The Thoughtful Leader Podcast with Ben Brearley

There are many stereotypes we hear about younger generations. They're lazy…. uncommitted…. have no loyalty.  But are the younger generations actually just showing behaviours that can guide us towards better leadership? In this episode, I take a look at some lessons I think we can learn from younger generations which can make our workplaces better. Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you li...

Leaders don't set out to seem like they don't care.  They become that way because of stressful work environments and chaotic workplaces.  Even thoughtful leaders can seem uncaring if they aren't careful. In this episode, I take a look at my top 5 innocent uncaring leadership actions, so you can look out for, and avoid them. Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode or the s...

Sometimes leaders can let their roles go to their heads, becoming wrapped-up in their own self-importance. This can be a trap which even thoughtful leaders can fall into! In this episode, I'll take a look at some common warning signs that you might be taking yourself a little too seriously, so you can lighten up a bit. You never know, people might respect you more for it.  Like the Show? Please Le...

Tuckman's Team Development Model has been around for a while, but I find it to still be relevant and useful today. Some people think that you can whack people together and become high-performing straight away. This just ain't true, and this model helps to understand what stages a team goes through to get to that high-performing point. In this episode, I'll take a look at the stages and how you can...

It is fairly common knowledge now that providing people with more autonomy can drive big improvements in motivation. However, it's not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes providing your team with more autonomy is daunting and frustrating.  In this episode, I take a look at some of the common traps and what we can do to avoid them. Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode or th...

Goal setting is very common in most organisations, but that doesn't mean it's done very well.  If you get it right it can provide a big motivational boost, but when it goes wrong it can have the opposite effect.  In this episode, I take a look at some tips to help you set more effective goals for your team. Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode or the show in general, p...

It's pretty common knowledge that recognising the contributions of your team can be a useful motivational tool. Praise is a cost-effective way to do this, but sometimes I notice it falls flat. In this episode, I take a look at some situations where praise becomes ineffective and how you might use it better.  Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode or the show in general,...

I think organisations could function more effectively if there were a few more direct conversations.  But, as thoughtful leaders, direct conversations can be daunting, and we don't want to have them when they're not really needed or appropriate.  In this episode, I look at some of the factors to help you decide whether a more direct conversation is the answer for your situation. Like the Show? Ple...

Many leaders grapple with challenges that come with leading or working with people who they consider to be friends. So that begs the question: should you be friends with your team members? Or should you try not to let that happen? In this episode, I take a look at some of the challenges that can come from being friends with team members, and what you could potentially try to do about them. Like th...

I receive a lot of emails asking for advice about difficult or disruptive team members.  While all of these situations have their intricacies and quirks, I reckon that underlying them all is a simple idea. And this simple idea is the basis for a very useful leadership question that I like to ask people when they have these sorts of issues. You can ask it too, so listen to this episode and let me k...

Leaders often need to negotiate, even if they aren't involved in closing high-powered deals all the time. We might negotiate a pay rise for ourselves or with our team members, negotiate for extra resources on a project or even when buying a used car.  Whatever the negotiation situation, these 3 simple concepts will help you prepare and hopefully get a better outcome for you and the other party. Li...

Reading about leadership can be quite confusing.  There are lots of leadership styles, theories and models out there, which can make it hard to gain a basic understanding of what it all means.  So in this episode, I go back to basics with a simple 4-step process which covers what I believe are the core parts of leadership to concentrate on. Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this...

Leadership used to be about command and control.  Over time, it has become much more inclusive and collaborative.  However, I feel that the quiet leaders among us still feel the pressure to be louder and more outgoing than they may naturally be.  In this episode, I look at the benefits of quiet leadership and offer some tips for those quiet leaders out there. Apply For Your Complimentary Coaching...

Motivating team members is an ongoing challenge for leaders.  Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all motivation solution because everyone is different. In this episode, I cover three factors that you can use to try to motivate your people. Hopefully you can use these as a guide to develop more specific strategies to help your people feel more engaged with the work that they do. Apply For You...

Saying "No" is a superpower in leadership (and in life), in my opinion. Many thoughtful leaders feel stressed at the prospect of pushing back or saying no, especially to someone like their own boss.  This episode is a little encouragement for you to start saying "No" a little more often, so you can create space for the most important work and set a positive example for the people around you. Like...

Staff turnover is a natural part of life, even for excellent leaders. Even so, it can have a big impact on the functioning of a team if we aren't careful.  In this episode, I take a look at some ideas to help reduce the impact of turnover in your team, so that the wheels don't fall off when someone says goodbye. Sample RACI Matrix Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode o...

In many respects, it's good to be a nice leader.  But what happens if you're one of those leaders who is perceived as "too nice"? In this episode, I take a look at some tips for nice leaders, to help to counter some of the common perceptions that can hold them back in the workplace.  Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode or the show in general, please take a few minutes...

Feeling confident in your leadership role always makes leading a whole lot easier.  So in this episode, I take a look at the four steps I believe are necessary to grow in confidence. I share a few personal examples from my own journey in confidence-building, and hopefully you can view some of your challenges in a different light, and use these four steps to build your own confidence.  Like the Sho...

Many people are looking for a quick fix for their time management challenges, in the form of tools and technologies.  While these can be helpful for working more efficiently, nothing beats having the skills and mindset to actually set clear boundaries and become more effective.  The only thing is… it's much harder, takes effort… and might even involve a few challenging conversations.  In this epis...

Communication skills are a hot topic in leadership, and are often one of the most sought-after skills for leaders.  However, we don't usually dig much into what good communication means. So in this episode, I thought I'd look into what it means (Thoughtful Leader style, that is) and how you bring it more often. Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode or the show in genera...

We often talk about the actions that leaders should take to get the best out of their teams. But it's worth thinking about the things we choose * not* to do which can make a real difference. In this episode, I take a look at why leaders sometimes struggle to restrain themselves from taking instinctive actions, and take a look at some ways you might be able to add a little restraint into your leade...

Autonomy is a key factor when it comes to team member motivation at work.  But unfortunately, it can feel daunting to let go and provide your people with the autonomy they want.  In this episode, I take a look at some simple options for providing greater autonomy to your people, without necessarily saying "Go do whatever you want!" Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episode...

Trust is important in leadership. After all, it's tiring and stressful when people are questioning our motives all the time.  But we can't just ask people to trust us. We need to show up as being trustworthy. Otherwise, we're just the person who says "trust me", with nothing to back it up. And you don't trust people like that, do you? Like the Show? Please Leave a Review! ✅ If you like this episo...

I've noticed that leaders in many organisations like to send people on training without too much thought.  Unfortunately, usually this results in a lot of wasted time and money, even though it may seem like a good idea at the time. To help with this, in this episode I take a look at 3 simple questions to answer to improve the chances of the training being useful and worth the expense! Like the Sho...

Managing by exception is a style of management that emphasises escalation of only significant issues to leaders in an organisation. It is often seen as a way to free up a leader's capacity, because they are only involved when there is a challenge to be overcome or a significant decision to be made.  I'm naturally skeptical about "silver bullet" leadership approaches, so in this episode, I take a l...