Leading Well with Steph Edusei

What does your culture actually feel like to the people experiencing it every day?

In this episode of Leading Well with Steph Edusei, Steph is joined by Ivan Hollingsworth, founder and director of Centric Consultants, to explore what it really takes to create cultures where people and teams can thrive.

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Ivan talks openly about his own journey from the pharmaceutical industry into work focused on leadership, teams and organisational culture, including the self-doubt that accompanied that change and why those feelings still play a part in how he learns and reflects.

Together, Steph and Ivan explore what Ivan describes as “culture washing”: when organisations say the right things about values, people and culture, but those words do not necessarily hold up when pressure is applied. They discuss why values need to be visible in behaviour, decisions and the everyday experience of the people within an organisation.

The conversation also questions some of our assumptions about high performance. Ivan reflects on lessons from his own sporting background and asks whether a relentless focus on performance, comparison and outputs can sometimes create conditions that work against the humans expected to deliver them.

And they consider what leadership looks like when it is less about doing everything yourself and more about creating the conditions for other people to do their best work, being present, staying curious and asking what happens when you are no longer in the room.

In this episode, Steph and Ivan explore:

• What culture washing looks like in practice
• Why values need to be lived rather than simply displayed
• What pressure reveals about an organisation’s real culture
• Whether our ideas about high performance always help people thrive
• The difference between measuring outputs and creating the right inputs and conditions
• Why leadership can feel like “doing nothing” when your role has shifted from doing to enabling
• The importance of presence, self-awareness and showing people that they matter
• Why leading well includes recognising that none of us has it completely worked out

Leading Well is a podcast for people who want to lead with clarity, care and integrity, without losing themselves in the process.

Leading Well - leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

Connect with Ivan Hollingsworth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-hollingsworth-a7271944/

Instagram and TikTok: @TheThriveGuy

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What might it actually feel like to be led by you?

In this solo episode of Leading Well with Steph Edusei, Steph explores the shadow leaders cast and the influence we can have even when we are not consciously trying to influence anyone at all.

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Beginning with a story from her teenage years in Girlguiding, Steph reflects on how seemingly small words and actions can carry far more weight because of who says them.

Drawing on John Amaechi’s The Promises of Giants and her own experiences of getting things wrong, Steph considers the gap that can exist between our intentions and our impact.

This episode explores the small moments that help create culture. How we respond when somebody makes a mistake. What happens when we are challenged. Whose ideas receive our enthusiasm. Where we give our attention. Even what our face communicates when somebody else is speaking.

This is not about becoming anxious or trying to perform perfect leadership. It is an invitation to become more curious about our influence, listen to how others experience us, and pay attention to the shadow we cast.

In this episode, Steph explores:

• How leaders can have an impact they cannot completely control
• Why ordinary words and actions can carry more weight when we hold influence
• The gap that can exist between intention and impact
• How culture is created in small, everyday moments
• Why positional power gives our behaviour greater significance
• How influence is not restricted to formal hierarchy
• What it means to become more curious about the experience others have of us
• Why leading well includes noticing the shadow we cast

Leading Well is a podcast for people who want to lead with clarity, care and integrity, without losing themselves in the process.

Leading Well - leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

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What can starting again teach us about leadership, confidence and self-worth?

In this episode of Leading Well with Steph Edusei, Steph is joined by Lesley Cuthbertson to explore reinvention, resilience, career change, relationships and helping others grow.

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Lesley Cuthbertson is an area manager for Pitman Training Group, but her path into leadership has been anything but straightforward.

Her career has taken her from corporate banking, through redundancy, into building and running her own businesses, and then back into employment in a new sector after 13 years as an entrepreneur.

In this conversation, Lesley reflects on the confidence it takes to change direction, the self-doubt that can come with starting again, and the leadership lessons she learned from running businesses, managing people and navigating difficult decisions.

Steph and Lesley talk about what happens when a business is successful on paper but no longer works for your life, how failure and disappointment can become part of our growth, and why career paths do not need to be neat or linear to be meaningful.

They also explore the importance of relationships, networking, purpose and empowering others. Lesley shares how helping people recognise their own potential has become one of the most fulfilling parts of her work, and why passing on knowledge, supporting others to grow and wanting the best for your team can be powerful acts of leadership.

In this episode, Steph and Lesley explore:

• Why career paths are rarely neat or linear
• What redundancy and reinvention can teach us
• The confidence it takes to move into a completely new sector
• How self-doubt can show up when we are starting again
• Why a business can be successful but still no longer be right for you
• What entrepreneurship teaches about resilience, adaptability and responsibility
• How to make difficult people decisions with kindness and integrity
• The role of relationships and networking in rebuilding confidence
• Why networking is not just about selling, but about connection
• What it means to empower your team and pass your knowledge on
• Why helping others grow can strengthen trust across a team
• The importance of asking for help and not carrying everything alone
• How change can become an opportunity, even when it is hard

Leading Well is a podcast for people who want to lead with clarity, care and integrity, without losing themselves in the process.

Leading Well - leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

Contact Lesley Cuthbertson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-cuthbertson-22b99166/

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Have you ever looked confident on the outside while quietly questioning whether you really belong in the room?

In this solo episode of Leading Well with Steph Edusei, Steph explores confidence, self-worth, imposter phenomenon and why real leadership is not about performing certainty.

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So many of us assume that confidence will arrive once we have enough experience, enough qualifications, enough achievements or enough external proof that we are good at what we do. But confidence does not always work that way.

In this episode, Steph reflects on the disconnect between what others may see on the outside and what we may be feeling on the inside. She explores why capable, experienced and successful people can still question themselves, and why achievement does not automatically cure self-doubt.

Steph also talks about why self-doubt is not a defect or a personal failing. It is an experience, and it is often shaped or amplified by the environments we are in.

This episode is an invitation to rethink confidence. Not as charisma, certainty, polish or always having the answer, but as the steadier ability to ask questions, admit mistakes, say “I don’t know”, seek help, learn, change your mind and still trust that you belong.

Steph explores how leaders can create environments where people do not have to perform confidence, but can develop real confidence in ways that are honest, human and sustainable.

In this episode, Steph explores:

• Why confidence is not the absence of doubt
• How imposter phenomenon can affect capable and experienced leaders
• Why success, visibility and responsibility can sometimes intensify self-doubt
• The difference between appearing confident and being trustworthy
• Why “fake it till you make it” can become a performance
• How some environments amplify self-doubt, especially for women and minoritised people
• Why being interrupted, undermined or excluded can affect confidence
• What real confidence can sound like in leadership
• Why saying “I don’t know” or “I got that wrong” can take real strength
• How leaders can create environments where people feel safe to ask questions, try things, disagree and learn
• Why self-worth is not dependent on proving yourself every minute of every day
• What it means to trust yourself without needing constant external validation

Leading Well is a podcast for people who want to lead with clarity, care and integrity, without losing themselves in the process.

Leading Well - leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

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Have you ever looked around and thought, “I should be further ahead by now”?

In this solo episode of Leading Well with Steph Edusei, Steph explores leadership, self-worth, comparison and the imaginary timelines we use to judge our lives and careers.

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So many of us carry an unspoken timetable for what our lives and careers are supposed to look like. We imagine where we should be by a certain age, what we should have achieved by now, and how quickly we should have progressed.

In this episode, Steph reflects on her own experience of joining the NHS National Graduate Training Scheme, where the idea of becoming a chief executive within ten years became a powerful internal yardstick. When her career path stopped following that neat upward trajectory, she began to feel as though she was falling behind.

Steph explores how comparison, social media, organisational expectations and our own self-imposed milestones can distort the way we see ourselves. She shares how stepping away from one version of success helped her find work, leadership and impact that felt more aligned with her values.

This episode is an invitation to question the timelines you have absorbed, notice where comparison may be shaping your choices, and trust that your own pace may be wiser than you think.

In this episode, Steph explores:

• Why so many of us feel we should be further ahead
• The imaginary timelines we create for our lives and careers
• How comparison can make even successful people feel inadequate
• The difference between career progression and leadership development
• Why success is not always a straight line
• How detours, setbacks and changes of direction can shape us
• The danger of judging your whole life against someone else’s visible highlights
• Why later does not necessarily mean late
• How trying to catch up can lead us into lives we do not really want
• What it means to trust your own pace without giving up on ambition

Leading Well is a podcast for people who want to lead with clarity, care and integrity, without losing themselves in the process.

Leading Well - leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

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If you’ve ever felt you had to harden yourself to be credible as a leader, this first episode of Leading Well with Steph Edusei is for you.

In this opening episode, Steph reflects on how trying to be the kind of leader she thought she was supposed to be almost broke her.

Steph shares the honest story behind the podcast and invites you to follow or subscribe as we rethink what it means to lead well, live well and carry responsibility without losing ourselves.

Drawing on her experience as a leader in the NHS and then in the voluntary and community sector, she explores the culture of overwork, constant availability, pressure, performance and emotional suppression that so often gets mistaken for strong leadership.

Steph also talks about the role of imposter phenomenon and how self-doubt can make leaders overwork, over-prove and tolerate situations that work against their own values.

But this episode is not just about what leadership can cost us. It is also about what becomes possible when we stop trying to perform leadership and start practising it in ways that are more human, compassionate, sustainable and true to who we are.

In this episode, Steph explores:

• Why working hard can quietly become overworking
• The pressure to prove yourself as a leader
• Leadership cultures that reward toughness, certainty and constant availability
• How imposter phenomenon can shape the way leaders show up
• Why kindness, compassion and integrity are not alternatives to effective leadership
• The importance of boundaries, rest and sustainability
• What it means to lead well as a practice, not a performance

Reflection questions from this episode:

• Where have I been trying to lead like someone else?
• What part of myself have I been taught to work against so that I can seem more credible as a leader?
• What would change if I trusted that kindness, compassion and integrity were not alternatives to effective leadership, but core elements of it?

Leading Well is a podcast for people who want to lead with clarity, care and integrity.

Follow or subscribe to Leading Well with Steph Edusei to join the conversation and be notified when new episodes are released.

Leading Well - leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

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What does it mean to lead well without losing yourself in the process?

Welcome to Leading Well with Steph Edusei, a podcast about leadership, self-worth and living well alongside responsibility. Follow or subscribe to join the conversation and be notified when new episodes are released.

In this short trailer, Steph introduces Leading Well and shares what listeners can expect from the podcast.

This is a space for honest, human conversations about the realities of leadership. Not the polished version where we pretend to have all the answers, but the version that makes room for confidence and self-doubt, imposter phenomenon, boundaries, values, compassion, power and responsibility.

Some episodes will be solo reflections from Steph. Others will be conversations with guests from different backgrounds and sectors. Each episode will explore what it means to lead with clarity, care and integrity in ways that are sustainable and true to who we are.

Leading Well is an invitation to pause, reflect and think a little differently about the kind of leaders we are becoming.

Leading Well – leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

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