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 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, Google 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
Managing by Exception: Is It a Good Approach?
Managing by exception is a style of management that emphasises escalation of only significant issues to leaders in an organisation. It is often seen as a way to free up [...]
What to Do if You Work for an Insecure Manager
Working for an insecure manager is no picnic. Many people react to this situation by fighting. Trying to prove to their insecure boss that they are superior and capable and [...]
Empowering Leadership Actions to Try In Your Team
Empowering leadership is all about getting out of your team's way, so they can do their thing. However, this deceptively simple idea can be daunting for leaders who aren't used [...]
How to Build Empathy Using the Iceberg Model
Being able to show empathy is a great skill for leaders to better understand and engage with their people. One tool I've found really useful in helping to keep an [...]
How to Feel Like a More Useful Leader
One of the common complaints levelled at leaders (especially in the middle-management layer) is that they are "useless" and "don't do anything". And sometimes, when you've gone from being a [...]
Is “Sweeping the Sheds” Good Leadership?
In the book "Legacy" about the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby team, the concept of "sweeping the sheds" is raised. That is - even leaders should pitch in and do [...]
Lead Better By Understanding Your Core Values
One way that we can help to set a good foundation for our leadership is to understand our core values. Our core values help us to understand what drives us, [...]
Confident Leaders Ask These 5 Simple Questions
You might not feel confident all the time, but that doesn't mean you can't ask confident questions! In this episode, I take a look at some good questions that you [...]

Create Better Leadership Habits With These 3 Key Ingredients
Most leaders have parts of their leadership they'd like to improve. One way to improve is to create good leadership habits, to help you show up consistently and reliably for [...]

Want to Feel Better Leading? Self-Acceptance Is a Good Start.
I sometimes work with leaders who pretty much need a complete confidence rebuild because of their experiences in crappy workplaces. Damaged confidence can take years to recover (if it does [...]