The Wellbeing Rebellion

Sometimes the habits that help us protect ourselves at work can quietly start limiting us too.

I look at what happens when scrutiny, bias or past experiences make us more cautious about speaking up, putting ourselves forward or being visible. That might look like overpreparing, holding back an idea, shrinking parts of yourself, or waiting until you feel completely ready.

The important question isn’t simply “How do I become more confident?” It’s whether the ways you’re protecting yourself are still helping, or whether they’re now costing you something you care about.

And for leaders, there’s another side to this: are we creating workplaces where people actually feel safe to be visible when we ask them to be?

Highlights:

(03:07) How self-protection can start changing the way we show up

(08:35) What overpreparing and holding back can look like at work

(14:05) How stereotype threat affects confidence and visibility

(18:41) When something can be protective and costly at the same time

(28:08) What leaders need to examine before telling people to be more confident

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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We prepare for interviews, pitches and presentations all the time. But the conversations that can change a relationship, a career or an outcome? We’re often expected to just know how to handle those.

Ngozi Weller and Mihran Hovnanian join me to introduce Smabouche, the AI-powered conversation rehearsal platform we’ve built to help people practise those moments before having them for real. We get into where the idea came from, why difficult conversations are so easy to avoid, and how psychology and AI have come together in the product.

At its heart, Smabouche isn’t there to have the conversation for you. It’s there to help you get better at having it yourself.

Highlights:

(09:04) Why some conversations feel so difficult even when we know what we want to say

(18:46) Where the idea for Smabouche came from

(31:00) Why task-specific AI matters when you’re practising real conversations

(39:39) What using Smabouche actually looks like

(50:53) What we hope better conversation skills could change

Try Smabouche and practise the conversation before you have it: https://smabouche.com

Smabouche gives you a safe place to rehearse the conversation, explore how the other person might respond, and try different approaches before you have the real conversation.

Better conversation starts with practice.

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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Culture is shaped in the small decisions leaders make every day. Who gets heard, who gets supported, and whether people feel safe enough to be themselves at work.

Yetunde Dania, a Partner at international law firm Trowers & Hamlins, shares what she’s learnt about leading with authenticity, building trust, and creating an environment where people can contribute without feeling they have to shrink themselves. We also get into difficult conversations, sponsorship, visibility, and what helps underrepresented talent progress once they’re through the door.

What comes through strongly is that culture isn’t something leaders set once. It’s something people experience through everyday behaviour, attention and opportunity.

Highlights:

(03:16) Letting go of the idea that leaders have to be someone else

(12:24) How everyday leadership decisions shape culture

(23:30) Why leaders underestimate how closely people are watching

(32:40) What helps Black and underrepresented talent progress

(44:28) Why curiosity may be one of the most useful leadership habits

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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Before we ask more from our teams this September, it’s worth asking what they need from us first.

For me, it comes down to four things: reconnection, clarity, presence and the emotional tone we set as leaders. None of them require another initiative, but they can make a real difference to how people experience work as the pace picks up again.

I also share a simple question to help you look at your own leadership through your team’s eyes, because trust and performance are shaped in the everyday moments long before they show up in a survey or KPI.

Highlights:

(01:05) What does your team actually need from you right now?

(03:32) Why reconnecting should come before redirecting

(05:39) Your team needs clarity more than certainty

(07:30) Why leadership presence matters when work gets busy

(10:30) How leaders set the emotional tone for their teams

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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September has a habit of pulling us straight back into busy routines. Meetings return, inboxes fill up, and before long we’re back on autopilot.

So rather than starting with targets, I’m asking a different question: what kind of leader do you want to be over the next few months?

I share a few simple prompts to help you think about how your team experiences you, the leadership habits worth protecting, and the everyday behaviours that shape culture more than we sometimes realise.

A useful reset before the pace of work takes over again.

Highlights:

(02:25) The question worth asking before September gets busy

(04:46) How do you want your team to experience you?

(06:28) A simple three-month leadership reset

(07:41) The leadership habits worth protecting when work gets busy

(10:08) What would you want your team to say about your leadership by Christmas?

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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We tend to remember the big career moments. The promotion, the crisis, the major project, the thing that looked impressive from the outside.

But some of the experiences that shape us most as leaders are much quieter.

I reflect on a few of those moments from my own career, from getting performance concerns wrong, to learning how to hold space for emotion and recognise perspectives I might otherwise have missed.

The challenge here is simple: look back at the ordinary moments that changed how you lead. They may tell you more about your leadership than the achievements on your CV.

Highlights:

(03:00) Why the biggest career moments aren’t always the most important

(07:49) The performance conversation that changed how I manage people

(12:19) What happens when leaders bring different perspectives together

(14:30) Why emotion at work doesn’t always need to be fixed

(18:30) Five questions to uncover the leadership stories you’ve overlooked

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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Good judgement isn’t about having complete certainty. It’s about using evidence, experience and other perspectives to make the best decision available, then taking responsibility for how it’s carried out.

Vanessa Blackburn and I unpack what separates good judgement from great judgement, particularly when decisions affect people, careers and organisational change. We look at where instinct helps, when it needs to be challenged, and why data should inform rather than replace human thought.

We also explore fair hiring, reactive talent planning, feedback, sponsorship and the vague idea of “culture fit” that can allow bias to slip into important decisions.

Anyone making high-stakes people decisions will come away with a clearer way to balance evidence, instinct and responsibility.

Highlights:

(01:57) Why judgement matters more than certainty

(06:51) What separates good judgement from great judgement

(16:35) Balancing fairness, integrity and instinct in people decisions

(27:30) When gut feeling helps and when it needs to be challenged

(40:54) How leaders can strengthen their judgement

Check out Vanessa’s post about judgement on LinkedIn and share your views: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vanessa-blackburn-1675956_leadership-futureofwork-ai-share-7485647051087777792-_Mfr/

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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Good intentions matter, but they don’t change much on their own.

Joanne Vazquez-Kirby, a global DEI & HR Leader at Skyscanner, joins me to explore what helps organisations move from aspiration to something more tangible. We get into accountability, leadership, and the gap between saying inclusion matters and building it into how a business actually operates.

There’s also a useful look at what this means in practice across global teams. From local context and data to community networks, executive sponsorship, and knowing where to start, Joanne shares what helps inclusion efforts gain traction instead of stalling out.

A helpful listen for leaders trying to turn values into decisions, not just statements.

Highlights:

(02:14) What working across cultures teaches you about people

(08:47) The difference between aspiration and embedded inclusion

(11:30) How networks, sponsors, and structure help the work move

(20:09) Why you can’t do everything, and where to start instead

(27:30) What changes when inclusion work has to translate globally

(34:30) What credible leadership looks like in a difficult climate

(41:00) The one shift leaders can make tomorrow

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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Awareness of neurodiversity has grown, but understanding still has a long way to go.

Too many workplaces still rely on narrow ideas of what neurodivergence is supposed to look like, who gets recognised, and who gets support. That leaves a lot of people misunderstood, missed entirely, or expected to fit a picture that was never built with them in mind.

Dr Chloe Farahar brings a much more nuanced lens to this, from observer bias in diagnosis and recognition to the role of race, gender, culture, and environment in shaping who gets seen. We also explore why the traditional idea of the spectrum falls short, and what a more useful understanding could look like instead.

A valuable listen for anyone who wants to move past basic awareness and think more carefully about what meaningful neuroinclusion really requires.

Highlights:

(01:18) Why awareness still isn’t the same as understanding

(12:20) What polyennic communication can look like in practice

(28:30) Why the traditional spectrum model falls short

(39:30) Chloe’s three-dimensional autistic space explained

(48:20) What workplaces need to do differently right now

(01:05:24) Five steps towards a more neuroinclusive workplace

Links mentioned in this episode:

Aucademy: https://aucademy.co.uk/

Building your Autistic profile: https://aucademy.co.uk/building-your-autistic-profile-brief-starting-page/

NHS Inclusive Workplace Plan template: https://www.cwp.nhs.uk/application/files/8017/3348/3604/Employment_checklist_-_Nov_2024__1.pdf

Enna Global - Helping forward-thinking companies attract, recruit and retain neurodivergent talent: https://enna.org/

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

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A lot of organisations still explain the lack of racial diversity in leadership as a pipeline problem. It sounds neat, but it doesn’t hold up.

In this episode, I unpack why progress on race equity so often stalls the further up an organisation you move, even when there’s effort, investment, and a genuine desire to improve.

I look at what the data actually shows, why the pipeline story keeps sticking around, and what’s really happening to ethnically diverse talent once it enters the workplace. From affinity bias to who gets backed, seen, and described as having potential, this is about the systems that quietly shape progression.

If you’re serious about moving from good intentions to real change, this will give you something much more useful than another vague conversation about representation.

Highlights:

(03:33) Why the “pipeline problem” story keeps coming up

(10:30) What the data says about talent and leadership

(15:30) How professional racism hides in plain sight

(17:03) Why affinity bias keeps shaping progression

(20:30) What trickle-down equity looks like in practice

(23:53) The harder question leaders need to ask themselves

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Ngozi

Obehi

Aurora Company Profile 2026

Book a Call here