How words can make a situation worse
Recently, I was delivering two virtual sessions for a client for International Women’s Day. Then I was asked: “Can you do one in Spanish as well?” Now, whilst I speak Spanish well, it had been a long time since I’d used it in a business setting. (I mainly use it when travelling) And yet, I […]
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
We’ve always said it: what got us to where we are in our careers won’t get us to the next step. And it’s a lesson we keep having to relearn. Early in our careers, success comes from execution – delivering, solving, doing. But as we climb the corporate climbing wall*, the rules change. It becomes […]
What Richard Branson’s ‘Inappropriate’ Ask Teaches Us About Influence
Influence Starts with You When we talk about influence, we tend to think about the impact we have on others. But many leadership thinkers suggest it actually starts much closer to home – with ourselves. So the question becomes: how do we create that impact in our own careers and lives? When you look at […]
Restructured Out: Handling the Hardest News at Work
In recent times, many roles across organisations have been restructured. Increasingly, people are hearing the words no one wants to hear: “Your role is being restructured.” While no employee wants that conversation, no manager or leader enjoys delivering it either. It is a deeply uncomfortable experience on both sides. For many companies, restructuring does not […]
Breaking the Cycle of Crisis Leadership
When times get tough, leadership often regresses. The language changes.“We’re firefighting.”“We don’t have time to consult.”“This needs one clear voice.” And suddenly, we are back to command and control. The Lone Wolf. The heroic decision-maker. The belief that urgency justifies autocracy. But is that still true? Or is that instinct part of what keeps us […]
Finding Your EPIC: Five Leadership Insights That Shape the Future
Across the first seven episodes of the third season of Finding Your EPIC®, senior leaders from different industries share moments that fundamentally changed how they lead. While their stories vary, five clear insights consistently stand out – insights that are clearly resonating. In January, the podcast reached an exciting milestone – surpassing 5,000 downloads – […]
When the Leadership Compass Keeps Spinning
The start of 2026 has felt unusually unsettled. There’s a growing sense that the playbook many leaders have relied on no longer quite fits the world in front of them. Established assumptions about power, stability and predictability feel less certain. The rules of the game seem more fluid, and the ground beneath us less stable. […]
Ten Years of Elevate: How We Rotated the Leadership Model
In 2016, Elevate didn’t just launch a programme – it launched a different way of thinking about leadership. At a time when leadership still often defaulted to command-and-control, especially under pressure, we built Elevate as a fully virtual, human-centred programme to support a 21st-century style of leadership – one fit for a more complex, connected […]
Why the Corporate Pipeline Data Is No Statistical Accident
I spent the first 20 years of my career in investment banking – an industry where numbers aren’t just important, they’re everything. You live and die by the accuracy of your models. You’re trained to interrogate data, to question patterns, and to distinguish genuine volatility from systemic failure. In any organisation, if a CEO wanted […]
Looking Back at 2025: A Year of Change – and What It Taught Us About Career Success
2025 has been a year defined by volatility. The economic climate remains tricky, organisations are under pressure to deliver more with less, and individuals are navigating careers in choppy waters. Against this backdrop, Elevate marks its tenth year, now with over 11,000 graduates – a milestone that highlights not just longevity, but continued relevance. This […]