Work Unplugged

In this week's podcast Laura Chamberlain explores the topic of personal branding and why so many leaders struggle with putting themselves 'out there'. Laura's insights provide a valuable reframing of personal branding as a tool for leaders to take ownership of their reputations. By focusing on authenticity, trust, and a clear framework, leaders can navigate their personal brand in a way that feels genuine and impactful. For a deeper dive into these concepts and more, tune into the full episode with Laura Chamberlain.

Laura Chamberlain is an award-winning Professor of Marketing at Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick. She is a Marketing Week columnist and founder of the consultancy Think Talk Thrive, and a practising marketer, coach and facilitator, working with organisations on professional development, personal brand and positive resilience. Her book, Brilliantly Bouncy: Discover Positive Resilience, was a finalist in the Business Book Awards 2026.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmchamberlain/

Brilliantly Bouncy: https://www.brilliantlybouncy.com/ and https://amzn.eu/d/041vUpeq

So, another survey, another wait for the results, and another surprise when they come out. The surprise might just be that very little has changed. We go through the cycle of surveys, analysing, sharing back and action planning. But nothing changes, and far from helping work, it feels often like a bigger distraction to work.

Why do we keep investing in engagement surveys, that continue to ask questions which have little relevant to our employees? Why do we not have a shared understanding of engagement, and does it matter? How do we make engagement surveys matter and improve the experiences of our employees to drive better business performance?

Amy from the &Evolve team joins Amrit to discuss all these issues and more in this episode of the Work Unplugged podcast.

In this podcast, Amrit is joined by Rob Wells, the Chief Operating Offices for the charity Sport 4 Life UK, operating in the Midlands. The charity focuses on helping young people into the world of work through sport. Rob shares his views on culture and how the charity has worked hard to maintain its own culture over 20 years it's been in operation.

In this episode, Amrit and Ali from the &Evolve team delve into the science behind ‘difficult’ conversations at work and why they can feel so challenging in the moment. We explore how our innate threat responses (fight, flight, freeze, or fawn) can become activated, often hijacking our thinking and behaviour just when we need to be at our best.

With this understanding, we discuss how to prepare more effectively for these conversations, drawing on the latest psychological and organisational research. Together, we explore practical strategies to stay grounded, communicate clearly, and create the conditions for more constructive, successful outcomes - even in high-stakes or emotionally charged situations.

Organisations work hard to create inclusive environments, where people feel they can express and be themselves. Trust is more important now with so many people working from home, yet managers still walk a tightrope with trust. Then we have all the work organisations do on Values - identifying the right ones, making sure people understand them, and then articulating the behaviours that truly express them for the organisation.

Despite all this work, why do scandals such as the Dr who sexually harassed his junior colleagues, or the McDonald's managers who abused their employees, some as young as 17 years old still occur? Remember Starbucks closing all 8000 stores across the U.S. to undertake racial bias training? Something is missing.

Join Amrit in this week's podcast to explore what more organisations can do to create safe, trusting and aligned cultures that allow everyone to understand the identity of an organisation and how it operates.

Why do people continue to work in toxic environments? Rational, bright and sane individuals endure the daily grind of subjecting themselves to toxic environments, but why? Many people have heard of the 996 culture in tech - 9 am to 9pm, six days a week. These people are celebrated, and we're told they love working the hours, as they love being in states of 'flow'.

When you ask those people who hate their work, some will tell you that it's great. They can't seem to face into the fact that their workplace might be toxic, leading to cognitive dissonance. Do they talk themselves out of how bad it really is? Sometimes, we all need to face into the painful truth, that this is not the place for us, and we need to get out.

Join Amrit as he explores why people stay, why they continue to publicly endorse their organisation, despite all they experience. The Painful Truth - Is Your Workplace Toxic?, this week's podcast.

This year proves to be anther challenging year. Our teams are expected to do more with less. Geopolitical tensions mean the old maps we relied on to navigate this complex world, have been torn up, leaving us trying to understand where we go from here. We desperately want to drive greater innovation and creativity but cannot seem to get off first base. Could we be unintentionally be holding ourselves back? Rather than looking externally for a magic solution, could the answer to greater performance and productivity be right under own noses?

Join Amrit for this week's podcast where we explore how we might be holding our own performance back. Are you self-sabotaging your organisation's growth?

As many of you will have seen, we've been going through our back catalogue of guests, from our previous podcast series. Since then, we've rebranded, and some of our listeners, may never have heard the amazing guests we've had on our podcast.

This week, we've decided to save the best. This podcast was the most listened to podcast of all the 100+ episodes we recorded. It has consistently been downloaded hundred of times since.

David Hynam at the time of recording this podcast was in charge of Bupa Care Services. He has since gone on to become the Chief Executive at LV=. The reason we wanted to share this with you, is because he talks about Authentic Leadership, but doesn't just talk about it, he exemplifies it each and every day and has consistently done so.

It was an absolute pleasure to record this podcast with David, and it's our pleasure to bring this back to our new audience! Enjoy

L. David Marquet, a US Navy submarine captain, takes command of the USS Santa Fe, the worst-performing sub in the fleet. He’s trained for a different submarine class, so he doesn’t know this sub well. Early on, he gives an order that literally cannot be carried out (because that control doesn’t exist on this type of sub). The officer repeats the order anyway. Marquet realises the problem isn’t “bad people” but a leader–follower culture where everyone is trained to obey, not think.

His experience led to his book 'Turn the Ship Around'. This episode is from our back-catalogue of our previous podcast series, where David joined Amrit to share his fascinating story.

Here it is for our new audience on this podcast. Enjoy1

Back in the middle of lockdown, we had the opportunity to interview Paul Zak, one of the most cited scientists in the world. If you've ever undertaken any leadership development with ourselves, then you will have heard us speaking of the amazing research by Paul Zak and his team into Oxytocin and trust.

Trust is, and will always be the foundation of an engaging workplace, and the critical ingredient for stronger relationships. So, since this podcast was first recorded when we were called 'The Engagement Coach', we thought it would be a great idea to bring this to our new audience. The Neuroscience of Trust - this week's podcast with Paul Zak!