Many organisations launch change programmes to improve performance. Far fewer consider the commercial cost of leading change badly. In the organisations I work with, many change initiatives are driven by the need to save money, restructure teams or introduce new systems. But when change is poorly led, the opposite of what was intended often happens. Productivity drops. Decision making slows. Good people disengage. The organisation becomes more cautious just when it needs to m

This week I facilitated a follow-up session with a in-house L&D team in a national financial services organisation. Not a launch session. Not a content-heavy workshop. A consolidation conversation. Earlier in the year, we worked together on shifting their identity from “training team” to Capability Consultants. The initial session created energy and clarity. There was strong engagement and a genuine appetite to operate more strategically. But enthusiasm in the room is never t

Trust is not built in town halls. It’s not built in strategy decks. At Executive level, trust is built by consistent behaviour. Quietly. Repeatedly. Especially under pressure. The Executive leaders who earn the deepest trust do three things consistently. 1. They make their trade-offs visible Every executive decision is a trade-off. Short term versus long term. Cost versus capability. Speed versus rigour. Trust grows when people understand the logic behind those trade-offs. No

What Real Shift Looks Like, And Why It Matters When I launched the TwentyOne Leadership L&D Academy in 2025, it wasn’t to add more content into an already crowded learning landscape. It was to change how L&D teams see themselves, and how they are seen by the business. Over the past few months, I’ve been working with an in-house L&D team who were ready to make that shift. They didn’t lack skill. They didn’t lack commitment. What they wanted was greater credibility, stronger in

In my experience, leaders rarely lose credibility in one dramatic moment. It erodes. Quietly, incrementally, unintentionally, and almost always through inconsistency. Here are three sure-fire ways for a leader to undermine their credibility. 1. Saying One Thing. Demonstrating Another. “We’re all in this together.” “People are our greatest asset.” “We care about wellbeing.” Then, 2000 redundancies are announced via email. Or bonuses are protected at the top while everyone else

Twelve months ago, I launched the TwentyOne Leadership L&D Academy with a clear focus. It’s for L&D teams and professionals who want to shape direction, not just deliver solutions. After thirty years in Learning & Development, I had seen the same pattern play out across organisations and sectors. Talented L&D professionals. Hardworking L&D teams. Full calendars. But too often operating at the edge of the real strategic conversation. Busy delivering. Rarely directing. The Acad

Not every great leader is loud. Not every confident leader dominates the room. And not every high-impact executive is the most charismatic person on the stage, although they do know how to hold the room. Some of the most powerful leadership I see is calm, steady and values-driven. It doesn't demand attention. It earns trust. In most organisations, the leaders creating the most sustainable impact are the ones who: Model emotional regulation when others are reactive. Create cla

Early in my career, I believed credibility in L&D came from being helpful. From responding quickly. From saying yes. Yes to the programme. Yes to the workshop. Yes to the deadline that everyone knew was unrealistic. Like many L&D professionals, I was rewarded for this behaviour. I was busy. I was reliable. I was thanked. And for a while, that felt like success. But something didn’t add up. When Being Helpful Isn’t the Same as Being Valuable Over time, I noticed a pattern. The

Most leaders underestimate the impact they are having. Not their strategic impact.Not their operational impact.Their emotional impact . Here’s a powerful perspective, shaped by more than 20 years of working closely with leaders. The number one factor influencing how someone feels at work is how their boss is feeling. Not the organisation. Not the strategy. Not the vision or values on the wall. Their boss. People do not experience the organisation. They experience you. Think a

Upstream influence isn’t granted. It’s earned. Most L&D professionals don’t lack credibility because they’re not capable. They lack influence because organisations have learned to see learning as a downstream activity, something that happens after  decisions are made, not while they’re being shaped. Changing that perception requires a deliberate shift in how L&D shows up. From Delivery to Diagnosis Upstream influence starts with the quality of questions L&D asks. When the fir

In nearly 20 years of developing leaders, there is one transition I have seen derail more capable, well-intentioned people than any other. The move from senior manager to first executive role. Most organisations assume that if someone has performed well at senior level, has deep experience, and knows the business inside out, they will naturally make a strong executive. That assumption is wrong more often than we like to admit. Experience gets people promoted. It does not prep

There’s a pattern I see again and again. A problem shows up. Performance dips. Tension rises. Something isn’t working.And eventually, someone says the familiar words: “We need training.” But more often than not, that request isn’t a solution, it’s a signal. A signal that harder work upstream hasn’t happened yet. When Training Becomes the Safest Option In many organisations, training is reached for because it feels decisive and visible. It creates the appearance of action whil

Engagement has moved from the margins to the boardroom. In many organisations, it now features on executive scorecards and bonus plans. On the surface, this feels like progress. It signals that people, culture and experience matter, and that leadership behaviour counts. But as a recent article from Ghassan Karian  explores , it also exposes a risk. When engagement becomes a number to hit, rather than a signal to listen to, behaviour can warp. Surveys turn into theatre. Attent

The comfortable myth about performance One of the most enduring assumptions in organisations is that when performance dips, people need more training. Missed targets, inconsistent behaviours, quality issues, the response is often the same. Train them again. It feels logical, decisive, and reassuring. But in most cases, it’s simply the wrong diagnosis. What’s really getting in the way In reality, people rarely underperform because they lack skill or knowledge. More often, they

If you are a leader in a large organisation, there is a good chance most of the formal attention you receive is on your gaps. Personal Development Plans focus on what needs improving. Performance reviews often spend more time on what was missed than what was delivered. Talent conversations are full of language about readiness, stretch, risk and development. All of that has its place. But it can quietly distort how you see yourself. Here's my view. If you are a leader in a lar

Why January Matters More Than We Admit January is a deceptively dangerous time for L&D. Not because of funding cuts or rising demand, but because this is when old habits quietly reassert themselves. Budgets are signed off, expectations are set, and many L&D teams drift back into being fast, helpful, and endlessly busy, mistaking movement for momentum. I see it every year. And earlier in my own career, I was part of the problem. When Being Busy Feels Like Progress The requests

I cannot count how many times I have heard Executive Teams say they want better execution. More pace. Better decisions. Less rework. Fewer dropped balls. What if execution does not fall short because people are lazy, underskilled, or not committed? What if the standard of execution is not where it should be because the Executive Team is not fully aligned? Misalignment on the big issues inevitably shows up in the small ones. It shows up in the “how we do things around here” th

Why Helpfulness Is Holding L&D Back I have worked with L&D teams for many years, and one pattern shows up again and again. L&D is exceptionally helpful. It responds quickly. It delivers what is asked for. It bends over backwards to support the business. And yet, many of these teams still struggle for influence. Helpfulness keeps L&D busy, but it rarely makes it strategic. When L&D immediately delivers what is requested, it reinforces the idea that learning exists to support a

"I don't know" Simple, right? One of your direct reports asks what you think they should do, and you say, “I don’t know.” Notice how comfortable or uncomfortable that feels as you read it. Over the years, I’ve worked with thousands of talented leaders. Very few are genuinely comfortable not having the answer and admitting it to their people. Intellectually, we know our role as senior leaders isn’t to have all the answers. But years of conditioning in middle management train u

The Comfort of Fast Answers Organisations are full of smart people making fast decisions, yet L&D repeatedly gets pulled into the same trap. It is asked to solve the wrong problem. Time and energy are poured into solutions that look sensible on the surface but never touch the underlying cause. When nothing changes, the cycle restarts. New initiatives, new workshops, new noise, but no real shift in behaviour or performance. This is not a failure of intent. It is a failure of d