Why human connection is essential for leaders and teams.

In a world of AI and dispersed working, the leaders who thrive will be those who build trust, compassion and human connection.

Someone recently said to me, only half-jokingly: “Aren’t you worried all your work will be replaced by AI?”

It’s a fair question! There’s a lot of talk about using AI as your personal coach or turning to a Chatbot for leadership development. It’s a question many of us are asking ourselves.

There’s never been a more urgent need for leaders and teams to build human connection.

With many of us working at home some or all the time, I frequently work with teams that only get together in person once or twice a year. The rest of the time, we only communicate through screens.

We’re living through a time of extraordinary technological change. Artificial intelligence, automation, digital platforms, hybrid working promise speed, efficiency, and new opportunities. And yet, for many of the leaders and teams I work with, the lived experience is often the opposite: disconnection.

McKinsey’s recent research on the future of people management makes the point clearly: in a world of digital disruption and shifting expectations, traditional operating models no longer suffice. Leaders will need to focus less on process and more on people, building trust, compassion, and psychological safety, and creating personalised experiences that make work meaningful.

Technology isn’t the problem in itself. In fact, it frees up time and opens up possibilities. But unless we pay attention to what it means to “be more human,” they risk building organisations that are technically efficient but emotionally lacking.

Creating human connection sits at the heart of everything we do at Growth Space.

We need to remember we are all individual human beings, with lives, interests, passions and challenges outside work. And when we lose that perspective, it becomes harder to build trust, navigate conflict.

Humans have to get better at being more human.

“As machines get better at being machines, humans have to get better at being more human.”

— Andrew J Scott, London Business School Economist

Technology can bring efficiency and insight, but it can’t replace the human skills that make organisations thrive: empathy, emotional intelligence, and the ability to create real connections.

That sense of belonging is built in small, human moments.

Why leaders can’t outsource “the human stuff”

Leaders sometimes talk about well-being, culture, or engagement as if these belong to HR; the people team can be a partner, providing skills, tools, and insights, but they can’t do it all.

Every interaction we have (in meetings, informal chats, how you respond to pressure and the behaviour you reward or tolerate) shapes the culture your people experience. Leaders set the tone for workplaces where people feel valued, trusted, and inspired to grow.

• The tone you set in a meeting.

• The way you respond under pressure.

• The behaviour you reward or tolerate.

What “being more human” looks like

So what does this actually mean in practice? It’s easy to say “be more human” - but in leadership, it comes down to creating the conditions where people feel safe, valued, and able to do their best work. That means:

• Empathy and compassion: listening to understand, recognising how people are feeling, and responding with care.

• Trust and psychological safety: showing up consistently so people know they can take risks, speak up, and be honest without fear of blame.

• Emotional intelligence: being aware of your own impact and noticing what’s going on under the surface in the team.

• Clarity and inspiration: helping people see the bigger picture, cutting through the noise, and connecting their effort back to purpose.

• Courage and consistency: having the conversations that matter, even when they’re tough, and modelling the behaviours you expect from others.

What gets in the way

One of the biggest barriers I hear from leaders is time. “We’re too busy for this stuff.” But if you don’t make time for connection, though, you spend more time firefighting. Misunderstandings, conflicts, and disengagement all take longer to sort out than an honest, intentional conversation would have.

Why connection is the leadership differentiator:

The differentiator will be whether leaders can create organisations where people feel connected to their purpose, to each other, and to the work they do.

• A team that talks honestly builds more trust in a day than in months of polite meetings.

• A leader who listens deeply earns loyalty that no pay rise can buy.

• An organisation that lives its values consistently wins both hearts and results.

• Connection isn’t fluffy. It’s strategic. It’s the foundation of execution, innovation, and growth.

So I’m not worried about being replaced by an AI coach. Coaching, Facilitating, Culture Transformation and Team effectiveness, leadership aren’t done by AI . They’re about sitting down together (or even walking together), building trust, asking the right questions, holding space for reflection, and challenging people to grow.

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Do you need support to build a more connected workplace?

At Growth Space, we work with leadership teams to create alignment around strategy, helping them clarify their story, build trust, and energise their people through team diagnostics, facilitation, and team coaching.

• Leadership Strategy Off-site facilitation >

• Culture Transformation >

• Systemic Team Coaching

If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch

Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.

How to Align and Motivate Leaders and Teams to Deliver Strategy

How to create alignment, build trust, and inspire people to move strategy forward

Strategy succeeds not when leaders draft the perfect plan, but when they commit to delivering it together. Alignment turns priorities into progress. It transforms leadership teams from a group of individuals into one voice, one story, and one movement that inspires belief across the whole organisation.

It’s common for teams to leave a strategy session believing they’re on the same page, only for cracks to appear later. Each leader interprets priorities slightly differently, explains them in their own way to their teams, and emphasises what matters to their function. Those differences ripple down, creating confusion, duplication, and frustration.

As a result, people don’t know what to focus on, resources get wasted, and the strategy loses energy before it’s even begun.

True alignment transforms strategy from a document into a movement -something people understand, believe in, and act on every day.

Why alignment matters

When leaders aren’t aligned:

• Teams hear mixed messages.

• Decisions get slowed down or contradicted.

• Trust erodes because people don’t know what to believe.

“Alignment is not about agreement. It’s about commitment.”

— Professor Peter Hawkins

When they are aligned:

• The organisation moves faster.

• Everyone is clearer on priorities.

• People feel more motivated because they see consistency and confidence at the top.

As Professor Peter Hawkins reminds us, leadership teams don’t exist for themselves; they exist to create value for stakeholders. Alignment ensures the whole team is pulling in that direction, together.

Step 1: Create clarity at the top

Alignment starts with the leadership team. Before anything is shared more widely, leaders must be confident they all share the same understanding of the strategy and priorities.

Example: In one session I facilitated, we explored a new strategic priority. When I asked each leader to describe it in their own words, one focused on growth, another on efficiency, another on innovation. We paused and unpacked those differences. Through structured discussion, we defined:

• What the priority actually meant.

• Why it mattered to the business.

• The concrete steps required to achieve it.

By the end, the leadership team had one shared definition. More importantly, they had tested and challenged their assumptions, so they were confident they could stand behind it with one voice.

Practical step: Try this in your own leadership team: ask each person to explain a key priority in one sentence. If the answers differ, you’ve found your first alignment challenge.

Step 2: Craft a strategic narrative that inspires people

Strategy is not just a list of bullet points, targets and numbers. For people to believe in it, it needs to become a compelling story that makes clear connections to purpose, why it matters, what difference it will make and has emotional resonance.

This turns strategy into something every leader can deliver consistently, every employee can hear and understand instantly, and every stakeholder can connect with and believe in. A strategic narrative links strategy to purpose and gives people a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

Example: One client originally framed their strategy around “increasing EBITDA by 15%.” Rationally important, but emotionally flat. We worked together to reframe it:

“We exist to help our clients grow sustainably. Our strategy is about becoming the partner of choice: faster, more responsive, more collaborative. When we achieve that, our financial results will follow.”

The numbers stayed in the background. The narrative became about purpose and value. It gave employees something to believe in, not just a target to hit.

Practical step: Ask: If this were someone’s first day here, how would we explain our strategy in a way that connects to why we exist?

Step 3: Cascade to teams consistently

Once leaders have a shared narrative, the next challenge is consistency. If each leader tweaks the story, employees hear different versions or become focused only on the goals which seem most relevant to their function, this creates siloed working. To avoid this:

• Keep the narrative simple — no jargon, no long documents.

• Agree on the non-negotiables (the core message that never changes).

• Repeat it in every forum: town halls, team meetings, one-to-ones, and onboarding.

• Adapt the examples for different audiences, but never change the heart of the message.

Example: One leadership team agreed on three strategic pillars. We worked to make the language so simple and clear that anyone in the business could repeat it. Within months, people across teams were using the same phrases — the message had stuck.

Practical step: Test your narrative by asking employees at different levels: Can you name our top three priorities? If the answers vary, you have more alignment work to do.

Step 4: Energise and motivate people

Alignment isn’t just about clarity. It’s about energy. People need to feel inspired and motivated to act. Leaders can create this energy by:

• Celebrating wins and milestones (even the small ones) that show the strategy in action.

• Recognising behaviours that bring values and priorities to life.

• Sharing success stories, e.g. customer feedback

• Involving teams in shaping how priorities are delivered, not just telling them what to do.

Example: A senior leadership team introduced quarterly “strategy showcases,” where teams presented examples of how they had delivered on priorities. It created pride, healthy competition, and belief. Strategy felt alive, not abstract.

Practical step: Create moments where teams share their progress. It not only builds momentum but also shows that strategy belongs to everyone, not just the boardroom.

Step 5: Build trust through leadership behaviours

Alignment only holds if people trust their leaders. Employees notice when leaders’ actions don’t match their words. Trust is built when leaders:

• Role-model the behaviours they expect from others.

• Follow through on commitments.

• Communicate openly, even when things are difficult.

• Admit when priorities need adjusting.

Practical step: Audit your leadership behaviours. Are you sending signals that strengthen alignment, or undermine it?

Step 6: Keep it alive

Alignment isn’t a one-off task. It needs to be renewed regularly. Strategies evolve, leaders change, and contexts shift. Without attention, drift creeps in. Ways to keep alignment alive:

• Quarterly alignment checks: revisit the narrative and test whether leaders are still telling the same story.

• Leadership reflections: make alignment a standing agenda item, not just results, but how the story is being lived.

• Refresh the narrative: keep examples and stories up to date so the strategy feels relevant.

Practical step: Build alignment reviews into your leadership rhythm. Don’t assume that once aligned, it means always aligned.

Final Thought

When leaders create clarity at the top, craft a narrative linked to purpose, cascade it consistently, energise people through stories and celebrations, and role-model with trust, strategy becomes more than a plan. It becomes energy and momentum.

Alignment is a living discipline. It’s not about everyone agreeing politely — it’s about leaders committing to one voice, one story, and one set of priorities, and inspiring people to move forward together.

✨ If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch

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Do you need help to build alignment and motivation around your strategy?

II work with leadership teams to create alignment around strategy, helping them clarify their story, build trust, and energise their people through facilitation, systemic team coaching, and leadership development.

• Leadership Strategy Off-site facilitation >

• Culture Transformation >

• Systemic Team Coaching

If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch

Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.

How to turn strategy into action

A step-by-step process for translating strategy into milestones, ownership, and momentum.

Most strategies don’t fail because the ideas are wrong, but because they never make it off the page.

Leaders spend hours shaping ambitious goals and priorities, but unless those ideas are turned into clear, measurable steps with ownership and momentum, strategy ends up as shelfware.

Bridging the strategy–execution gap is one of the toughest challenges leadership teams face. It’s not just about setting targets; it’s about making them real. That means translating big goals into measurable outcomes, breaking them down into milestones, assigning ownership, creating rhythms of accountability, and, crucially, protecting time to focus on what really shifts the dial.

Here’s a practical journey leadership teams can follow to turn strategy into action.

Step 1: Set OKRs and KPIs That Matter

The first step is to make goals tangible. Without clear measures, strategy remains abstract.

• OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): Ambitious objectives that inspire, paired with measurable results that track progress.

• KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): Ongoing health checks that monitor stability and performance.

• Transformation KPIs: The most powerful of all. These are targets that no single team can deliver alone — they require leaders to work together in new ways.

Example: One leadership team I worked with had a goal to “increase annual revenue by 20%.” On its own, this was too broad. Everyone agreed it was important, but nobody knew what needed to happen next. We broke it into milestones:

1. Q1: Define target client segments and refresh the sales pipeline.

2. Q2: Launch a new marketing campaign and onboard three new strategic accounts.

3. Q3: Improve conversion rates by redesigning the proposal process and introducing client feedback loops.

4. Q4: Expand services with two existing clients and finalise partnership agreements.

The revenue growth was achieved not because people focused on the 20% target itself, but because they worked towards clear, achievable steps that made progress visible.

Step 2: Break Big Goals Into Small Steps

Ambitious goals can feel motivating at the top, but confusing and overwhelming. You need to know what this looks like in practice and how progress will be tracked.

That’s where SMART goals come in. For every big objective, define goals that are:

• Specific - unambiguous

• Measurable - attach a number or evidence of success

• Achievable - stretching, but realistic given time and resources.

• Relevant - aligned to the bigger strategy, not just busy work.

• Time-bound - with deadlines that create urgency and focus.

Once you have SMART goals, break the annual ambition into quarterly or even monthly milestones. For example, instead of saying “grow client revenue by 20% this year,” identify the steps along the way:

1. Build a refreshed sales pipeline and win two new accounts.

2. Launch a targeted campaign in one priority sector.

3. Improve conversion rates by 10% through a new proposal process.

4. Expand services with three existing clients.

Step 3: Prioritise What Matters Most

Once goals are set, the temptation is to tackle them all at once. But trying to do everything dilutes focus. This is where sequencing is essential. The simple Now, Soon and Later lens helps avoid overload and focus resources where they matter most.

• Now: urgent and essential priorities that need immediate attention or are quick wins

• Soon: important work that depends on foundations being in place.

• Later: longer-term ambitions to return to once capacity allows.

Step 4: Assign Clear Ownership

Even the best milestones won’t move forward without clear ownership. One of the most common reasons strategy execution fails is that everyone assumes someone else will deliver. Without clarity, tasks stall, overlap, or simply fall through the cracks.

The RACI framework is a simple tool to remove this confusion by spelling out roles:

• Responsible: the person (or people) actually doing the work.

• Accountable: the one person ultimately answerable for success.

• Consulted: people whose expertise or perspective is needed along the way.

• Informed: those who need to be kept updated, even if they’re not directly involved.

Step 5: Create Rhythm and Discipline

Progress should be transparent, shared, and easy to track so everyone can see the journey from ambition to action. It also requires regular check-ins, visible updates, and space to adapt.

• Weekly or monthly check-ins: quick reviews of OKRs and milestones.

• Quarterly reflections: deeper look at what’s working, what needs adjusting, and what to stop or start.

• Visible tracking: progress dashboards or scorecards that everyone can see. Some teams use scoreboards in team meetings; others use visual progress charts.

Step 6: Make Time for What Shifts the Dial

Eisenhower matrix

The hardest part of execution isn’t knowing what to do — it’s making time to do it. Urgent demands pull leaders back into operations. The firefighting takes over. But strategy requires deliberate attention. Leadership teams must protect time for the work that shapes the future, not just the work that keeps today running.

The Eisenhower Matrix helps here:

Most leaders spend too much time in “urgent and important.” True strategy lives in the “important but not urgent” quadrant — the work that builds capacity, shapes culture, and drives transformation.

Example: In one leadership programme, we mapped leaders’ weekly diaries against the matrix. Most of their time was firefighting. Once they saw this, they began to block out regular sessions for strategy. Six months later, progress was visible in ways they hadn’t thought possible.

Final Thought

Turning strategy into action isn’t about more documents. It’s about discipline, ownership, and focus. Leadership teams can close the strategy–execution gap by:

1. Setting OKRs, KPIs, and Transformation KPIs that matter.

2. Breaking them down into SMART milestones.

3. Prioritising with Now/Soon/Later and/or the Eisenhower Matrix

4. Assigning ownership with RACI.

5. Creating accountability.

6. Protecting time for strategic work that shifts the dial.

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Do you need help to turn your strategy into action?

I work with leaders and boards to bridge the gap between strategy and execution, helping them turn ambition into action through facilitation, systemic team coaching, and leadership off-sites.

• Leadership Strategy Off-site facilitation >

• Leadership Support >

• Systemic Team Coaching

If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch

Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.

How to create a strategy that is fit for the future

Keeping Strategy Relevant in a Changing World

Too often, strategy starts by looking inwards: What do we do and what are we good at? Tools like SWOT analysis have their place, but on their own, they risk narrowing the lens. But a strong strategy isn’t about your internal capabilities, it’s linked to your purpose and your value proposition (who do you exist for and what value do you offer them).

Frameworks like the Business Model Canvas remind us that value comes from the people you serve, not just the strengths you already have. A strategy fit for the future asks:

• Why do we exist?

• Who do we serve?

• How do we create value now and in the future?

Strategy should be agile

Strategy isn’t a business plan you draft once, file away, and revisit in three years. A strategy that works is a living document: it needs to be:

• Understood: people across the organisation know what it means for them.

• Acted on daily: it shapes decisions and behaviours, not just slides.

• Agile: it adapts as the environment shifts.

• Reviewed regularly: it’s tested, refined, and re-energised.

Leadership teams often stumble when strategy is treated as an event, not a practice. A two-day retreat might spark alignment, but if it isn’t embedded into rhythms, rituals, and conversations, it fades. Strategy has to live in the everyday — in what leaders talk about, measure, celebrate, and role-model.

That requires a broader lens. To be truly fit for the future, strategy must look outwards to the people and systems you serve, and forwards to the future you want to create.

A strategy that’s truly fit for the future requires two critical shifts:

• Future-back thinking: imagining the future you want to shape, then working backwards.

• Outside-in perspective: considering what your stakeholders need and expect, not just what matters internally.

This combined approach is a discipline developed by Professor Peter Hawkins. His work reminds us that leadership teams exist not for themselves, but to create value for their stakeholders: customers, employees, investors, communities, and society at large.

I’ve seen first-hand how powerful this shift can be. The turning point comes when leaders stop asking “What do we need to fix today?” and start asking “What future do we want to create, and what value must we deliver to those who depend on us?”

Why Strategy Needs More Than Business-as-Usual

Research shows that organisations that look beyond five years significantly outperform those focused only on short-term horizons. Yet many leadership teams struggle to make this leap. The urgent squeezes out the important. Operational pressures dominate. And strategy sessions risk becoming little more than fire-fighting.

There’s another trap: focusing solely on internal ambitions. Growth targets, margin goals, and market share objectives are all valid, but have risks. A strategy that ignores stakeholder needs is unlikely to succeed.

Future-back and outside-in thinking provide a wider field of vision. They encourage leaders to step back from the now, expand their perspective, and build strategies that are both ambitious and relevant.

The Future-Back Lens

One powerful way to stretch leadership thinking is through a future-back strategy. Rather than building forwards from today’s problems, future-back starts by imagining the long-term future you want to help create — then works backwards to identify what needs to happen along the way. A useful framework comes from Bill Sharpe’s Three Horizons model:

• Horizon One: focused on ‘business as usual,’ managing today, and incremental improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. He describes this as the managerial mindset.

• Horizon Two: innovating for tomorrow, looking at the short to medium-term future, and encompasses the sphere of new opportunities and innovation.

• Horizon Three: future foresight, considers what is emerging over the future horizon and might become commonplace in the near to medium term future.

Sharpe’s insight, is that you need to work in the sequence 1 - 3 - 2, starting with reviewing today, what is working well and not working, then think from the ‘future-back’ using horizon three strategic foresight tools and thinking, and only then try and innovate tomorrow. Otherwise, you are trying to innovate tomorrow out of the frame of yesterday’s mindset and assumptions

In practice, future-back conversations often include:

• Visioning exercises: “If it’s 2030 and we’ve succeeded, what are our stakeholders saying about us? What impact are we having?”

• Scenario planning: exploring multiple plausible futures, not just one “plan.”

• Wild cards and black swans: considering disruptive events and how the organisation would respond.

In one recent off-site I facilitated, a leadership team initially focused on immediate operational issues. By using a future-back exercise, they realised that the real question wasn’t “How do we hit next year’s targets?” but “What capabilities do we need to be building now to thrive in a radically different marketplace five years from now?” That conversation shifted their priorities in powerful ways.

The Outside-In Lens

A strategy is only as strong as the value it creates. That means looking outward, not just to customers and shareholders, but to the full ecosystem: employees, partners, regulators, communities, and future generations.

Peter Hawkins, in his Systemic Team Coaching model, calls this commissioning: defining a team’s purpose by looking through the eyes of its stakeholders. Leadership teams don’t exist for themselves; they exist to create value for others.

Asking, Listening, Testing

High-performing teams build strategy through enquiry: asking questions, gathering feedback, and testing assumptions. This can include:

• Structured interviews or surveys with key stakeholders.

• Reviewing customer data, employee engagement scores, or market research.

• Inviting diverse voices into the room — not just the usual suspects.

The aim isn’t to tick the “consultation” box. It’s to test whether the organisation is prioritising the right things, and whether its ambitions resonate with those who matter most.

In one client session, leaders were surprised to learn that what customers valued most wasn’t speed, but partnership and trust. That single insight reshaped their strategy from chasing efficiency to building stronger, more collaborative relationships. How could we improve the way we partner with you?

Considering What You Might Have Missed

It’s easy to focus only on visible stakeholders: customers, investors, and employees. But a resilient strategy also considers those less obvious:

• Local communities.

• Supply chain partners.

• Policymakers and regulators.

• Future generations who will inherit the outcomes of today’s choices.

Teams often discover blind spots here, groups they hadn’t thought about, but whose expectations could make or break the strategy.

Looking Ahead with a PESTLE Lens

Stakeholder needs don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re shaped by broader forces. A PESTLE analysis helps teams anticipate how change will affect what stakeholders value.

• Political: regulatory shifts in ESG reporting.

• Economic: rising cost pressures and shifting investor priorities.

• Social: new expectations for flexible work or wellbeing.

• Technological: the rapid spread of AI and automation.

• Legal: compliance and data privacy demands.

• Environmental: growing urgency on climate resilience.

When leaders connect these trends with stakeholder needs, they create a strategy that’s not just reactive but future-ready.

Bringing Future-Back and Outside-In Together

Future-back stretches your time horizon. Outside-in broadens your field of vision. Combined, they create strategies that are ambitious and relevant. The practical sequence looks like this:

1. Start with today: What’s working, what’s breaking down, and where are the gaps?

2. Look outwards: Map your stakeholders and gather their perspectives. What do stakeholders value now? What will they need in the future?

3. Look forward: Where do we want to be in five years? What’s changed in your environment? What will success look like?

4. Bridge the gap: What shifts are needed to move from today to tomorrow while creating value for stakeholders?

5. Test priorities: Do these priorities deliver value for stakeholders and move us towards our long-term vision?

This sequence works in any sector and energises people far more than abstract targets.. For one client, it meant realising their strategy wasn’t about chasing market share, but about building trust with regulators to secure their licence to grow. For another, it was about shifting investment from short-term profit to long-term talent capability.

Practical Tools That Help

• Horizon Scanning and PESTLE - Looking at political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental changes gives a structured way to consider what might shape your context in the years ahead.

• Stakeholder Mapping - Create personas for your key stakeholders — customers, investors, employees, and communities. Test your priorities against their needs.

• Scenario Planning - Don’t bet on one future. Explore a range of plausible outcomes and consider how your strategy would hold up in each.

• Strategic Narrative - Turn your strategy into a human story that every leader can share consistently. As one client put it: “If someone stopped you in the lift tomorrow and asked where we’re going, could you answer in 30 seconds?” That’s the level of clarity you’re aiming for.

Reflection Questions for Leadership Teams

• If you stood in the future and looked back, what would you be most proud of?

• Whose voices are missing from your current strategy conversations?

• Which of today’s priorities will still matter in three years? Which won’t?

• How do your goals create value beyond your walls?

• What assumptions might you need to unlearn?

Final Thought

A strategy fit for the future isn’t just a growth plan. It’s a commitment to your vision, to your people, and to the wider ecosystem you serve.

When leadership teams look outward to stakeholders and ahead to the future, they stop firefighting and start shaping. They create strategies that are resilient, relevant, and energising.

That’s the essence of systemic team coaching: helping leadership teams expand their field of vision, align around purpose, and co-create a future worth working towards.

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Do you need help with building your strategy?

We help leadership teams across the UK create future-fit strategies through facilitation, systemic team coaching, and leadership off-sites. If you’d like to explore how I could support your team, get in touch

• Leadership Strategy Off-site facilitation >

• Leadership Support >

• Systemic Team Coaching

Or get in touch to start a conversation about what might be possible for your team.

Email: hello@growth-space.co.uk or call 07966 475195.

Team Coaching verus Individual Coaching

How to spot whether you're dealing with a personal development need or something in the team dynamic.

You’ve invested in coaching for individuals, but something still isn’t shifting. Perhaps meetings are going round in circles, communication. feels clunky, decisions are slow, people aren’t doing what they say they will, and there may be tension in the air, but no one’s naming it.

So what’s the real issue? And what do you do now?

This is where lots of organisations get stuck: it’s easy to assume the problem lies with an individual and to send them for coaching. But sometimes, the challenge isn’t one person, it’s systemic. It’s something in how the team works together (or doesn’t).

What Individual Coaching Does Brilliantly

• Stepping into a new role, tackling imposter syndrome, and adjusting to a new level of responsibility.

• Developing confidence with giving feedback, difficult conversations, influencing, or strategic thinking.

• Working through personal blocks like conflict avoidance or perfectionism.

• Self-Awareness and EQ – Deepening reflection and emotional intelligence.

How to spot when Individual Coaching isn’t enough

• The Revolving Door Problem - your leaders have been coached on similar issues, but the patterns repeat. It’s not them. It’s the system they’re in.

• The Post-Coaching Plateau - Someone returns energised from coaching, but nothing changes. Their insight doesn’t stick because the team’s culture and habits haven’t changed.

• The Invisible Stakeholder Trap - People make decisions without input from the right people. Coaching might help one person ask better questions, but it won’t fix the wider issue of unclear stakeholder engagement.

• The Accountability Gap - People hesitate to call things out or challenge one another. Assertiveness coaching won’t help if the team hasn’t built psychological safety.

• Competing Priorities, Constantly - Each person is doing their job well, but they’re heading in different directions. The team hasn’t agreed on what success looks like together.

What Team Coaching Builds That Individual Coaching Can’t

When the root causes are systemic, team coaching focuses on the collective, not just the individuals. Here’s what that can unlock:

• Stakeholder-Focused Thinking - Teams get clearer on who they serve (internally and externally) and align around what their stakeholders truly need. Instead of each person building their shared stakeholder map, the team co-creates one together.

• Joined-Up Decisions and Priorities - Team coaching surfaces how decisions are made (or not). It helps the team agree on how to prioritise, who decides what, and where alignment is needed, so there’s more clarity and less second-guessing.

• Honest, Constructive Dialogue - Instead of avoiding the hard conversations, teams learn how to speak openly and disagree productively. This builds trust and psychological safety and gives people shared tools and language for navigating tension.

• Collective Learning and Adaptability - Teams need space to reflect together—not just individually. Coaching encourages habits of reflection, experimentation, and shared learning that help the team improve how they work over time.

• Shared Leadership and Collaboration - It’s not always about who’s in charge. It’s about flexing leadership based on strengths, context and what’s needed. Team coaching helps teams move from hub and spoke leadership to shared responsibility.

Integrating Individual and Team Coaching

The most powerful transformation happens when individual and team coaching work together strategically:

1. Individual coaching to ensure each team member has the personal foundation for effective collaboration

2. Team coaching to build collective capability and address systemic issues,

3. Individual coaching to help leaders integrate new team practices into their personal leadership approach

One size does not fit all

The question isn't whether individual or team coaching is better; it's about discovering which is right for the the challenge, the individuals and the team.

The most successful organisations I work with treat individual and team coaching as complementary capabilities in their leadership development toolkit. They invest in both, but deploy them strategically based on an accurate diagnosis of what's really needed.

Not Sure What You Need - I Can Help

If you’re not sure whether the issue sits with one person or the team as a whole, I can help.

My work often begins with a short discovery phase: a series of interviews, a team diagnostic, or a workshop to help you understand what’s really going on. From there, we can clarify whether individual coaching, team coaching, or a combination of both will move things forward.

• Learn more about how I support Team Effectiveness >

• Discover how I support Leaders and Individuals through Coaching >

Or get in touch to start a conversation about what might be possible for your team.

Email: polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk or call 07966 475195.

What Is Leadership Coaching - and do I need it?

A practical guide to understand the value of coaching and whether it’s right for you.

Leadership isn’t only about strategy, action and results. It’s about people, the relationships you build, the culture you create, and how you show up under pressure.

But this is often the part we find hardest.

If you’re a founder of a fast-growing or scale-up business, or a senior leader in an established company, you might feel stuck in the day-to-day, with no time to look ahead at your personal or business growth. You know you need space to see the big picture, but can’t find the time.

Coaching creates that space. A pause. A reset. A practical, human way to reflect, refocus and re-energise.

What Is Leadership Coaching?

Leadership coaching is a one-to-one partnership that helps you lead more confidently and intentionally. It gives you time to work on yourself: your mindset, your energy and your growth. It’s not training. It’s not therapy. It’s not someone telling you what to do. It is a:

• A safe and focused place to think clearly and gain perspective.

• A confidential space to discuss the things you find difficult, challenges, changes or people issues

• A support system to encourage you to overcome the things that may be holding you back.

• A partnership that holds you accountable for taking action, following through, and staying aligned with what matters most

Leadership Coaching versus Executive Coaching

Both terms are used interchangeably, but here’s a helpful distinction:

• Leadership Coaching supports anyone in a leadership role, from new team leaders to department heads.

• Executive Coaching is typically for senior leaders, founders, directors and C-suite with strategic responsibilities.

At Growth Space, I offer both, tailored to your goals, role and organisational context.

Coaching vs Mentoring vs Consulting: What’s the Difference?

Coaching, mentoring, and consulting all offer guidance and support, but they differ in their approach and focus. Coaching helps you develop skills and achieve goals through a structured process, while a mentor is a trusted advisor who shares experience and expertise. Consulting provides expert advice to solve specific problems or challenges. Understanding the difference helps you choose the right kind of support.

I focus primarily on coaching, but where it’s useful and invited, I may step briefly into mentoring to offer insight or examples. This tailored blend is often what creates the biggest breakthroughs.

Coaching versus Mentoring or Consulting.

Who Is Coaching For?

Leadership coaching can help if you are:

• A new manager stepping into leadership for the first time

• A founder or senior leader navigating change, growth or team dynamics

• A manager feeling stuck, stretched or unsure how to lead confidently

• An experienced leader wanting to reflect, realign or sharpen their impact

When is Coaching useful

It’s especially powerful during:

• Role transitions, promotions or restructures

• Culture change

• Strategic growth

• Leadership challenges

• During conflict or when you are finding work relationships difficult.

• At times of extreme pressure, stress or burnout

What Happens in a Leadership Coaching Session?

Coaching is designed around you. You bring the topic, the coach brings the structure, challenge and support. It might include:

• Reflecting on real-time challenges

• Exploring patterns of thought or behaviour

• Reframing stuck narratives

• Building emotional intelligence

• Practising a difficult conversation

• Setting boundaries or direction with clarity

What Results Can You Expect?

Coachees I work with often say:

• “I’m more confident.”

• “I finally tackled that difficult conversation.”

• “I feel more comfortable giving feedback.”

• “I understand myself better – and others too.”

• “I feel calmer, clearer and more in control.”

Tangible outcomes might include:

• Increased leadership confidence

• Stronger communication and feedback skills

• Improved relationships with peers and team members

• Greater clarity around values, direction and purpose

• Practical strategies to lead through pressure and change

Is Coaching Worth the Investment?

According to the International Coaching Federation (ICF), coaching delivers:

• 70% improved work performance

• 80% improved self-confidence

• 73% improved relationships

Do I Need a Coach? 10 Quick Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Am I feeling stuck or uncertain about what to do next?

2. Do I lack confidence, feel self-doubt, or experience imposter syndrome?

3. Do I need to improve relationships and communication with the people I work with?

4. I don’t know why I find some people more difficult to work with than others?

5. Am I avoiding difficult conversations or decisions?

6. Do I want to feel more in control and less reactive?

7. Have I recently moved into a new role or do I feel out of my depth?

8. Do I want to lead more intentionally, not just get through the day?

9. Is stress, self-doubt or overthinking holding me back?

10. Would time to reflect help me move forward faster?

If you said yes to even just one of these questions, coaching could be exactly what you need.

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Ready to try coaching?

If you’re still unsure whether coaching is for you, I offer a complimentary 30-minute coaching session (via Teams or Zoom, your choice). This initial session is an opportunity to explore how coaching could help you, find out more about me, my approach to coaching and explore whether there is a good fit and rapport for us to work together.

Polly Robinson - Leadership Coach

My role is to create a safe, constructive space where you can explore challenges, reflect on your leadership, and achieve personal and professional growth. Through thought-provoking coaching conversations, we’ll build a strong, trusting relationship that balances support and challenge. I’ll encourage you to reflect on your purpose and direction, helping you clarify your goals and overcome obstacles. Together, we’ll ensure that every decision you make is purposeful and impactful.

Expect honest, open, and sometimes challenging discussions that will push you toward deeper self-awareness and professional growth. I’m based in Bristol, in the UK, and coach people across the UK and Europe.

Get in touch:

• Call: 07966 475195

• Email: polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk

• Book a free 30-minute Coaching Session >

• Learn more about Growth Space Leadership Coaching >

How to Cope with Stress and Build Resilience for Yourself & Your Team

Life is pressured, business is tough, and lots of people are worn out - are you?

We may feel we’re just trying to get through one day at a time, and in our teams we may have noticed people becoming less productive, reduced engagement and motivation and even more sick days and quiet quitting. Pressure can be the fuel behind your ideas and energy until it tips too far and becomes something else: stress, fatigue, or even burnout.

Many businesses are trying to respond with wellbeing initiatives — but are they actually working?

According to recent research from Deloitte:

• 91% of C-suite executives believe their employees think leadership cares about their wellbeing - but only 56% of employees agree.

• 84% of execs say their company has made a public commitment to workforce wellbeing - but only 39% of employees feel that’s true.

That’s a disconnect. What we say we’re doing to support wellbeing isn’t always what people feel.

This article is about changing that. It’s about creating wellbeing measures that aren’t just fluffy perks or tick-box exercises, but that genuinely help people feel safe, valued, and supported. I suggest practical tools to help you do just that, to manage pressure before it becomes stress, to build resilience in small, sustainable ways, and to lead with empathy, clarity, and care.

Because this isn’t just about managing stress. It’s about how we treat each other as human beings. We’re all wired differently. We’re all juggling different pressures. And more than ever, people are feeling isolated, under pressure, and disconnected from their teams.

If we want resilient people and happy workplaces, we need to build a culture where people feel connected, supported, and part of something, not just held to performance targets, but truly seen, heard, and cared for.

Pressure vs. Stress: Finding the Sweet Spot

You might know this experience well: you're focused, motivated, in flow — and then suddenly, you crash. That’s because pressure exists on a curve:

Pressure Stress Curve

Not enough pressure can lead to boredom, disengagement and poor performance.

Just enough pressure (and what that means is different for everyone, we’re all different) you hit your stride and are in flow - high energy, clear focus, creativity.

But too much pressure, and we tip over to feeling stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted - ultimately this can lead to burnout..

So how do you notice when you’re tipping into the stress and overwhelm zone?

How to Spot the Signs of Stress in Yourself and Others

Stress sneaks in unnoticed, it’s often when we’re busiest that we don’t see the signs. So pay attention to what your body is telling you or the signs that your team may be feeling stressed. When you pay attention to these signs you can take steps to manage it and look after yourself or your colleagues.

Stress - what’s your body telling you?

Common Triggers That Tip Pressure into Stress

We all wear multiple hats at home and at work - parent and manager, carer and employee, managing your business and bottom line while providing the best service and quality for your clients or customers.

Here are 4 types of stress triggers:

1. Overload & Pressure
- Not enough time in the day/week
- Competing demands (home / work)
- Unrealistic expectations (from yourself or others)
- No time for rest or recovery and feeling like we’re always on.

2. Lack of Clarity or Control
- Lack of clarity around priorities or roles
- Ambiguity and Unclear or changing priorities
- Feeling powerless or lacking control
- Poor or patchy communication

3. Emotional Strain
- Carrying the emotional load for your clients, team, or family
- Supporting others but neglecting our own needs
- Guilt, perfectionism, or fear of disappointing people
- Personal stress bleeding into work
- Unresolved conflict or tensions in the workplace

4. Change & Lack of Boundaries
- Frequent or poorly-managed change

- Lack of work-life boundaries (e.g. emails at night)

- Working from home with no space to switch off and no clear end to the day
- Unspoken pressure to be “always available”

Once you notice these, you can take action — and that’s where the Four A’s come in.

The Four A’s: A Toolkit for Stress and Resilience

Here’s a simple but powerful framework I use with clients to help them respond to stress, rather than react.

1. Avoid - What can you say no - or not now to?

2. Alter - What can you reprioritise

3. Accept - What are the positives or benefits you can find?

4. Adapt - What’s another way of looking at this? How can you shift your perspective.

The Four As to Cope with Stress.

Focus on What Matters

When your to-do list feels endless and everything feels urgent, it’s easy to get caught in a spiral of busyness without real progress. This is where two really simple but powerful tools come in: the Eisenhower Matrix and the Action Priority Matrix.

These frameworks help you zoom out, reduce decision fatigue, and spend your energy on what matters most — rather than just reacting to whatever’s shouting loudest.

The Eisenhower Matrix

This tool helps you decide how to deal with your tasks based on urgency and importance. It’s a 2x2 grid that helps you sort your to-do list into four clear categories:

Eisenhower Decision Making Matrix

How to use it:

1. Write out your full to-do list — everything that’s on your mind.

2. Take each item and ask: Is this urgent? Is this important? Place each task into one of the four boxes.

3. Focus first on what’s both urgent and important, then schedule what’s important but not urgent.

4. Be ruthless about what you can delegate or delete — just because it’s on your list doesn’t mean it needs your energy.

Tip: Most of your energy should be going into the “Important but Not Urgent” box — this is where your long-term success, strategy, and sanity live.

The Action Priority Matrix

This tool helps you evaluate tasks based on effort vs. impact — a great way to stop wasting energy on things that look urgent but deliver very little return.

How to use it:

1. Choose a handful of tasks or ideas you're working on.

2. For each, ask: How much effort will this take? What’s the potential impact?

3. Plot each one in the appropriate box.

4. Prioritise “Quick Wins” and block out time in your diary for “Major Projects”.

5. Limit how much time you spend on low-impact tasks — these are energy drains.

Tip: This is especially useful if you’re prone to overthinking or perfectionism. It helps you get out of your head and make practical, time-smart choices.

Resilience Hacks: Small Habits That Make a Big Difference

Resilience isn’t about being “strong” — it’s about staying responsive and resourceful, even when things feel hard. These micro-habits help:

For you:

• Name it: “I feel... because…” – labelling emotions helps calm your nervous system

• Set clear boundaries: Protect time for breaks, focus, and rest

• Say no (or not now): Be Realistic about what you can fit in

• Move: Walk, stretch, breathe – anything to reset your nervous system.

• Recharge: Do something that re-energises you. For some this is exercise or just being outside, for some of us it’s just doing nothing. For extraverts it may be being around other

• Write things down: your to-do list, your worries, even just a brain dump of everything on your mind. Journaling is a powerful practice, especially when things feel overwhelming or you're stuck in a loop of overthinking. It doesn’t have to be long just write what’s circling in your head. Keep a notebook by your bed and use it to offload thoughts at night, it can really help with switching off and sleeping better.

• Keep a “done” list as well as your to-do list. At the end of each day, jot down what you did get done — even the small stuff. It’s a great way to recognise progress, celebrate effort, and counter that constant feeling you haven’t got everything done.

For your team:

• Check in regularly: Make time and space to talk about wellbeing in a group and individually. If people find it hard to talk about emotions do it informally, for example on a walk to the coffee shop, rather than in a formal meeting. Use metaphors - a traffic light system for example where green is everything is fine and red is I need help.

• Ask “How are you, really?” Leave space for people to talk and really listen, pay attention to body language. What’s their body language telling you that they may not be verbalising?

• Role model healthy boundaries: Say, “It’s the end of the working day/week and I’ll have to pick this up later, normalising boundaries and that it’s ok to switch off.

• Make it ok to not be OK by being open and talking about your own experiences and challenges so people know that they can be open with you. Often it’s your highest performers who will be the least likely to admit that they’re not coping, because of the feeling of shame or not wanting to let you, the client or the rest of the team down.

• Celebrate the small wins, not just the big ones: What went well this week? This creates a sense of momentum and achievement.

• Create clarity: Repeat the “why” behind tasks or changes

Take Time to Reflect

Use these questions to spark insight — write them down, discuss with a colleague, or use them in your next team check-in:

For You:

• What signs tell you you’re tipping into stress?

• What strengths do you have that help you cope with challenge or pressure?


• Think of a time you overcame stress or challenge — what helped you through it?


• What’s one sign that tells you you’re starting to feel stressed or overwhelmed?


• What small boundary or habit could help you protect your wellbeing this week?


• What’s one thing you’ll say ‘no’ to this week, in order to say ‘yes’ to what matters most?

For your Team:

• What are the signs your team is tipping into stress?


• How can you help make it safe for others to say they’re struggling?


• What’s one thing you’ll do this week to support your team’s resilience?


• How can you model healthy boundaries?


• How can you build more connection and trust in your team culture?

Want to explore this further?

If you’d like to explore how to manage pressure, lead with more ease, or put better boundaries in place, I offer one to one coaching to help you cope with stress and build resilience and design bespoke workshops and programmes for businesses and teams to put strategies in place.

If you’d like to explore coaching or bespoke workshops, I offer a free 30-minute exploratory call. You can book a time here >

Or email me polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk or call: 07966 475195.

The Power of Bravery and Curiosity - Lessons from Socrates for Founders and Leaders

How often have you been told: “You’re so lucky” when you make a bold change or decision?

• You’re so lucky to be doing what you love.

• You're so lucky to be your own boss.

• You’re so lucky to have grown so fast.

• You’re so lucky to have secured funding.

It's a pattern I've noticed throughout my life from friends who feel stuck in jobs they don't love, or who dream about turning their side hustle into a business. From when I went freelance after my first baby was born 21 years ago, to when I launched a food events business that got regular national media coverage and when I fulfilled a lifelong dream to live to Bristol and moved on last year from one side of the country to the other.

But is it really luck? Or is it something else—bravery, curiosity, tenacity and a willingness to embrace change?

Not one of these transitions in my personal or professional life has been handed to me on a plate. They've not been easy. But something drove me forward . . .

Socrates said:

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

Every time I’ve faced a crossroads—whether it was moving, starting a business, retraining as a coach - I could have focused on the obstacles and the reasons not to do it. Instead, I focused on what I was creating: a new chapter, new friendships, new experiences, and new opportunities.

What is it that keeps some people moving forward, even in uncertainty?

Luck vs. Leadership

Successful leaders and founders don’t wait for luck to guide them—they take action. They stay curious, ask better questions, and step into uncertainty. Yet, when they make bold decisions, others often see it as luck rather than intentional effort.

Socrates said:

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”

Curiosity is a leadership superpower. The best leaders don’t just accept things as they are; they challenge assumptions, explore new possibilities, and ask: What if? instead of What if it goes wrong?

The Courage to Do Something New

For leaders, especially in startups and scale-ups, this is critical. Growth requires constant adaptation. The best leaders focus on what they can create, not on what's behind them or what's holding them back.

How often do we resist change because we focus on the risks, rather than the opportunities? True leadership isn’t about avoiding fear—it’s about moving forward despite it.

The Courage to Fail

Of course, not everything goes to plan. Sometimes we make the wrong decision, fail at something, or fall flat on our faces. But that’s not failure—staying stuck is. Socrates reminds us:

“Falling down is not a failure. Failure comes when you stay where you’ve fallen.”

True resilience in leadership (and in life) is about getting back up, learning from the experience, and continuing forward. The most successful founders, leaders, and entrepreneurs don’t get everything right; they just refuse to let setbacks define them.

Socrates' wisdom is valuable for leaders:

• Know Thyself: Great leadership starts with self-awareness. Examine your mindset, strengths, and blind spots.

• Avoid Busyness: Socrates warned: “Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” Founders wear multiple hats, but being constantly busy doesn’t mean being effective.

• Lead by Example: “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.” Admitting you don’t have all the answers fosters a culture of learning and innovation.

• Think for Yourself: “To find yourself, think for yourself.” Challenge industry norms, avoid negative self-talk, and focus on what’s possible.

• Set Goals with Reflection: Define a clear vision, take bold steps, and regularly reflect on progress.

Making Your Own Luck as a Leader

So if you feel stuck in a job you don't love, or stuck as a leader in a business facing significant challenges, be curious and brave. Ask yourself:

• What if I tried?

• What if this changes everything?

Socrates believed that questioning leads to growth and opportunity. Luck isn’t random—it’s about staying curious, asking better questions, and putting yourself in situations where opportunities can arise.

If Socrates was right when he said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” then the most courageous thing we can do is to keep questioning, keep evolving, and keep stepping into the unknown.

That’s where growth happens. That’s where the so-called 'luck' happens

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If you're feeling stuck or want support to be brave and make bold decisions, I’m here to help you discover your courage and curiosity.

Get in touch to chat about how Coaching can support you with your next bold move.

Call Polly 07966 475195 / email polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk

Book a free exploratory Coaching Session here >

Or find out more about Executive Coaching here >

Why Trust is Essential for Fast-Growth Businesses

Early in my career, I was the third employee of an ambitious, fast-growing start-up. In the beginning, the atmosphere was electric—we were all highly motivated and committed to the success of the business, putting in the long hours to prove it. But after two years, things started to change. The founders became more distant, often out at meetings we knew nothing about or spotted whispering in corners.

What was going on?

We began to feel nervous about the lack of transparency. We imagined the worst—had we run out of money, were we facing redundancies or closure? We felt cut off when until then, we had all been involved in everything.

Rumours started spreading. Morale dropped, collaboration faltered, and people were stressed and grumpy with each other. Without trust and transparency, motivation and focus disappeared, and we suffered personally and as a business.

The Trust Challenge for Scaling Businesses

In the early days of a business, founders are involved in nearly every aspect of operations. This hands-on approach is natural—it reflects a driven, detail-oriented leader dedicated to getting the company off the ground. In small teams, relationships are close, communication flows, and people feel directly connected to decision-making and the company’s success.

But as a company scales, the dynamic changes. Founders must evolve from being ‘doers’ to leaders. They must let go of being involved in every decision and trust their managers and teams to take ownership. At the same time, founders must ensure that trust flows both ways—that their people believe in their vision, decision-making, and integrity.

Building trust in remote and hybrid teams requires even more effort since you lose the natural, organic moments of connection that happen in an office.

When trust is broken on either side, bottlenecks form, frustration rises, innovation stalls and collaboration suffers. It’s one of the toughest transitions for growing businesses.

Why Trust Matters in Leadership

Trust is the glue that holds businesses together. When trust is high, people feel safe to take risks, express themselves freely, and innovate. It can be hard to build and easy to damage.

In fast-paced, high-growth businesses, trust keeps teams focused and cohesive through rapid change and uncertainty.

Companies with high trust levels have:

• More engaged people

• Higher retention rates

• Stronger collaboration

• Faster innovation cycles

• Higher productivity and profitability

According to Harvard Business Review, people at high-trust companies report:

• 74% less stress

• 106% more energy at work

• 50% higher productivity

• 13% fewer sick days

• 76% more engagement

• 29% more satisfaction with their lives

• 40% less burnout

So, how can leaders build and maintain trust, particularly in fast-growing businesses?

Practical Steps to Build a Culture of Trust

1. Communicate with Transparency and Consistency

Lack of transparency is one of the biggest killers of trust. Leaders should provide regular updates on company goals, challenges, and key decisions.

• Share the ‘why’ behind decisions to build understanding and buy-in.

• Avoid sugar-coating problems—honest communication builds credibility.

• Communicate in various ways - don’t rely on email or Teams, but talk to people face to face or by video in one-to-ones, team meetings and town halls to keep everyone informed.

• Make an effort to know people beyond work conversations—pulling people into discussions fosters engagement and trust.

• Actively encourage feedback and open dialogue. People should feel comfortable voicing their opinions without fear of backlash.

2. Build Personal Connections

• Dedicate time for casual check-ins (not just work-related conversations).

• Encourage people to get to know each other as human beings through work socials, having lunch together rather than at your desk, providing breakfast once a week and other ways to have fun together.

• Show empathy by treating people as human beings - remember we're all unique and have different needs, personality profiles and lives outside work.

3. Lead with Consistency and Integrity

One of the most common ways trust is broken is when reality doesn’t match up to the purpose and values on the wall. Lead by example:

• Follow through on commitments—people lose faith in leaders who don’t deliver on their promises.

• It’s ok to not have all the answers — but have confidence in decision-making and be honest when you don’t have the answer.

• Be fair—ensure equal access to growth opportunities and development for all team members. Make sure people working remotely have the same opportunities to speak up and be heard.

4. Trust Works Both Ways

We often think of trust as something people must have in leadership, but it goes both ways. As a leader, it’s not just about being trusted—it’s also about showing trust in your team.

• Avoid micromanaging. Trust your people to get their work done and make decisions without micromanaging. Focus on outcomes rather than hours logged

• Remote and hybrid working have changed team dynamics but find ways to keep everyone updated and involved whatever their location.

• People take cues from leadership behaviour—model the values and behaviours you expect from your team.

5. Give Autonomy and Communicate the ‘Why'

If leaders micromanage or override decisions, people feel undervalued. Empower your team by giving them ownership and responsibility.

• Explain the bigger picture: “We need X because Y.”

• Engage people by asking open-ended questions like “How do you think we should approach this?” or “What was the thinking behind this decision?”

• Help people see how their work aligns with company goals increases their sense of purpose.

6. Actively Listen and Act on Feedback

• Create a culture where feedback is not only encouraged but acted upon.

• Have regular check-ins, team meetings and one-to-ones to gauge how people are feeling.

• Act on feedback and communicate changes based on team input.

• Create psychological safety so people feel comfortable raising concerns

7. Be Vulnerable and Authentic

Leaders who admit mistakes, acknowledge uncertainties, and share their challenges create psychological safety. Showing vulnerability isn’t about weakness—it’s about authenticity.

• Share lessons from past mistakes and areas for development.

• Demonstrate humility and encourage people to do the same, creating a culture of learning rather than fear.

8. Create a Feedback-Driven Culture and Show Appreciation

• Make feedback frequent, constructive, and two-way.

• Ask for feedback as well as giving it to show that you value people' voices. e.g. "How can I support you better?”

• Recognition and appreciation go a long way—thank people in public for their contributions.

Addressing Trust Challenges in Scaling Businesses

Scaling and fast growth - growing teams, shifting priorities, and a less cohesive culture bring unique trust-related challenges. Be proactive in maintaining trust through:

• Strong Onboarding: Make sure new people integrate into the culture quickly and understand company values.

• Clarity During Change: Frequent shifts in strategy can erode trust. Clearly communicate changes and the reasoning behind them.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: As teams grow, silos can form. Encourage collaboration and relationship-building across departments.

Trust isn’t built overnight. It’s a daily practice shaped by small decisions—how leaders communicate, how they react to mistakes, and how they empower their teams.

For founders and leaders in scaling businesses, the shift from ‘doing’ to ‘leading’ is one of the hardest but most necessary transitions. The businesses that thrive are those where leadership trusts their teams to execute the vision, and in return, people trust that leadership has their best interests at heart.

Ask yourself: “What am I doing today to build trust in my team?”

If you want to strengthen trust in your team, Growth Space can help. Through tailored workshops, away days, leadership development programmes and coaching, we support leaders in creating open, high-trust environments where teams feel empowered, engaged, and aligned with your business goals. Get in touch to explore how we can design a program that fits your team’s unique needs.

Contact Polly: polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk Call 07966 475195

Is Leadership Development Training Worth the Investment?

What is the ROI of Leadership Development?

Times are challenging for UK businesses right now and budgets are tight. Leadership and management training may seem like a luxury your business can ill afford right now, but arguably it’s more vital than ever. Senior leaders and first-time managers are under more pressure and are more overwhelmed and unprepared for the challenges of their roles. Investing in their development is essential to unlocking the full potential of teams, increasing productivity, boosting retention, and building a successful business. The ability to inspire, guide, and adapt is what sets thriving businesses apart from the competition. Yet, investing time and money in leadership training often raises the question: Is it worth it?

Leadership Expectations Have Changed

Over the past 20 years, our exceptions of leaders have evolved. Leadership has shifted from a traditional command and control model to one that focuses on emotional intelligence, collaboration and adaptability. Today's Leaders are expected to drive innovation, growth and profitability and to place people at the heart of their leadership approach - fostering trust, building strong relationships and creating environments where individuals and teams thrive.

Leadership styles and strategies have also had to adapt to rapid technological advancements, changing workforce demographics, and the rise of remote and hybrid working. The digital workplace demands leaders who can manage virtual teams effectively and leverage digital tools to enhance communication and collaboration.

Why now is the time to Invest in Leadership Development

Balancing business objectives and hard KPIs with the human side of leadership is tough, and research highlights a critical gap in leadership skills. Ineffective management costs UK businesses billions in lost working hours and disengaged employees.

• 82% of managers take on their roles without formal training (Chartered Management Institute Accidental Managers, 2023).

• Only 40% of leaders rate their company’s leadership as high-quality (leadership consulting firm DDI 2023)

• 75% of workers waste up to two hours out of their working week due to inefficient managers. Management practices leading to time lost include unclear communication (33%); lack of support (33%); micro-management (26%); and lack of direction (25%) (Department for Business & Trade).

• 41% of employees report experiencing “a lot of stress” at work and those who work in companies with bad management practices are nearly 60% more likely to be stressed than those working in environments with good management practice. (Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace)

The Return on Investment in Leadership Training

Whether you’re exploring leadership development for senior leaders or management training for new managers, the evidence shows that the Return on Investment is substantial. It’s not only the participants who’ll benefit - the results will ripple through the whole organisation driving productivity, retention and trust

• Leadership training offers a median ROI of 700%, with some organisations reporting returns of up to 5000% (Global Coaching Client Study by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

• Businesses with formal leadership training see 218% higher income per employee than those without it (ATD Research)

• The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) reports that every £1 spent on management and leadership development can yield £6 in ROI through increased productivity, innovation, and efficiency.

Why Investing in Training will Produce Tangible Benefits.

1. Better Decision-Making Leads to Higher Productivity

Leadership training equips executives with the tools to step back from day-to-day operations and align decisions with long-term goals. Confident leaders make clear, bold decisions, driving teams toward meaningful results. For businesses navigating economic uncertainty, this clarity can lead to increased productivity and streamlined operations.

For instance, leaders trained in coaching techniques can identify bottlenecks in team performance and guide their teams to work more efficiently. Research shows:

• 37% increase in productivity from leadership training (IBM The Value of Training)

• For every £1 spent on management and leadership development in the UK, businesses see an average return of £6 in increased productivity, innovation and (CMI)

• 23% improvement in organisational performance (CMI 2023)

2. Increased Employee Retention and Reduced Turnover

Staff turnover can be costly, both in terms of finances and team morale. According to a study by Oxford Economics, replacing an employee in the UK costs businesses an average of £30,614 due to recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity.

Investing in leadership training empowers managers to create supportive environments where employees feel valued and motivated. Great leaders inspire loyalty, growth opportunities and open communication—essential elements of employee satisfaction. Happy employees are more likely to stick around, reducing recruitment costs and keeping expertise within your organisation.

• 94% of employees would stay longer at a company that invests in their learning and development (LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report)


• 72% reduction in turnover reported by businesses that prioritise leadership development (Confederation of British Industry CBI)

• 32% boost in employee engagement and productivity (CMI, 2023).

3. Improved Team Performance and Collaboration

Leaders are the torchbearers of the company’s culture, values and behaviours. Leadership development programmes help leaders foster a culture that matches the company’s mission and vision and promote values like collaboration, innovation, accountability, and respect in their teams. This positive influence spreads to all levels of the organization, creating a work environment that motivates employees and encourages them to give their best.

Leadership Training helps managers develop key skills like emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and giving and receiving feedback. These skills break down silos and cultivate a culture of collaboration, which is critical for innovation and efficiency.

Effective leaders also create a culture of accountability and performance. They set clear expectations, provide feedback, and recognize and reward performance that supports strategy execution. This ensures everyone is working towards the same goals and motivates employees to perform at their best.

4. Adaptability and Innovation

Leadership training can help senior managers improve their ability to manage change. In today’s business world, change is constant, and companies must be able to adapt quickly to stay ahead of the competition. By learning how to manage change effectively, senior managers can help their teams navigate through difficult times and emerge stronger on the other side. A course on change management or strategic thinking, for example, gives leaders strategies and learn different models and strategies for change, and how to address human aspects of change, such as resistance, fear, and uncertainty. This adaptability ensures your business can stay competitive and resilient.

5. A Culture of Continuous Improvement

Leadership training doesn’t just benefit the individuals who attend the courses; it creates a ripple effect across the entire organisation. When leaders model effective behaviours like open communication, accountability, and innovation, these values permeate the company culture. Over time, this builds a self-sustaining environment of continuous improvement.

How to Measure the ROI of Leadership Training

So how do you quantify the return on investment (ROI) of leadership training? Here are a few metrics to track:

• Employee Retention: Measure reductions in turnover rates post-training to assess improved retention.

• Productivity Gains: Track improvements in project completion times, efficiency, or sales figures to demonstrate impact.

• Engagement Scores: Use employee surveys to gauge increases in morale, satisfaction, and commitment levels.

• Cost Savings: Calculate reductions in recruitment, onboarding, and absenteeism expenses.

• Leadership Confidence: Evaluate pre- and post-program self-assessments or peer reviews to measure individual growth.

  Aligning these metrics with organisational goals will provide a comprehensive view of the programme’s effectiveness and help justify continued investment.

How to Ensure the Success of Leadership Training

To maximise the impact of your leadership programme, consider these best practices:

• Tailor the Programme: Align training content with your organisation’s unique goals, culture, and challenges.

• Engage Stakeholders: Secure buy-in from senior leaders to foster a culture of commitment and set an example.

• Create a Learning Culture: Encourage participants to apply what they’ve learned and share insights with their teams.

• Follow-Up Support: Provide coaching, mentoring, or action learning sets post-training to reinforce new skills and sustain behavioural change.

• Track Progress: Use data and feedback to evaluate programme effectiveness and identify areas for continuous improvement.

• Celebrate Wins: Highlight successes and progress to maintain enthusiasm and support for ongoing development initiatives.

Why Choose Growth Space for Your Leadership Training?

At Growth Space, we specialise in creating impactful Leadership Development Programmes tailored to your organisation’s unique challenges and goals. We are experts in leadership training, people development, Coaching and Facilitation to help businesses unlock their full potential.

With a proven track record of delivering measurable results—including improved retention, productivity, and engagement - we can help you to develop confident, resilient and high-performing leaders.

Ready to Invest in Your Leaders?

Contact Polly to discuss how our bespoke leadership training solutions can support your leaders.