Influence & Impact for Leaders

    Some of my most popular episodes have been on overthinking and worry and I know from personal experience how much it can hold you back and impact your self-esteem.   So I jumped at the chance to interview Nicole Freeman, who coaches many senior professionals around overthinking.    In this episode you’ll hear more about…  How overthinking is linked to avoiding our feelings  The 3 key fears tha...

  This episode was prompted by a request from one of the members of my Women Leading community who asked how she could build more personal resilience around the impact of decisions she was making at work and be a little more “Teflon coated”.    Perhaps you relate – you need to make tough decisions as a leader but you take things to heart, you care about people and their wellbeing and sometimes the...

  I’ve got another episode where I am a guest for you, this time I’m talking about how to get your voice heard at work with Aoife O’Brien on her Happier at Work podcast.    One of the key issues we discussed was the challenge of being interrupted in meetings, particularly for women. I provide strategies for managing interruptions and finding opportunities to speak up, including utilising allies an...

  We all know we should be coaching our teams but it’s hard to know how to do that without going on a coaching for managers course.  Until now!    In this week’s episode I interview Jude Sclater about her book ‘Think Like a Coach’ which is a wonderfully practical step by step guide that any manager can use to become a coach-like manager.  Jude simplifies coaching for us, defining it as giving some...

    This week’s episode is a little different in that I am the guest and you get to hear me being interviewed for once!  In this episode I recorded for Lucy Gernon’s 360 LeadHERship podcast you’ll hear…    The story of my career and how and why I became a coach  My top tips on making the right first impression on a new line manager or senior stakeholder  How to hold your own and build your influen...

Whilst some women sail through perimenopause, lots of us struggle with symptoms including brain fog, sleep issues, hot flushes and anxiety.  Those symptoms can impede our ability to work, impact our confidence and cause an alarming number of women to leave their jobs.    I explore this with my guest Emma Thomas, founder of Managing the Menopause and host of the Middling Along podcast.    We discus...

When I was sent a book called The Emotional Overdraft I instinctively knew that this was a topic that was going to resonate with me personally and you as listeners to this podcast.     An emotional overdraft is when you as a leader habitually overcome your employer’s challenges at the cost of our own physical and mental health. Sound familiar?   I am seeing this happening a LOT at the moment with...

Do you worry about what other people think of you?     Perhaps it stops you contributing in meetings for fear of judgement from others.     Or keeps you awake replaying conversations in your head feeling like you said something wrong.     Or it means when you’ve got something challenging to say you water it down to the point where you’re barely making a point anymore.   If any of that sounds famil...

Today’s guest Sue Musson has handled many a crisis in her career, including leading one of the largest NHS Trusts through the pandemic.  In this episode she shares what she’s learnt about keeping calm in a crisis.    We discuss:  Sue’s overall philosophy for coping with a crisis  How to calm yourself down from the initial state of panic  How to keep your team calm in a crisis too  The importance o...

Think you might be a people pleaser?  Perhaps you’ve got poor boundaries with others, really want to be liked or need a lot of external validation to feel that you’re good enough to be in your role?    In this solo episode I’m going to share some of the signs that you’re a people pleaser, what it’s costing you and 4 practical strategies you can use to break free from your people pleasing patterns...

What is executive presence? Why does it matter?  And what can we do to increase our executive presence?   These are the questions I explored in a fantastic chat with fellow women’s leadership coach Lucy Gernon in this week’s podcast episode.   We also discussed… How the concept of executive presence has evolved over the past 10 years Where confidence comes from and how Lucy defines it Lucy’s fanta...

Do you find yourself overpromising and creating unnecessary stress for yourself?  Or putting in lots more effort than anyone expects, or needs you to? How about saying yes when you’ve got no capacity to get more work done or jumping into help when no-one has asked you to?    If any of those resonate it sounds like you may be overcommitting - constantly trying to show how much value you add, by goi...

  Many workplaces are dominated by short term thinking, intense pressure to produce immediate results and a focus on growth at all costs.  Sound familiar?  This short term focus often leads to poor decision making, poor long term performance and risks employee burnout.     In today’s episode my guest Cath Bishop makes a powerful case for implementing what she calls Long Win Thinking.  Cath knows a...

Does just looking at your inbox create a rush of overwhelm?  You’re not alone in that, the average person receives 121 work emails every single day!     In this episode, my guest, career and executive coach Fay Wallis shares 6 practical strategies you can use to reduce your email overwhelm.  We discuss:   Why grouping emails by sender is insightful The problems with using your email inbox as a to-...

    If you’ve noticed unhelpful patterns of behaviours playing out in your team or if you’ve got a tense relationship with a colleague then this week’s episode can provide insight into what’s causing those patterns.      My guest, leadership coach and podcast host Rebekah Whitaker shares why we get pulled into the ‘drama triangle’ and what we can learn from Transactional Analysis to understand our...

    Networking is an idea that makes some of us cringe.  Others would love to network more but struggle to attend events due to workload and caring responsibilities. But what if networking didn’t have to be so uncomfortable and you could do it in a way that works for you?    That’s what Ellie Rich-Poole, career development coach and one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices for careers.    We cover…    Why net...

In this week’s episode leadership coach Jennifer McCanna and I are answering your questions about dealing with difficult relationships in the workplace. We discuss… How to stop harsh feedback from impacting your confidence How to talk to your line manager when you’re struggling to work with a colleague Your expectations of your line manager and what to do when they aren’t being met Jen’s ‘What Nex...

As leaders we’d all like to have happy teams but how do we create the right environment to achieve that?  I interview Richard Clarke, creator of the popular Happy Teams substack newsletter, about his experience building a company centred on team happiness and the work he does helping companies create happier teams. We discuss… What makes people happy at work The 5 factors that influence team happi...

  It feels good to be able to solve the problems people bring to you. It makes you feel needed and helpful and you can tangibly see the value you’re adding. But it comes at a cost which could be holding back your career and hindering the growth of your team members  In this episode I’m going to share…  Why being the problem solver could be holding you back in your career   How to elevate your leve...

In this episode, I’m talking to Happiness at Work expert Aoife O’Brien about the red flags in toxic workplaces that you need to be aware of.  We look at:  How we identify a toxic work environment  How to establish if it is generally toxic for everyone or just toxic for you   What to do if you feel stuck in a toxic environment   How to make sure the next workplace you move to is much healthier    A...

Have you thought about getting a coach or joining a course but immediately dismissed it because your organization has no budget?    Have you considered asking your employer to invest in you but felt too awkward about it to actually make the ask?    Do you feel bad booking yourself onto training because it would be taking training budget away from your team?  If so, in this episode I am going to… ...

  Would you like to create a team culture that allows everyone to thrive?  And would you like to add coaching to your toolkit as a manager?      This week on the Influence & Impact podcast I’m joined by Jo Wright, author of ‘No More Sh*t Managers: Seven Steps to a Coaching Culture’ who’ll be talking about how to create a coaching culture within your team or organisation and why coaching conversati...

If you’ve got a team member who lacks confidence it could be impacting their performance, their career progression and how they feel about work.  Confidence issues are widespread with 79% of women saying they lack confidence at work.  And it impacts people’s ability to perform and progress. 46% of women say managing a negative mindset stops them from making the impact they want at work whilst 37%...

Do you experience anxiety or nerves when you have to present at an important meeting or give a talk? Why is it that public speaking creates such a strong reaction in many of us? And how do we overcome those nerves to be able to perform at our best? My guest today Olivia James is a Harley Street performance specialist and therapist. She treats professional confidence issues, public speaking anxiety...

  There’s nothing worse than that moment in a meeting where you’re put on the spot and your mind goes blank.  Or your boss asks you a question you weren't expecting! The seconds seem to last for hours, panic sets in and you often end up either making up something you later regret or mumbling something vague and apologetic.    It doesn’t have to be that way.  Join me in this episode as I share with...