The Unlock Moment: find your purpose for leadership and life

Stepping into leadership can feel overwhelming ... especially when you’re looking around at how everyone else does it. But here’s the truth: no-one else leads like you, because no-one else is you.

In this Box of Keys episode, I discuss why the best leaders don’t copy someone else’s style - they lean into their own strengths and lead in a way that feels authentic. Drawing on Gallup research and years of coaching experience, I share ...

How do you stay human in a world that’s being redefined by technology? How do you keep your work creative, meaningful and alive ... when sameness and automation are all around us?

In this episode, we explore how curiosity, creativity and agency can transform the way you show up - at work and in life. Greg Orme and I talk about the moments that light you up, why it’s so easy to get stuck on the “rails” of your career, and how to red...

What if disagreement is exactly what your team needs?

In this Box of Keys episode, I explore why pushing too hard for total agreement can actually hold your team back. When everyone feels pressured to nod along with the strategy, what you often get is hidden tension, quiet resentment, and a lack of true engagement.

But disagreement isn’t a problem to eliminate ... it’s an opportunity to explore. When we create space for dissent and...

In August 2025, I travelled to Kyiv, Ukraine, during a week that marked both the country’s Independence Day and one of the largest aerial attacks on the capital since the war began.

I wanted to understand, firsthand, what life is really like in a city at war. To walk its streets. To listen to its people. To witness what the headlines can’t capture.

What I found was a city of striking contrasts. Playgrounds beside burned-out tanks. ...

You can’t fix what no one feels safe to say out loud.

In this episode, I sit down with astronaut Dr Charles Camarda to explore the cultural roots of catastrophic failure ... and how even the most advanced organisations can lose their way. We talk about the moments that led to the Columbia tragedy, the silence that surrounded it, and what Charlie learned when he was removed from his role after speaking out.

This is a conversation ab...

How do you tell the difference between someone who’s a solid performer and someone who’s driven by something deeper ... by purpose, mission, and impact? In this Box of Keys episode, I reflect on a conversation with a senior leader who believed everyone in his organisation was motivated by money and promotion. But when you look more closely, the exceptional ones often signal something else entirely.

This is a conversation about lear...

This is a conversation about what happens when the data you’ve trusted your whole career turns out to be pointing you in the wrong direction. It’s about the moment when logic starts to unravel, and real clarity begins ... not in more numbers, but in understanding what the customer truly sees. Michael Ross brings a deep humility to his insight: that the story behind the numbers can be more powerful than the numbers themselves.

Micha...

Leadership isn’t about being liked, though most great leaders are likeable. The difference is that their likeability comes from credibility and respect, not from chasing approval. In this Box of Keys episode, I explore why trying to lead by being liked almost always backfires, and why boundaries are essential for both children and teams.

Leaders need to separate tough decisions from personal feelings, resisting the pull to be manip...

One of the world’s leading executive coaches and an accredited business psychologist, Alex Lazarus has worked with CEOs and leaders around the world to navigate change and build high-performance cultures. And as the founder of Lazarus & Maverick, she and her team help leaders navigate complexity and deal with that unique sense of isolation that you get when you’re sitting in the big chair at the head of the boardroom table. Her own...

You tell your team your door is always open, but still … nobody walks through. I’ve been thinking about why that is. Why people don’t always feel comfortable stepping forward, even when you genuinely want to hear from them.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with the brilliant leadership coach Dr Francoise Orlov. She talked about what it means to really create psychological safety. Not just saying the right words, but stepping ...

So many people I’m speaking to at the moment are describing themselves as stuck in their careers – often they’ve built a very successful career in one area of specialism and now face into a very big question – “now I have different choices, is this what I really want to do?”

You might know today’s guest Tanya Arnold from her TV career – a BBC sports journalist covering two Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby League World ...

In this powerful episode, legendary BBC journalist Rory Cellan-Jones tells the story of the day he discovered a box of letters from his mother that changed everything he knew about his upbringing. Recorded live in London, this powerful and moving testimony from a master storyteller will stay with you for a long time.

Today he is as famous for his rescue dog 'Sophie from Romania' as he is for his 40 year BBC career. He is also an adv...

When I first met Rajeev I was struck his clarity, his humility. A perspective on leadership that is seductive and compelling. To find something bigger than yourself. To find meaning. To find purpose. As he says, leadership is about creating a better future. A hugely successful leader himself, now he's helping others to discover their own Steward Leadership.

Rajeev Peshawaria is the CEO of the Stewardship Asia Centre, a prolific spea...

A memorable encounter aged just 13 with the CEO of British Steel was Chris Cooper's Unlock Moment. The moment when he knew there was more for him in life than to follow his father into the steelworks. Often those formative moments that shape our sense of purpose happen early in our lives. Many years later Chris is a leadership strategist, a speaker, a broadcaster and an author, helping others to elevate themselves in a culture wher...

We think of leadership development and coaching as something for the workplace, right? But what if you could use those same approaches in young people to help them develop their capabilities as a leader right from the time when they're in school?

Well that's what former Pentagon and UN advisor Julie Carrier has been doing for years. She's been featured on NBC, Discovery Channel and MTV, and she's been named Woman of the Decade for g...

Storytelling at its best, the gentle Irish lilt of senior tech leader Feargal Moorhead is compelling as he tells his story from growing up in Ireland to leading roles at Intel and Amazon. He draws connections between the unique culture of County Clare and how it influenced his most recent career pivot from autonomous vehicles to his new venture supporting other leaders to be at their best.

Questions you might ask yourself as you lis...

A remarkable conversation with a remarkable coach, who pulled himself up from his darkest moment to find new stability and to help others discover their Ordinary Resilience.

Luis Velasquez grew up in poverty in Guatemala, became a Professor of Genetics, overcame a brain tumour and is today one of the world’s leading coaches working with executives from Google, Salesforce, Twitter and IBM. His mantra is “you can’t control the rain bu...

I haven’t got time. I’ve been in too many meetings. I just don’t know where to start. We’ve all been there – overwhelmed with volume and complexity, unable to find a simple path through.

Making life and business simple is one of the hardest things you can do, and also the most freeing. Today’s guest is a world-leading expert on how to make things simple. Lisa Bodell is a global leader and a world-leading speaker on simplification, c...

A remarkable story with a remarkable artist. The kind of illustrator who walks into danger to tell people's stories through the power of his art.

George Butler is an award-winning illustrator but has reinvented the role of the Artist Reporter drawing conflict zones, climate issues, humanitarian crisis and social issues for the news. His drawings are done in situ - in pen, ink and watercolour.

In August 2012 George walked from Turkey ...