- You help teams communicate better. What’s one communication habit leaders overlook but really need to build?
Consistency. Most leaders think communication is about the ‘big moments’. The all-hands, the strategy deck, the annual review. The real impact happens in the boring, unglamorous, everyday interactions. The quick check-ins. The follow-ups. The “before we wrap: who owns what?” moments.
When leaders communicate consistently, not reactively, teams stop guessing and start delivering. It’s not exciting, but it’s the thing that keeps everything on track.
- When a team starts to drift or feel disconnected, what’s usually the first sign that something’s off?
People stop showing up in the same way. Not physically, but behaviourally.
You’ll see:
- • Less contribution in meetings
- • Fewer questions
- • Feedback dries up
- • People skip optional sessions
- • Silence in surveys (which is actually worse than a bad score)
- • A slight “checking out” from the team rituals that used to energise them
Disconnection doesn’t start with big drama. It starts with micro-withdrawal. By the time you feel the impact at the leadership level, the team have usually felt it for weeks.
- Culture is shaped by small, everyday behaviours. What’s one simple behaviour that instantly improves how a team works together?
Clarity. Leaders underestimate how much messiness comes from vague briefs, woolly expectations, and “let me know if you need anything.”
Teams work better when leaders do three things really well:
- • Give a crystal clear brief
- • Check understanding
- • Ask “what questions do you have?” instead of “any questions?”
And one more: stop rescuing. Trust people to deliver. Give direction, not micromanagement. I’m a big believer in ask for forgiveness, not permission as a good rule.
- You often talk about “brilliant arseholes.” What should a leader do when someone is talented but damaging to the team?
You measure the total impact, not just the shiny output. I spent years working with charismatic, high-performing creative leaders who dazzled on the surface but broke down trust behind the scenes. The work was brilliant, but the culture wasn’t. And culture always wins in the end.
So leaders need to stop asking, “Are they delivering?” and start asking, “What’s the cost of how they’re delivering?”.
If the cost is other people’s growth, safety or confidence, you don’t have a high performer, you have a risk.
The fix isn’t drama. It’s clarity: “This behaviour gets results, yes, but it limits the team. Here’s what needs to change, and here’s the support to do it.”
Great leadership is widening the definition of brilliance, so it includes how you treat people, not just what you produce.
- You’ve coached leaders on public speaking and messaging for years. What’s one tip you give almost everyone?
Lead with the point, not the build-up.
Most people take too long to get to the useful part. When you start with a clear message, people immediately know what to focus on, and the confidence in your delivery lifts. It’s one of the simplest shifts that makes leaders sound more credible and reduce waffle.
Similarly, people confuse information with impact. Most people think speaking is about cramming in everything they know. It’s not. It’s about choosing the right thing to say, and saying it in a way people actually remember.
My go-to rule is: What do you want people to think, feel and do?
If you’re not clear on that, your audience won’t be either.
And finally: slow down. Everyone rushes when they’re nervous.
- Coming from a PR background, you’re big on storytelling. What’s one storytelling principle leaders should use more at work?
Anchoring the problem in something human.
Most leaders jump straight into solutions for example, “Here’s what we’re doing.” But people need context first. What’s the problem we’re solving, and why does it matter?
A good story at work doesn’t need to be emotional. It just needs to be relatable.
The best structure is a moment → a meaning → a move forward.
A specific moment that illustrates the issue, what it means for the team, and what we’re doing next. That’s how you get people to care, not just listen.
- When it comes to feedback, what’s one approach that actually helps people improve instead of shutting down?
Make it behavioural and forward-focused.
People shut down when feedback feels like a judgement about who they are. But they lean in when it’s about something specific they did and what to do next.
I teach leaders a very simple rule:
Name the moment, name the impact, name the next step.
It removes the drama and turns feedback into useful data.
It also builds trust, because it shows you’re not just critiquing, you’re investing.
- On your podcast, you hear a lot about real leadership struggles. What’s a theme that keeps coming up?
Leaders can be overwhelmed by the emotional load of leadership.
Not the tasks but the weight of it. The people issues, the ambiguity, the constant expectation to be composed and available.
A lot of leaders quietly admit they know the strategy but struggle with the human stuff.
Many people who find themselves in leadership roles weren’t taught how to have hard conversations, set boundaries, or give feedback that doesn’t land like a punch. So they default to avoidance, over-helping, or being too blunt.
The theme is this: Leaders need support with the relational side of leadership, not just the operational side.
- Finally, you’ve worked with many founders. What’s a communication mistake founders make more often than they realise?
They assume everyone can see what they see. Founders move at high speed and think in the future, which means they often give half-briefs or skip crucial context. The team ends up making assumptions, working in the wrong direction, or constantly course-correcting. When founders slow down for even two minutes to set direction clearly, the whole business becomes faster and calmer.
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