Welcome to the first episode of the Scaling Leadership series.

This is a series of conversations with founders and leaders who are navigating the real journey of growing a business and growing themselves along the way. Because, as any founder discovers, scaling a company eventually means scaling your leadership.

For this first conversation, I’m joined by someone who has played a meaningful role in my own journey. Mike Ivey is a friend, a mentor, and the founder of Cafelife, a company that works with organisations around culture transformation and facilitation.

Mike has spent many years helping leaders create the kind of environments where people can do their best work. In this conversation we explore the tension many leaders feel as their organisations grow. How do you scale your leadership without losing what makes you authentic? How do you build culture intentionally as the business expands?

It’s a thoughtful and honest conversation, and I’m really glad to start this series with someone who has shaped so much of my own thinking.

Let’s dive in.