The Thoughtful Leader Podcast
Hi, I’m Ben Brearley and I’m the host of the Thoughtful Leader Podcast.
The Thoughtful Leader Podcast provides short, sharp leadership advice for thoughtful leaders like you, who care about their teams and want to improve performance and job satisfaction.
Leadership can be challenging, frustrating and daunting, so hopefully listening to these episodes helps you lead your team with confidence. Join me as I cover a diverse range of leadership topics.
You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your other favourite podcast app of choice.
Of course, you can also listen to them right here by playing them in the web player or by clicking on the individual episodes below.
Or, Listen to the Episodes Right Here
Podcast Episode List
When good leadership is actually bad.
Empowering your team. Delegating effectively. Asking people for their input. Taking time to think. Staying quiet so others can contribute. These can all be signs of good leadership. But what [...]
4 questions to understand your values better.
Many leadership courses include a values exercise. Usually, you're given a long list of values and asked to choose the ones that seem most important to you. That can be [...]
How self-interested are you?
Most leaders probably don't think of themselves as particularly self-interested. However, self-interest doesn't only appear through obvious behaviours such as political manoeuvring, blaming others or trying to climb the career [...]
Ideas for leading more experienced people.
At some point in your leadership career, you may find yourself leading someone who has significantly more experience than you. They may be older than you, have spent decades in [...]
How international cultures could impact your team.
Leading people from different cultural backgrounds can be incredibly rewarding, but it also brings unique challenges. People's expectations about leadership, communication, teamwork and decision making are often influenced by the [...]
The potential pitfalls of having formal authority
Leadership roles come with formal authority. You can make decisions, approve work, manage performance and influence the direction of your team. But formal authority has a hidden downside. The more [...]
Is a work team really similar to a professional sporting team?
Professional sport is one of leadership's favourite sources of inspiration. Books about championship teams, legendary coaches and elite athletes are everywhere. But how much of that advice actually applies to [...]
Don’t bring an “Engineering mindset” to your team.
Many leaders approach people problems as if there must be a perfect technical solution. In this episode, Ben explains why leadership is rarely that simple and why a scientist's mindset [...]
“Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.”
The phrase "don't bring me problems, bring me solutions" is common leadership advice. In this episode, Ben explains why this slogan can create barriers between leaders and their teams, reduce [...]
That wouldn’t work in my team – or would it?
Many leaders quickly dismiss leadership ideas by saying they won't work in their team or industry. In this episode, Ben explores why this reaction happens, what may be sitting underneath [...]