When I stopped trying to be a “better manager” and focused on helping my people grow, everything changed — including performance. Here’s what happened.

“You can tell me anything.” But do your team believe you? In this reflection, I share how fear shaped my early leadership behaviours—and what I learned about creating real safety at work.

Smiling on the outside, quietly falling apart inside? Setting direction whilst feeling lost? This week I'm exploring what happens when the person everyone turns to for answers feels like they're falling apart. There's a persona many of us wear when we don the cloak of leadership - the strong, calm, in-control leader. But what if strong leadership isn't about having it all together, but about being honest about what you don't? A personal story from the messy space of human leadership.

What if the biggest barrier to your leadership growth… was the story you’ve been told about what a ‘real leader’ looks like? Let’s rewrite that myth.

A photo of me smiling on a Yorkshire road doesn’t tell the whole story. This post explores the invisible emotional toll of leadership - and what happens when we mask it. Trust, safety, and empathy aren’t soft skills - they’re everything.