In this week’s episode we take on one of the most uncomfortable realities in leadership and management: what do you do when the problem is your boss? We move beyond the easy label of a “bad boss” and unpack what that actually means in practice, from incompetence and misaligned incentives through to absentee leadership, toxic behaviours and micromanagement. The conversation quickly reveals that this is rarely black and white, and that one of the hardest but most important steps is working out whether the issue really sits with your leader, or with your own expectations, context or perspective.

We share personal experiences of working under leaders whose behaviours had real consequences, including stress and loss of trust, and explore the grey areas where intent, pressure and organisational context complicate what looks like poor leadership on the surface. A key theme throughout is the need for self-reflection and clarity before acting, especially when the stakes involve your team, your career and your own wellbeing.

From there we get practical. We talk through how to diagnose the situation properly, how to approach difficult conversations without emotion, and how to manage upwards in a structured and effective way. We also explore where that line sits between supporting your boss and compensating for failure, and what it really means to protect your team without undermining authority.

Finally, we tackle escalation and the reality that at some point this becomes a personal decision about what you are willing to tolerate. Whether that means nudging, formally raising concerns, or ultimately leaving, we discuss how to act with integrity and effectiveness throughout.

If you’ve ever found yourself questioning your boss, or wondering whether to stay, speak up or walk away, this episode will give you a framework to think more clearly and act more deliberately.

In this week’s episode we dive into one of the most extraordinary leadership stories ever told as part of our Influencers series, exploring the life and decisions of Ernest Shackleton. What starts as a failed expedition to cross Antarctica becomes something far more compelling. It becomes a masterclass in leadership under extreme pressure, where survival replaces ambition and every decision carries life or death consequences.

We unpack how Shackleton built and led a team through conditions that most of us can barely comprehend. Trapped in ice, losing their ship, and stranded in one of the most hostile environments on earth, the mission changed completely. What stands out is not just that they survived, but how they survived. Shackleton’s relentless focus on his people, his ability to adapt the mission, and his clarity of purpose meant that every single member of his core crew made it home alive.

We explore the tension between success and failure and challenge the idea that achieving the original goal is the only measure that matters. Shackleton failed in his stated mission, yet succeeded in the outcome that truly counted. Along the way we discuss team selection, morale, discipline, routine, and the often overlooked reality of leadership which is the weight of making decisions alone.

The key takeaway is simple but powerful. Leadership is not about sticking rigidly to a plan or chasing glory. It is about understanding what matters most in the moment, protecting your team, and having the courage to change course when circumstances demand it.

If you want to understand what leadership looks like when everything goes wrong, this is an episode worth your time.

In this week’s episode we continue our exploration of the second in command and why this role is often the difference between a team that performs and one that quietly struggles. If leadership is usually framed around the person at the top, this conversation flips that idea and focuses on the individual who makes leadership actually work in practice.

We build directly on part one by moving beyond what the role is and into how it is executed well. We unpack how trust between the leader and their second in command is created and maintained, and why misalignment at this level quickly cascades into confusion across the wider team. We also get into the tension of being close enough to challenge the leader while still being fully aligned in public, and why that balance is harder than it looks.

A big theme in this episode is translation. The second in command acts as the bridge between strategy and execution, turning intent into something the team can actually deliver. That includes filtering noise, shaping communication, and ensuring that decisions land in a way that drives action rather than ambiguity. We also discuss how this role becomes a force multiplier by enabling the leader to focus on the bigger picture without losing control of delivery.

We reflect on what good looks like in practice, from creating psychological safety for upward challenge to managing competing priorities without becoming a bottleneck. There is also a candid look at failure modes, including what happens when the second in command becomes either too passive or too dominant, and how both undermine the system.

If you are in a leadership role, this episode will make you think differently about who sits beside you and how you use them. If you are operating as a second in command, it will give you a clearer framework for how to add real value rather than just taking on more responsibility. This is one of those roles that is easy to overlook but incredibly difficult to replace when it is done well.

In this week’s episode we tackle one of the most critical and least discussed roles in leadership and management: the second in command. It is the role that frequently and quietly determines whether strategy actually turns into results, and yet almost nobody talks about it. This is the first of two episodes where we break this down and take a deep dive into the topic.

We explore what a 2ic really does beyond the job title, drawing on both military and civilian experience. We get into the reality that leadership is not a solo act and that the effectiveness of any leader is heavily dependent on the person beside them. From translating intent into execution, to protecting time and focus, to acting as both a challenger and a stabiliser, the 2ic is central to how teams actually function day to day.

A big theme throughout is trust. Trust to challenge privately and align publicly. Trust to take decisions without constant oversight, and trust that both roles are working towards the same outcome even when there is disagreement. We also unpack the risks when this goes wrong, including ambiguity, ego, and the confusion that comes when organisations do not clearly define the role.

One of the key takeaways is that being a great second in command is not just a stepping stone to leadership. It is a distinct role with its own skills, responsibilities, and value. Done well, it creates the space for leaders to think and act effectively. Done badly, it creates noise, friction, and failure.

If you have ever worked in a team, led one, or sat just behind the leader, this episode will likely change how you think about that dynamic. In part two we will go further into how to find great 2ic's, how to develop them, and how to transition from that role into one of the leader.

In this week's episode we get into a question that sits at the heart of leadership but is often misunderstood in practice. Are we actually being strategic, or are we just very busy executing tactics and convincing ourselves that progress equals success? Using the unfolding situation in the Middle East as a live case study, we challenge ourselves to separate activity from intent and to ask what success really looks like when the environment is complex, fast moving and uncertain.

What seems to stand out most in this conversation is how easy it is to confuse doing things well with doing the right things. We explore the difference between measuring performance and measuring effect, and why leaders who focus only on outputs risk missing whether they are achieving anything meaningful at all. We also dig into the danger of having too many goals, or worse, shifting goals, and how that leads to confusion, mission creep and ultimately a loss of direction.

We spend time on the importance of clarity of purpose, the role of dissent and diversity in decision making, and the uncomfortable reality that without challenge and red teaming, leaders can end up surrounded by agreement rather than insight. That leads us into a deeper discussion about truth, narrative and trust, and why leadership credibility depends on being able to explain not just what is happening, but why.

This is one of those conversations where the example is extreme, but the lessons are everyday. Whether you are leading a team, running a product, or shaping strategy in a business, the same principles apply. If you want to understand the difference between activity and impact, and why so many teams drift without realising it, this episode is well worth your time.

In this week’s episode we explore what really drives resilience, leadership, and high performance when everything is on the line. What happens when ordinary people, just like you or me, are placed in extraordinary circumstances and there is no escape from the team, the pressure, or the goal?

We sit down with Felicity Ashley, a mother of three and former marketing leader who decided while recovering from a hip replacement to row the Atlantic. What follows is a story that challenges almost every assumption about leadership, preparation, and what people are capable of when they truly commit to something.

We unpack what it takes to build a team that can survive 40 days at sea on two hours on, two hours off rotations, and why most teams fail not because of capability but because they neglect the fundamentals of alignment, purpose, and relationships. We explore how clear shared intent, deep understanding of individual needs, and deliberate preparation turned a team of underestimated “ordinary” people into a high performing unit.

There are powerful lessons here for any leader,  but more importantly something for each and everyone of us to think about, irrespective of what we do in our day to day lives. We learn why purpose only works when it connects to the individual. Why resilience is built long before the moment you need it. And why small, human actions inside teams often matter more than grand strategies.

If you are leading a team, building one, or trying to understand what separates those who endure from those who fall apart, this episode is worth your time.

In this week’s episode we explore a deceptively simple idea that reshaped the modern world. We tell the story of Malcom McLean and the rise of the shipping container, not as a tale of invention, but as a masterclass in leadership, systems thinking, and the real impact of change.

We start by stepping back into a world where global trade was slow, fragile, and expensive. Goods were moved by hand, ports were bottlenecks, and inefficiency was built into the system. From that chaos, McLean saw something different. His insight was not about building a better ship, but about removing friction across the entire system. By standardising how goods were moved, he connected trucks, ships, and ports into a seamless flow.

The leadership lesson is powerful. Real transformation does not always come from new technology. It often comes from rethinking how things connect. McLean’s willingness to prioritise scale and interoperability over control, even giving up his own patent advantage, shows what it means to lead beyond short term gain.

We also confront the harder side of progress. Entire industries were disrupted. Jobs disappeared. Cities declined. The container made the world more efficient, but it forced painful transitions that leaders struggled to manage.

Whether we are talking about globalisation or AI today, the challenge is the same. How do you lead through change that benefits the system but harms individuals in the short term? How do you communicate trade offs honestly and act early enough to shape the outcome?

If you are interested in leadership that deals with real complexity, this episode is worth your time. It is a story about systems, consequences, and the responsibility that comes with changing how the world works.

In this week’s episode we continue our two part series exploring one of the most unusual leadership problems imaginable. How do you prepare an organisation or even an entire country for something that everyone hopes will never actually happen.

In the previous episode we introduced the idea of the British Government War Book, a set of detailed plans created to guide the country through the first chaotic moments of a national emergency. These documents attempted to answer an extraordinary range of questions about what would happen if the United Kingdom suddenly found itself at war.

In this second episode we move beyond the idea of planning and start asking a more difficult leadership question. How much should leaders rely on plans and how much should they rely on the people expected to execute those plans when reality refuses to cooperate.

That debate leads to a fascinating discussion about the balance between preparation and adaptability. Plans are valuable because they force leaders to think through difficult scenarios in advance. But no plan survives contact with reality and the individuals responsible for executing the mission still need the judgment, experience and confidence to adapt when circumstances change.

We explore how this tension appears both in military environments and in business. Detailed preparation can create clarity and alignment, but it can also create a false sense of certainty. The real test of leadership comes when events begin to unfold in ways that nobody fully predicted.

The episode also reflects on what these historic wartime preparations can teach modern leaders about resilience, decision making and the importance of building capable teams rather than relying purely on process.

If the first episode was about the challenge of planning for catastrophe, this second episode is about what really matters when those plans meet reality. It is a conversation about leadership under pressure and about the human judgment that ultimately determines whether preparation succeeds or fails.

In this week’s episode we start the first of a two part series looking at how people plan for events that they hope will never actually happen.

The story begins with a visit to the National Archives at Kew where Chris spent time reading declassified documents about real British wartime planning that started just after the First World War and continued late into the Cold War. This plan, the British Government's War Book, raises a fascinating challenge that is relevant not just for the Government of the United Kingdom, but also for every other kind of organisation. How do you plan for something that is unlikely but world changing?

In this first episode we explore the idea that good planning is not about predicting the future perfectly. Instead it is about preparing organisations to deal with a range of possible futures. We discuss the concept of a cone of plausibility and why the further you look ahead the wider the range of possible outcomes becomes.

We also look at why organisations often struggle to take low probability but high impact risks seriously until they actually occur. Using examples from wartime planning and more recent events such as the Covid pandemic, we explore how leaders try to make sense of uncertain futures and what practical preparation can look like.

The discussion starts to touch on the British government War Book, a detailed set of preparations that attempted to answer practical questions about how the country would function if war broke out. These plans covered everything from broadcasting and aviation to the mechanics of keeping government running during a national emergency.

This first episode focuses on the leadership challenge of thinking ahead and recognising risks that may feel distant or unlikely. In the second episode we will explore what happens when those plans collide with reality and what leaders can learn when planning meets execution.

If you are interested in leadership, strategy and decision making under uncertainty, this is a fascinating starting point for a conversation about how individuals and organisations prepare for the unthinkable.

In this week’s episode we explore a simple but uncomfortable truth about leadership: pressure is the point. It is not something to be avoided, minimised or delegated away. It is the arena in which performance is revealed.

We sat down with Simon Jeffries, a former Special Boat Service operator turned mindset and performance coach, to unpack what elite military environments can teach leaders in business. From Royal Marines training to Special Forces selection and operational life in small, high stakes teams, Simon shared what it really means to operate when the margin for error is zero.

We talked about the difference between discomfort and damage, and why learning to sit with discomfort is a trainable skill rather than a personality trait. We explored how selection environments expose mindset weaknesses long before they expose physical ones, and why in both military and business settings the stories we tell ourselves under pressure often determine whether we push on or quit.

One of the strongest themes was performance as a system. Not motivation. Not inspiration. A system. Simon broke it down into three practical pillars: hardware, which is your physical state and nervous system; software, which is your mindset and self talk; and structure, which is the habits and routines that either create control or chaos. The insight was clear. Most businesses train skills but ignore performance.

We also discussed small team dynamics, dissent under pressure and why effective debriefs create cultures where vulnerability exists in behaviour even if it is never labelled as such. There were powerful lessons about culture being defined by behaviours rather than words on a wall, and why clarity around expectations beats slogans every time.

If you lead people, run a business or simply feel that you are operating below your potential despite outward success, this conversation will challenge you. It is direct, practical and grounded in lived experience at the sharp end of performance.

This episode is about ownership, resilience and the discipline of showing up well when it matters most. If you want to think differently about leadership and how to perform under pressure, this one is worth your time.