Stepsero

What makes a story land in a corporate setting, and what kills it? In this episode, Dr Gian Power OBE breaks down why leaders who rely on facts alone fail to move people, how to structure a story that drives real behaviour change, and what the biggest enemy of good storytelling really is (what he calls "the explainer"). We explore the fine line between authentic vulnerability and performative storytelling, the neuroscience behind why stories change how people act, and how AI is already becoming a powerful tool for leaders who want to communicate with more impact.If you lead people, speak to audiences, or simply want to communicate with more impact at work, this episode is for you.

Our Guest: Gian Power OBE

Dr Gian Power OBE is the Founder & CEO of TLC Lions, dedicated to humanising the working world. His work has supported 300+ of the world’s largest companies, including Amazon, Google, Rolls-Royce, and Visa, and now reaches over 15 million airline passengers via TLC Lions content onboard Emirates and Virgin Atlantic. After time at Deutsche Bank and PwC, Gian’s life changed following a personal family tragedy. This experience became the catalyst for his mission - to make workplaces more human, connected, and emotionally intelligent. In 2025, he was awarded an OBE for services to Mental Health, recognising his transformative impact on leadership and workplace culture. Now a sought-after keynote speaker, Gian addresses global audiences on human leadership, wellbeing, and storytelling, helping leaders create trust, resilience, and high-performance cultures. Beyond TLC Lions, Gian is a proud Ambassador for the Missing People charity and co-author of Survive and Thrive with Reebok’s Founder, Joe Foster. His work has been recognised by Forbes, the BBC, Business Insider, and his impact has been backed by the UK Government and No. 10 Downing Street.References:Gian Power OBE LinkedIn profilewww.tlclions.com

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Most of us have said it at some point: "I wish my work was more creative." And then stopped right there. In this episode, Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and author of The Creativity Choice, speaks about what keeps professionals stuck at that wish, and what it really takes to move beyond it. Zorana challenges the idea that creativity belongs only to artists, designers, or people in R&D. Drawing on the science of creativity and emotional intelligence, she explains why creativity is not a talent you either have or don't, but a set of choices that anyone can learn to make.

Our Guest: Zorana Ivcevic Pringle

Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, Ph.D. , is a Senior Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and author of The Creativity Choice. Her research explores how people build creative confidence, manage the emotions that accompany ambitious goals, and turn ideas into meaningful accomplishments.Drawing on the science of creativity and emotional intelligence, she studies why promising ideas stall—and what helps individuals persist through doubt, resistance, and uncertainty to bring their ideas to life. Her writing has appeared in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, and Vox. Zorana received research awards from the Mensa Education and Research Foundation and the American Psychological Association, and she speaks at and works with organizations such as Pintrest, Lego, Oglivy, Facebook, and others.Her work highlights that creativity is not a rare gift, but a set of choices and emotion skills that anyone can cultivate to bring meaningful ideas to life.References:Zorana Ivcevic Pringle LinkedIn profilewww.zorana-ivcevic-pringle.com

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If you've ever felt stuck in a loop (work, home, repeat), this conversation is for you. Julia Romanova brings an unusually human-centred lens to how we navigate change. In this episode, Julia introduces two powerful frameworks that reframe how we relate to ourselves, our colleagues, and the world around us. Radical Connectedness is the idea that we each exist across three interconnected dimensions (personal, group, and societal). When you recognise them, you stop taking things personally, you build more resilient teams, and you start acting with greater awareness. The Third Space is something we've quietly lost in modern working life. It's not work. It's not home. It's the place where you reconnect with who you actually are, and without it we struggle to recover our energy and feel increasingly trapped.A sharp, practical conversation for anyone navigating modern work.

Our Guest: Julia Romanova

Julia Romanova is a Berlin-based communication strategist, trainer, and change facilitator with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of politics, business, and society. Currently working in corporate communications and change management, she specialises in transformation communication, helping organisations not just navigate change, but make it land with the people it affects most. With a background spanning German Association for SMEs, StartUps, and her own practice as a Rational Games Trainer for organisations like Microsoft, the German Foreign Office, and ESMT, Julia brings a rare blend of strategic thinking, creativity and human-centred communication. Her academic background in linguistics, a diploma in acting and certifications in Change Management (IHK) and Leadership gives her a uniquely embodied understanding of how people connect, resist, and transform.

References:

Julia Romanova LinkedIn profile

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This episode was inspired by a Financial Times article titled "Why Co-CEOs Might Suit Our Tumultuous Times."

In this conversation with Executive Coach Costas Kalisperas, we use it as a springboard to dig into something most of us have felt but rarely name: what leadership ego actually looks like day to day, how it ripples through an entire organisation, and why putting two leaders at the top often creates more problems than it solves.

We also get into what genuine empowerment looks like in practice, and the questions great leaders ask that most never do.

Our Guest: Costas Kalisperas

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas LinkedIn profile

www.intune-exec.com

Why co-CEOs might suit our tumultuous times

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Most business presentations fail for the same reason: we confuse the slides with the message. Andrea Pacini has spent his career helping business leaders fix that.Andrea is the author of "Confident Presenter" and "Timeless Presenter", and head of Ideas on Stage UK. In this conversation, we explore why simplicity is so hard to apply even when everyone agrees it's the right approach, what Steve Jobs' iPhone launch can teach us about business communication, and the one principle from Timeless Presenter that Andrea wants every presenter to remember.We also get into the difference between a slide deck and a document, and why confusing the two is one of the most common and costly mistakes in business communication.A practical and honest conversation for anyone who presents, pitches, or communicates ideas at work.

Our Guest: Andrea Pacini

 Andrea Pacini is the author of Confident Presenter and the upcoming Timeless Presenter (2026). He’s a presentation coach and Head of Ideas on Stage UK. He specialises in helping business owners, leaders and teams deliver clear presentations to prospects – presentations that guide potential clients to the next step. In 2024 he was awarded Best Virtual Speaker in The Speaker Awards. Andrea is on a mission to stop strong ideas from failing because of unclear communication, especially in client-facing situations. His vision is to help hundreds of thousands of business leaders inspire their audiences, increase their influence, and make a positive impact in the world.References:Andrea Pacini LinkedIn profilewww.ideasonstage.com/uk 

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The dominant narrative around AI and work is built on fear. But is the replacement narrative historically illiterate, and is there a more nuanced argument to make?". Tessa is the founder and CEO of HireGains.ai, an AI-powered platform, and author of the Human Centric AI newsletter on Substack. In this conversation, we explore three converging forces reshaping the future of work: remote work, generational shift, and AI, and what they mean for knowledge workers trying to figure out where they stand. We also get into the idea of moving up the stack, what it means, why the repetitive transactional work AI takes over is actually an opportunity rather than a threat, and what Tessa believes a good day at work looks like in 2030. A rare and genuinely optimistic take on a topic most people approach with anxiety.

Our Guest: Tessa James

 Tessa James, CEO and Founder of HireGains.ai, is a talent strategist at the intersection of psychology, organisational transformation, and human-centred technology. With 20 years of experience spanning corporate leadership, talent acquisition, and product thinking, she has worked across global organisations to strengthen teams, accelerate hiring, and reduce misalignment at every level. Tessa's work is grounded in a simple but often overlooked truth: hiring isn't broken: our understanding of humans is. That conviction drives her work building HireGains.ai, a next-generation hiring platform that goes beyond matching and automation to help companies see people fully: their skills, alignment, motivation, and the energy they bring to a team. She believes the future of work belongs to organisations that understand humans as deeply as they understand technology, and she's building the tools to make that possible.References:Tessa James LinkedIn profile

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For most of history, workplaces controlled people by telling them what they couldn't do. Today the control works differently, by removing all restrictions and letting people push themselves to their own limits. In this conversation, Mark Orlic unpacks what philosopher Byung-Chul Han calls "The Burnout Society" where individuals are both victim and perpetrator of their own exhaustion. We also discuss what AI is doing to the human fabric of organisations, why multitasking is an animal behaviour rather than a human one, and what Mark noticed about himself only after stepping back from corporate life.

Our Guest: Mark D. Orlic

Mark D. Orlic spent over two decades at Big Four consulting firms, as a Partner and AI Leader, where he advised governments, multinationals, and institutions across Europe on strategy, digital transformation, and the economic forces reshaping the continent. He was responsible for building and leading the AI practice in Germany at a moment when the gap between institutional ambition and institutional readiness was at its most consequential. He brings to his book, Geisterfahrer, what no purely German perspective could: a triple-identity shaped by Croatian roots, an American upbringing, and long-term residency in Germany. It is a vantage point that produces neither the insider’s blind spots nor the outsider’s condescension – only the particular impatience of someone who loves a place enough to tell it the truth. He is a lecturer at the University of Mannheim on social and fiscal policy questions that form the book’s analytical core, and speaks regularly on strategic transformation, Germany’s economic crossroads, and the leadership demands of the AI transition. He lives with his wife and three young children in Germany.References:Mark D. Orlic LinkedIn profileGeisterfahrer: Germany at a Societal, Political and Economic Crossroads (English Edition)

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In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Henry Mullins, senior operations and strategy leader, and PhD in industrial-organizational psychology, to dig into what personality traits actually drive leadership performance in virtual and remote settings. Henry shares findings from his research on remote leadership, including where the existing literature falls short, the key theories connecting personality to leadership, and practical strategies you can apply to lead more effectively in a virtual environment.

Our Guest: Dr. Henry Mullins

Dr. Henry C. Mullins is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel whose career spanned more than thirty years across both enlisted and officer ranks. Beginning his service in 1992, he advanced through a wide range of leadership positions including platoon leader, company commander, battalion staff officer, brigade operations officer, and  brigade deputy commanding officer. His career included deployments to Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and reflects a rare blend of tactical, operational, and executive‑level experience.After retiring from the military, Dr. Mullins transitioned into senior leadership roles in the private sector, focusing on technical delivery, organizational effectiveness, and people‑centered leadership. His work draws on both real‑world command experience and the science of human behavior and performance, giving him a distinctive perspective on how leaders and teams operate under pressure, adapt to change, and build sustainable cultures.Dr. Mullins holds a BA in Criminal Justice, an MA in Ancient & Classical History, and a PhD in Industrial & Organizational Psychology, where his research examined virtual leadership, personality, and performance. Today, he continues to support leaders, teams, and organizations seeking clarity, alignment, and measurable improvement—bringing a practitioner‑scholar approach to modern leadership challenges. Outside of his professional work, he stays active through martial arts, mountain biking, skiing, and public service. He lives in Georgia with his wife Buffy and their youngest daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, and is the proud father of Courtney and Madison—herself a U.S. Army veteran.References:Dr Henry Mullins LinkedIn profile

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In a world where performance can make or break a company, creating a high-performance culture is essential. In this post, we dive into a conversation with Andrei Oprisor, the head of the people product department at Revolut, to explore how their internal human resource management system, Revolut People, emphasizes performance and meritocracy. We uncover the key components that drive this approach and how you can implement similar strategies in your organization.

Our Guest: Andrei Oprisor

Engineer turned product leader, Andrei Oprisor is the creator of Revolut People, the performance management platform that helped scale Revolut to 12,000+ employees across 60+ countries. Originally from Bucharest, Andrei joined Revolut during its early hyper-growth phase as one of the company’s first data engineers. Within months, he was working directly with Revolut’s founder, Nik Storonsky, to tackle a challenge no off-the-shelf software could solve: how to build and scale a high-performance culture, with systems designed around quality, not bureaucracy. What started as an internal tool quickly evolved into Revolut People: a full-stack platform covering goal setting, performance cycles, engagement, compensation, core HR, and recruitment. After five years of internal development and hundreds of thousands performance reviews processed, Andrei now leads the global go-to-market of the product to hundreds of scale-ups building exceptional teams.References:Andrei Oprisor LinkedIn profilehttps://www.revolut.com/people/ 

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Ambiguity at work is not new. Yet, it feels harder than ever, and it's one of the most underrated sources of anxiety for knowledge workers and leaders alike.

Costas (executive coach and former banker) has navigated plenty of uncertainty across his career. In this conversation, we explore how to move forward when the information is incomplete, why the best leaders share the burden of uncertainty rather than carrying it alone, and why ambiguity and lack of clarity are not the same thing, even if they feel identical in the moment.

One short conversation. A little more clarity on one of the foggiest parts of modern work.

Our Guest: Costas Kalisperas

Costas is the Founder & CEO of In Tune Executive Coaching. His focus is on helping leaders to be in tune with themselves and their environment, tap into their inner resourcefulness and manage their interactions with others more effectively. To know more about Costas, please visit any of the links below.

References:

Costas Kalisperas LinkedIn profile

www.intune-exec.com

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