Inspiring Future Leaders

About the episode

In this episode Kellie sits down with Bob Bharij, founder and chief executive of Foundation for Change, an independent London charity supporting people rebuilding their lives after drug and alcohol addiction.

Bob explains why his organisation describes its work as power informed rather than just trauma informed, teaching the people it works with psychology, philosophy and feminist theory so they can understand how power operates in society and how it has shaped their own lives.

He traces his path into the work, from a psychology degree he came to distrust, through teaching English in Japan and on the Tibetan Plateau, to the funding cut that pushed him to found Foundation for Change twelve years ago.

The conversation moves through the framework of values that keeps his team's culture genuine as it grows, why he rejects the idea that the charity sector and the business world are fundamentally different worlds, and closes on his guiding idea: outer change needs inner change.

Key takeaways

• "Power informed," not just trauma informed. Foundation for Change teaches the people it works with psychology, philosophy and feminist theory, so they understand how power operates in society and how it has shaped their own lives.
• He thought going solo could not be that hard. Twelve years on, the charity is still going, however they have endured many challenges in that time!
• The team lives by twelve values, qualities and ways of being. Authenticity, communication, critical thinking and awareness of your own trauma are among them. Bob calls them a spine that runs through everything the organisation does.
• Culture is built through small, repeated practices. A Monday morning check-in, bi-monthly retrospectives and quarterly away days keep the team connected to itself and to its values.
• People are not just their work selves. Bob pushes back on the idea that employees should leave their personal lives at the door, arguing that emotions, health and care responsibilities do not disappear just because someone has clocked in.
• Outer change needs inner change. Bob's closing message is that any change you are trying to create, in yourself, your team or the wider world, starts with getting deeply connected to your own inner world first.

About Bob

Bob Bharij is founder and Chief Executive of Foundation for Change (FfC).

He co-developed the FfC Approach over a ten-year period working within mainstream drug and alcohol treatment services from 2004 to 2014, witnessing first-hand how broken and disempowering the system was for the people it aimed to support.

But the model also grew out of something more personal: his journey of making sense of his own experiences of social inequality, not through formal education but through exposure to powerful ideas from psychology, philosophy and social history. These disciplines gave him a framework to understand existential suffering not as personal failure but as a response to wider systemic conditions.

He recognised that this kind of knowledge, so impactful and clarifying, was rarely accessible to the people he worked with in treatment settings, despite how profoundly it could change their lives.

He believes everyone has the right to flourish and to access the knowledge that makes that possible and built FfC around the idea that education, not intervention, is what gives people a lasting way out.   

He was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2020, one of the world's most respected recognitions of social innovation and became a Fellow of the Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action (CIVA) in 2026. 

Also mentioned

• Foundation for Change, Bob's not-for-profit organisation
• Bob's "power informed" framework, built on psychology, philosophy and feminist theory
• The twelve values, qualities and ways of being that run through Foundation for Change's culture
• The idea of the polycrisis or metacrisis, referenced by Bob in relation to climate, capitalism and patriarchy
• Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

About the episode

In this episode Kellie sits down with her youngest ever guest, twelve-year-old Aden Bharij, recorded in person in Singapore.

Aden talks about LEAP, the environmental group at his school and how it led to chicken birthdays, beach cleanups and building birdhouses.

He shares what it was really like leading his exhibition group as the deadline pressure built and how he worked through it by figuring out what each teammate was actually good at and wanted to do.

He talks about his mum's influence on how he leads and what he noticed watching the England manager during the 2026 World Cup.

He also shares an update on the book he's writing, born from a story he made up with his best friend years ago.

He ends with a message that's stuck with us: don't wait for change, start it yourself.

Key Takeaways

• Chickens started it. Aden's environmental group at school ended up looking after chickens, which involved organising chicken birthdays complete with mealworm treats and a game of duck duck chicken. Small, silly and a genuine leadership project.
• He sorts out arguments by working out what people actually want to do. When his exhibition team hit stress near the deadline, Aden's fix wasn't rules, it was figuring out what each person was good at and letting them do that bit.
• He learned it from watching his mum. Aden says his mum has taught him a lot about helping leaders develop and look after their people and it shows in how he talks about leading his own team.
• The best leaders push you and look after you at the same time. Aden's example is the England manager during the 2026 World Cup, someone he thinks gets the balance right between motivating a team and not wearing them out.
• Even $1 counts. Aden's own example: one person giving a dollar may feel like it doesn't do much but everyone giving a dollar makes a real difference.
• Don't wait for it. Just start. Aden's closing message, in his own words: if something needs doing, go and do it. Don't wait for the leaders to notice.

About Aden

Meet Aden, our youngest guest on the Inspiring Future Leaders podcast.

At 12 years old, he already understands what great leadership looks like, partly from watching it modelled (and sometimes not) at home with an Organisational Psychologist mum and partly from living it himself.

He leads on environmental issues at school, supports nervous peers on outdoor camps, climbs with the school rock-climbing team and is learning the drums.

He's about to start Year 7 and he's genuinely excited about the leader he's becoming.

Proof that our future generations aren't short on leadership, although perhaps short on people giving them the chance.

Also mentioned

• LEAP (Leaders of Environmental Action and Protection), Aden's school environmental leadership group
• School Exhibition and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• The England men's football team's third-place finish at the 2026 World Cup
• Aden's book in progress, working title Mega Talon

About the episode

In this episode, Kellie sits down with Angela Rixon, Founder of The Centre for Meaningful Work and author of Meaning Over Purpose, to explore what human-centred growth really means and why meaning, not just purpose, is the missing piece in most workplace strategies.

Angela traces the idea back to a pivotal moment in her HR career when a colleague asked why growth conversations always centred on cost cutting rather than on people, a question that shaped her Five Pillars of Meaningful Work: autonomy, mastery, connection, impact and purpose.

The conversation moves through how leaders can build a bridge between organisational purpose and individual meaning, why coaching has replaced telling as the most effective leadership behaviour in a world where no one leader has all the answers and how to be intentional about connection in hybrid and distributed teams.

Angela closes with a reminder that leaders need to put their own oxygen mask on first and that meaningful change at work, like everything else, starts small.

Key Takeaways

• Growth doesn't have to mean cost cutting. Angela's career turning point came when a colleague asked why no one had considered growing the business through its people instead of through acquisitions or layoffs, a question that became the foundation for her work on human-centred growth.
• Meaning and purpose are not the same thing. Purpose is the external mission an organisation sets, while meaning is the felt, daily experience employees have of belonging, growth and autonomy. Angela argues organisations have over invested in purpose statements while ignoring meaning.
• The Five Pillars give leaders a practical framework. Autonomy, mastery, connection, impact and purpose can be applied first to leaders themselves, then to individuals and teams, to spot where energy is being gained or lost.
• Leaders don't have all the answers anymore and that's okay. Complexity, pace and AI mean leaders are often guiding change they don't fully understand themselves, which is why coaching has overtaken telling as the most useful leadership behaviour.
• Connection in hybrid teams has to be intentional. Office osmosis was never evenly distributed in the first place, so leaders need deliberate mechanisms such as drop-in coffee sessions, more frequent one to ones and more creative formal communication to recreate what used to happen by chance.
• Start small and protect your own oxygen mask. Angela's closing advice is to look after yourself as a leader first, then begin building meaningful work one small step at a time, starting with a simple question to your team: why does your work matter to you?

About Angela

Angela Rixon, founder and CEO of The Centre for Meaningful Work Ltd, is an award-winning leadership strategist, executive coach and culture-transformation specialist with over 25 years of experience. A former Partner at EY and Director at CGI and Mercer, she is recognised internationally for pioneering research and frameworks that close the Purpose-to-Meaning Gap™, enabling organisations to embed meaning into leadership, culture and performance. 

Her Amazon best-selling book Meaning Over Purpose explores the “Purpose-to-Meaning Gap” – the disconnect between what an organisation says and what its people actually feel. Challenging the assumption that purpose alone drives engagement, she provides leaders and executives with a practical blueprint for embedding meaning into the very DNA of their organisations.

🔗 Connect with ⁠⁠Angela on LinkedIn, or email @ [email protected]⁠ or ⁠[email protected]⁠

Also Mentioned

• Meaning Over Purpose by Angela Rixon
• The Centre for Meaningful Work

• Gainsight and former CEO Nick Mehta, an early voice in human-led leadership
• ⁠⁠Let's Flow⁠⁠⁠ A leadership mission and community, in partnership with ⁠⁠⁠Leah Stockley⁠⁠⁠, to make work better so that organisations and people thrive. Follow on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ or DM Kellie to get involved

About the episode

In this episode, Kellie sits down with Tim Beattie, founder of Stellafai and a consultant who has spent his career turning outcome-based thinking from a philosophy into a practical reality.

Together they explore what it truly means to lead with an outcome mindset, why visualising work unlocks shared understanding and how leaders can protect their teams from relentless organisational pressure while keeping themselves human in the process.

Honest and complete with practical ideas you can use tomorrow.

Key Takeaways

• The outcome mindset in three words: clarity, intent, impact. When everyone knows why they're doing what they're doing and can see the difference it's making, work changes completely.

• A North Star needs a North Star metric. Aligning on direction is powerful. Agreeing on the single measure that tells you whether you're moving towards it is where real focus begins.
• Get it out of people's heads. Whether it's sticky notes, digital walls or a bowl of mood marbles, making thinking visible is one of the most underrated leadership practices there is. Shared understanding is the foundation of shared progress.
• The push-pull umbrella. A leader's most important job is protecting teams from the pressure pushing down from above. Creating the space for autonomy, mastery and purpose to exist.
• Most bad cultures aren't born of bad intent. People are promoted because they're brilliant at their jobs not because they've been developed as leaders. Changing culture starts with showing people what's possible.
• Silos are inevitable; enablement is the antidote. As organisations grow, someone needs to be focused on connecting the dots, breaking down communication gaps and keeping everyone aligned to what actually matters.

About Tim

Tim Beattie is the Co-Founder of Stellafai, where he is building an operating system for outcome-based consulting. His work focuses on helping consulting, customer success and professional services teams anchor their work around measurable customer outcomes, visualise value and create stronger alignment between teams, clients and business impact.
Tim’s career has taken him through large-scale consulting and transformation roles at PwC, Deloitte, IBM and Red Hat, as well as smaller boutique consulting environments where culture, collaboration and customer value became central to his thinking. He is passionate about outcome mindset, visualising work, psychological safety and helping organisations move from activity and output to clarity, intent and impact.
Through Stellafai, Tim now works with boutique consultancies and enterprise customer success organisations to help them prove, scale and sustain the value they create with customers.

🔗 Connect with ⁠⁠Tim⁠⁠ on LinkedIn.

🌐 Stellafai platform (free to use): stellafai.com

Also Mentioned

• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink
• Alistair Cockburn: Agile Manifesto author and source of the push-pull umbrella concept
• Deidre Paknad: CEO of Workboard and originator of the outcome mindset definition Tim references throughout

• ⁠⁠⁠Let's Flow⁠⁠⁠: A leadership mission, ACT! Leadership System and community, in partnership with ⁠⁠⁠Leah Stockley⁠⁠⁠, to make work better so that organisations and people can thrive. Follow on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ or DM Kellie to get involved.

About the episode

In this episode, Kellie sits down with Minna Vaisanen, Head of Revenue at Thrive Partners and passionate customer success leader, for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of leadership and work.

Minna brings a refreshingly practical lens to some big questions:

- why leadership hasn't kept pace with how work has evolved

- why creativity is the new gold dust in an AI-accelerated world

- what organisations can do, starting small, to close that gap.

Together, they explore the shift from task-oriented management to human-centred leadership, the foundational importance of values (done properly, not just posted on a wall) and why the single most important mindset shift for any new manager is moving from I to we.

Above all, this is a conversation that keeps coming back to what matters most: we are all human, all doing our best and that's exactly where good leadership begins.

Key Takeaways

• We are all human and that's where leadership starts. Behind every framework and every transformation is a simple truth: we're all learning, all imperfect and all capable of doing a little better than yesterday. Leadership isn't about having all the answers; it's about showing up with the intention to grow.
• Creativity is the new gold dust and leadership hasn't caught up. As AI takes over routine work, what humans bring is creativity and creativity doesn't thrive in rigid, micromanaged environments.
• The single biggest shift when you become a manager: from I to we. A manager's success is measured by the team's success. Owning both the wins and the failures, without blaming the team, is where real leadership begins.
• Leadership 1-0-1 is still missing for most people. Most are promoted because they're good at their job, not because they've been taught to lead. It starts with one question: do you even want to lead?
• Values only work if they're lived, not laminated. Values need to be embedded in hiring, performance reviews and everyday decisions. A poster on a wall changes nothing.
• Organisational transformation doesn't have to be seismic. Think like a product roadmap; sequence your experiments, run controlled steps and bring your people with you.
• Done is better than perfect. 1% better today than yesterday still accumulates. Progress over perfection, always.

About Minna

Believing that a squiggly career makes leaders more versatile, Minna's Customer Success career background in tech extends over 12+ years navigating the realms of early-stage start-ups to multinational corporations. Her global perspective is shaped through expatriate roles in the Middle East, Europe and Asia, coupled with visits to 65+ countries. Minna has led a number of transformation projects for multinational organisations in the Asia Pacific region and guiding initiatives resulting from global company mergers. In her previous roles as Vice President of Customer Success, Minna devised and executed a successful customer success strategy, contributing to company growth at early stage and scale-up organisations. Currently, as the Head of Customer Success and Operational Excellence at Thrive Partners, she plays a pivotal role in the organisation's customer-centric transformation. Her industry range extends from HR to the Learning and Hospitality Technology sectors.

Beyond her professional endeavours, Minna is a mentor, podcast host and a speaker, sharing profound insights at industry events to inspire and educate emerging talent.

🔗 Connect with ⁠Minna⁠ on LinkedIn.

Also Mentioned

• Motivation 2.0: the concept Minna references around shifting from task-based to purpose and creativity-driven motivation at work.
• Simon Sinek's Start With Why : referenced in the context of building organisational values from the ground up.
• ⁠⁠Let's Flow⁠⁠: A leadership mission and community, in partnership with ⁠⁠Leah Stockley⁠⁠, to make work better so that organisations and people thrive. Follow on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ or DM Kellie to get involved.

About the episode

In this episode, Kellie welcomes Archana Mohan - a former teacher turned financial services professional, author and passionate advocate for human-centred leadership. Archana shares the winding path that took her from a decade working with neurodiverse children in New York City's schools to investment banking (sparked, brilliantly, by a professor who told her she couldn't do it) and eventually to writing her book, The Through Line, published in 2025.

The conversation explores what it truly means to build environments of care at work, why uncertainty is the system rather than the exception and how a simple three-part framework - reach in, reset, reach out - can help anyone navigate an ever-changing world.

There's also a beautiful, expanded conversation about leadership itself: who gets to call themselves a leader and why the answer should be everyone.

Key Takeaways

• Build environments of care. Archana's core belief is that people do their best work when they feel genuinely supported and that workplaces should be intentionally designed with that in mind, not left to chance.
• Uncertainty is the system. Rather than something to overcome, uncertainty has always been the default state of life. The goal isn't to eliminate it but to get comfortable with the discomfort it brings.
• The Three-Part Framework from The Through Line: reach in, reset, reach out.
• Everyone is a leader. Leadership isn't a title or a management role. The parent, the community organiser, the night-shift taxi driver - they're all leading. The definition of leadership needs to be simplified back to what it really is: human influence and connection.
• Moments in our lives rhyme. Archana's beautiful observation that we've navigated uncertainty before and the approach, if we look for it, has always existed.
• Leadership is a choice. How we show up and the influence we exert is, ultimately, something we each get to choose. And it's ongoing work, there's no box to tick and move on.

About Archana

Archana is a dynamic, multilingual Chief Operations and Technology Officer within the finance sector, with a passion for unlocking human potential.

Growing up in a multicultural environment, Archana witnessed first-hand how strong leadership could build relationships, bridge cultural divides and foster collaboration.

She brings a unique perspective to her work, drawing on her experiences as both a teacher and a leader to drive innovation.

She is also a supporter of Stop the Traffik, an organisation using data and technology to eradicate human trafficking globally.

🔗 Connect with Archana on LinkedIn🌐 Website: www.archanamohan.net📖 Get the book: The Through Line

Also Mentioned

• Stop the Traffik: an incredible organisation working to eradicate human trafficking worldwide. Archana encourages everyone to check out their work.
• Challenging Heights: working towards eradicating child trafficking in the fishing industry, in Ghana
• Move the World: Global Citizenship education using experiential and creative learning methods, in Ghana
• Let's Flow: A leadership mission and community, in partnership with Leah Stockley, to make work better so that organisations and people thrive. Follow on LinkedIn or DM Kellie to get involved.

About the Episode

If you're looking for authenticity and people-first leadership, then this is the episode for you!

Charlotte and Kellie talk through employee engagement, motivations, fulfilment and playing to each individual's strengths to make a stronger and more successful company culture.

They also riff on the subject of embedding company values into the entire people lifecycle - starting at company inception, people hiring, business objective setting and goal planning conversations.

Key takeaway: North Star's are not just for businesses, take the time to understand and develop the North Star for each of the people in your team!

About Charlotte

Charlotte Cobbaert is the Head of Customer Success at Collective Benefits, an insurtech and benefits platform for independent workers. Her entire career has evolved around worker engagement from leading an employee experience programme when working in Spain to joining the world of HR tech in the UK.

Building great teams by making people's careers a core priority is how Charlotte is looking to make an impact in her career. She also strongly believes that bringing authenticity into her leadership style and not being afraid to truly "be herself" will go a long way.

How to connect with Charlotte and their initiatives

LinkedIn: Charlotte Cobbaert

About the Episode

On this episode of the podcast, our host, Kellie Lucas, talks with Susie Robinson, author of the book Transform to Outperform.

This is a fascinating masterclass on how great teams work together and achieve levels of super power, achievements and impact. Take a listen to the episode, read the book and develop your super powers and those around you!

Take a listen and let us know your thoughts!

About Susie

Susie Robinson is CEO of Transform2Outperform. She helps clients deploy HR solutions and leadership development which unlock breakthrough performance. During a 30-year international, corporate career culminating in Executive HR leadership with DHL Supply Chain, she worked closely with thought leaders in the field of HR and Organisation Development. She has led successful large-scale transformation and world-class HR functions. Her passion lies in developing leadership potential through expertise in transformation, personal and leadership development. Her mission is the creation of better working lives by detoxifying and re-energising the workplace and converting good leaders into great, dynamic leaders who are committed to delivering an outstanding leadership experience for their people and extraordinary results.

How to connect with Susie and their initiatives

LinkedIn: ⁠Susie Robinson

Website: Transform2Outperform

Buy the book here!

About the Episode

On this episode of the podcast, our host, Kellie Lucas, talks with Bryan Hochstein, Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Alabama.

As one would expect when talking to an academic, the conversation was philosophical, enlightening and thought-provoking. Areas of conversation were leadership styles between Sales and Customer Success and the utopian dream of balance in business and prevailing markets.

Take a listen and let us know your thoughts!

About Bryan

Bryan W. Hochstein (Ph.D. Florida State University) is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Alabama. Prior to his current role, Dr. Hochstein (Dr. H) was a sales executive with Time Warner Media. Dr. H is considered an academic thought leader on customer success management, as such he regularly facilitates academic/industry discussions via thought leadership forums, industry conferences, and research interviews. 

Dr. H’s research on sales, sales management, and customer success management appears in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Letters, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, and other leading outlets. 

From a teaching perspective, Dr. H teaches in and leads the University of Alabama’s Master-level Sales Leadership program. In addition, Dr. H facilitates doctoral seminars, undergraduate principles of marketing, and professional development courses. Dr. H is a co-author of  the textbook “Marketing Strategy,” 8th Edition (Cengage Publishing), which focuses on bringing together strategies to manage disruption and evolving market approaches in ways that improve firm financial performance outcomes. 

Dr. H and his family reside in Northport, Alabama, where they enjoy community, church, and university service opportunities.

How to connect with Bryan and their initiatives

LinkedIn: Bryan Hochstein

About the Episode

On this episode of the podcast, our host, Kellie Lucas, talks with Molly Henson, Head of Customer Success at Edurio.

Topics discussed were the education sector, courage and bravery, the tangible and intangible components of leadership and the art of looking inwards in order to impact and elevate others outwardly.

The latter, of course, feeding into our own mantra of Their Success = Your Success : the power of unlocking potential in others, which then also unlocks potential in yourself because you thrive and elevate and develop as you're elevating others. A common theme on this podcast.

Take a listen and let us know your thoughts!

About Molly

I am now the Head of Customer Success for Edurio, a stakeholder survey and strategic feedback tool within the education sector that aims to help improve the quality of education provision provided. Formally Head of Success and Head of Support at The Key Support Services and CRB Cunninghams respectively, I am hoping to bring knowledge of the education sector to the role and support Edurio in its next phases. Watch this space!

Insanely passionate about the education sector and the opportunities EdTech has to really influence and guide educators to give our next generations the very best starts in life, I am also a volunteer for the Royal Air Force Air Cadets. My career started in the charity sector, working to combat loneliness and isolation for veterans of our armed forces. It was at that point that I realised that I had a deep rooted inclination for socially conscious/responsible businesses that deliver great things to society.

I absolutely love building teams that learn from and guide each other, and aligning customer experiences with employee experiences.  My career to date has been very much focused on these things and I think there is a world of untapped opportunity for us all to build working environments with people at the genuine core of what we do, and I simply hope to be able to support that belief everywhere I go.

Interesting fact that makes people frown/laugh – my future career choice is to be a funeral director… because I believe there would be no greater honour than the opportunity to  make the worst time in someone’s life feel effortless and even maybe pleasant in some ways.

How to connect with Molly and their initiatives

LinkedIn: Molly Henson