red Band gumboots. But how does one take rubber products and t...

S2 E2: The Myth of the Great Resignation 05.09.2022

The Great Resignation is the idea that after the Covid pandemic, people re-evaluated their lives and left their jobs en masse. It sounds like a cultural movement where people don’t want to work anymore, but really, that's just an excuse used by employers. In this week’s podcast, Mike and Ryan discuss the myth and the copout that helps us avoid evaluating our performance as leaders and managers. Th...

S2 E1: Breaking the Barriers for Women in Leadership with Jen Scoular, CEO of NZ Avocado 22.08.2022

In this podcast, Ryan interviews Jen Scoular, Chief Executive of New Zealand Avocado, where she shares her three leadership insights: Everyone is different, competency is important and leadership is not the same thing as being at the top. Jen's journey from trade diplomat heading the New Zealand Consulate in Hamburg, Germany to going up against some of the biggest markets in the world to lead (and...

MINISODE 37 - Why the Loss of a Big Prospect Isn’t Really a Loss 06.12.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every Friday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. In this episode, Mike and Ryan give an example about a big failure we at The Breakthrough went through, but why it was the best thing to happen to us. Going off a popular belief from a member of The Breakthrough's Board,...

MINISODE 35 - Get Good at Measuring Your Engagement 22.11.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every Friday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. In this episode, you'll hear Mike and Ryan's different point of views on the topic of engagement. Mike and Ryan discuss how we can accurately measure engagement and direct it in a way that provides value to both your bus...

EP 79 - Rebecca Houghton on How to Level up as a B-Suite Leader 11.10.2021

Rebecca earned her stripes leading large teams in complex organisations and built quite a reputation for doing business differently. Today, she is among Australia’s leading Talent and Leadership coaches and facilitators – helping leaders and their teams work. She is particularly passionate about helping mid-level leaders, the B-suite, to step up in the face of complexity. She is sometimes called t...

MINISODE 32 - How to Work From Home Post Lockdown 21.09.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every second Tuesday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. This weeks episode covers the question so many of us are asking "What is the ideal working model going forward in levels 1 and 2?"  For many businesses and their people what was once the norm is now a choice; to...

MINISODE 31 - Managing the Tension Between Stabilising and Adapting after the COVID-19 Lockdowns 15.09.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every second Tuesday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. This weeks episode was recorded right after our first 8 week lockdown in 2020, so with that in mind, Mike and Ryan discuss the tension for business leaders between stabilising the business after a lockdown, while...

EP 78 - Jack Keeys of KPMG on How to Create Dynamic and Inspiring Leadership 08.09.2021

This week, Ryan got a fresh perspective on leadership from Jack Keeys, a Research and Insights analyst at KPMG. Jack has led the market entrance of an agricultural computer software company into the UK and Ireland, while also conducting business development and training around New Zealand. Jack has been involved in several industry initiatives including co-developing the Rabobank Agri-Leadership p...

MINISODE 30 - Your Organisation Has to Change if You Want Your People to Change 24.08.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every second Tuesday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. This weeks episode covers all the reasons why those 2 day workshops you've been putting your leaders on haven't worked. Think about the learning workshops you've done over your career. Did you go away, have an in...

EP 77 - How to Navigate Hybrid Working with Ali Hill 17.08.2021

Alison Hill is the CEO of AFR Fast 100 company Pragmatic Thinking , working with organisations to build better leaders, grow better teams, and shift cultures. Ali is a Psychologist, an award-winning business woman, an influential keynote speaker, producer and host of Stand Out Life podcast , regular on mainstream media, and a best-selling author. A hybrid work environment has become commonplace, a...

MINISODE 29 - How To Make Working From Home Work For You 10.08.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every second Tuesday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. In this weeks episode, we travel back in time to when COVID-19 first hit and we were in our first week of Level 4 lockdown. Mike and Ryan cover how to successfully work from home during these challenging times of...

EP 76 - Rob Pyne on Transforming Your Leadership Team Through Emotional Intelligence 02.08.2021

Rob Pyne , is the author of Unlock : Leveraging the Hidden Intelligence in Your Leadership Team. He is a former Chief Strategy Officer, and now is an adviser to CEOs and senior leaders. He is a leadership coach and facilitator who helps teams unlock their collective intelligence and become smarter than the sum of their parts.  In this week’s podcast, Ryan interviews Rob Pyne to discuss how focusin...

MINISODE 28 - What's Productivity Worth to Your Business? 27.07.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every second Tuesday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. This weeks episode covers an important question most business leaders have when they are about to invest in leadership training – How do you measure the results of leadership development programmes?  It is diffic...

EP 75 - Make Clear Communication Your Superpower 20.07.2021

We have more tools to communicate with than ever before, so you’d think we’d be better than ever at communicating, right? Unfortunately, what we’ve learnt from the leaders and teams we work with, is that poor communication and lack of clarity is one of the biggest concerns in their business.  In this week’s podcast, Mike and Ryan share how to turn clear communication into your teams superpower. Th...

MINISODE 27 - The Regrets of the Dying 12.07.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every second Tuesday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. This weeks episode, Mike and Ryan get philosophical and talk about the top 5 regrets of the dying. Inspired from the book by Bronnie Ware , this week we revisit the 5 Regrets of the Dying, as the title suggests,...

EP 74 - The Power of Daily Scrums 05.07.2021

Daily scrums became an integral part of The Breakthrough over a year ago driving connection, communication, and focus within the team. In today's VUCA* world we need to respond faster and be more agile and scrums are the way to achieve this – not long boring meetings.  In this week's podcast, Ryan shares how we structure our scrums and how you can implement them into your business. He also shares...

MINISODE 26 - Changing the Organisation From the Middle, Out 28.06.2021

Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs Minisode Series. Every second Tuesday, we will post a shorter version of a popular previous episode so you get all the best bits in half the time. This weeks episode is about using the McKinsey Leadership Diamond as a framework on how to change your business from the inside out.  Your business will only change if your managers match your energy for improvem...

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