1D AGO

[Solocast] Five Ways to Mentor Others

When Mike House said "mentoring is any interaction that has the possibility of a disproportionate long lasting impact," something shifted for me. Not a formal programme. Not a monthly calendar booking. Just any moment where you notice something worth naming and find the courage to say it. Yet we've made mentoring too formal, too time-intensive, and frankly, too heavy. We think it requires being the guru with all the answers, which means we miss the moments that actually matter. This episode introduces five practical roles that any leader at any level can play to create those moments of disproportionate impact. Not theory. Not the corporate version of mentoring that looks good in annual reports but doesn't change much. Just ways of showing up that help others grow their capability. I'll walk you through: Why mentoring isn't about knowledge transfer but about creating conditions where growth becomes almost inevitableThe People Developer role: how to listen deeply, ask powerful questions, and challenge respectfully without diminishing confidenceThe Cheerleader role: reflecting back people's brilliance when the daily grind makes them lose sight of their own capabilityThe Path Clearer role: removing unnecessary friction and helping people navigate organizational politics more easilyThe Door Opener role: using your network and position to create opportunities that would otherwise remain invisible or out of reachThe Context Provider role: showing the bigger picture so people can transform isolated decisions into strategic movesWhich role to focus on first and how to practice it without adding hours to your calendar This isn't about adding another development programme to your already long list of initiatives. It's about recognizing that if you're serious about leading lasting impact—about creating organizations that don't depend on you being the hero—then mentoring is how you build systems that think without you, adapt without you, and continue creating value long after you've moved on. Whether you're formally mentoring one person or trying to build a culture where everyone develops everyone else, this framework will help you notice what's happening around you and choose to engage with it in ways that grow others' capability. References: Download the Five Ways to Mentor One-Pager: https://digbyscott.com/mentorroles Episode referenced: 55. Chasing Certainty, Guerrilla Mindfulness, and Teachable Moments | Mike House - https://dig-deeper.captivate.fm/episode/interview-chasing-certainty-guerrilla-mindfulness-and-teachable-moments-mike-house Episode referenced: 50. Listening beyond words and choosing what to say no to | Oscar Trimboli - https://dig-deeper.captivate.fm/episode/50-listening-beyond-words-and-choosing-what-to-say-no-to-oscar-trimboli Solocast referenced: Four Questions That Change Everything - a...

19 min

FEB 9

[Interview] Chasing Certainty, Guerrilla Mindfulness, and Teachable Moments | Mike House

What if chasing certainty is actually making you less certain? Most leaders look outward for stability when everything's shifting, but that external focus keeps them perpetually off-balance. When the environment refuses to cooperate with our need for predictability, where do we turn? This conversation explores a different kind of certainty: the kind that lives inside your team's clarity about who they are, not just what they do. Mike House brings an unexpected lens to leadership development, drawing from 20 years as a survival instructor watching people navigate genuine uncertainty in the outback. He's discovered that the same principles that help someone thrive when stranded with a soapbox-sized survival kit apply when we're leading through complexity. What's possible when we shift from seeking certainty in circumstances to building it through identity and practice? Mike spent two decades running what National Geographic called "the toughest thing outside the military anywhere in the world," dropping people into the Australian outback with minimal resources. Now he helps leaders and organisations navigate uncertainty by developing what matters most: the ability to respond rather than react, to spot moments of disproportionate impact, and to create systems that don't need them. He challenges conventional thinking about development, and shows that the most powerful growth often happens in 30-second exchanges we're walking right past. In this conversation, you'll discover: • How guerrilla mindfulness, a three-breath practice, can shift your leadership in moments of pressure • Why looking for certainty in the environment will always leave you more uncertain • What makes brief mentoring moments more powerful than formal development programmes • How the gap between circumstance and response is trainable, not fixed • Why the best mentors might be those creating systems that don't need them • What survival priorities can teach us about leading through uncertainty • How to develop the courage to act on teachable moments when you spot them • Why purpose and identity create more certainty than any strategic plan Timestamps: (00:00) - Navigating Uncertainty in Leadership (17:44) - The Power of Mentoring Moments (32:12) - Adaptability in Uncertainty (35:24) - Survival Skills for Business (39:42) - Creating Conditions for Growth (43:27) - Identifying Teachable Moments Other References: Pilbara RegionBox BreathingEmotions wheelfMRI (Functional Resonance Imaging)The Five B’s for Thriving at Work You can find Mike at: Website: mikehouse.com.au LinkedIn: a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/themikehouse/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

55 min

FEB 2

[Solocast] When a Prime Minister Shows Us What Real Leadership Looks Like

When Mark Carney stood up at Davos in January 2026, he didn't just make a speech. He named what everyone was thinking but too afraid to say out loud. And the way he structured his message holds a powerful lesson for any of us leading people through uncertain times. This episode unpacks a deceptively simple framework that cuts through all the noise about what leadership actually requires: See, Imagine, Do. Three practices that effective leaders cycle through again and again, whether they're giving a speech to world leaders or having a coaching conversation with a team member. You'll discover why naming reality with unflinching honesty matters more than diplomatic softening, how to paint compelling visions that aren't just nostalgic wishful thinking, and what it means to take deliberate action rather than just staying busy for busy's sake. I'll walk you through: How Carney embodied all three practices in sequence and why that mattersThe difference between seeking to be accurate versus seeking to be rightWhy plenty of leaders see problems clearly but fail to offer compelling alternativesHow to move from inspiration to implementation without getting caught in frantic activityPractical ways to integrate See, Imagine, Do into your daily conversations and decisionsThe critical question every leader needs to ask: which of these three practices have you got nailed, and which needs more attention? This isn't about adding more competencies to your already long list. It's about simplifying what leadership actually requires so you can be more effective in the conversations and decisions that matter most. Whether you're navigating major organisational change or just trying to lead your team through everyday challenges, this framework will help you show up with more clarity and impact. References: See. Imagine. Do. Three Practices for Effective Leadership: https://digbyscott.com/thoughts/see-imagine-do-three-practices-for-effective-leadership Mark Carney's speech at Davos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btqHDhO4h10 Transcript of Mark Carvey’s Davos speech: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/davos-2026-special-address-by-mark-carney-prime-minister-of-canada/ Václav Havel's greengrocer metaphor: https://pathtothepossible.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/havels-greengrocer/ Check out my services and offerings at https://www.digbyscott.com/ Subscribe to my newsletter at https://www.digbyscott.com/subscribe Follow me on LinkedIn ata...

9 min

JAN 26

[Interview] Moving Beyond Nice, The Art of Mattering, and Creating Cultures of Accountability | Claire Gray

Have you ever sat in a meeting where everyone nods in agreement, yet you leave sensing something wasn't said? That silence might be your team's biggest liability. The teams that feel most harmonious, most polite, most nice are often the ones moving slowest, innovating least, and leaving the most impact on the table. In this conversation, we're exploring a counterintuitive truth about high-performing teams: psychological safety isn't about everyone being nice to each other. It's about creating the conditions where people feel brave enough to disagree, curious enough to question, and safe enough to say "I made a mistake." What if the path to faster impact runs directly through healthy debate rather than around it? What becomes possible when leaders shift from performing in their teams to orchestrating them? Claire Gray is the author of Thriving Teams, an executive coach, and someone who spent years helping leadership teams move from polite agreement to genuine impact. She works with teams across Australia and beyond, bringing this rare ability to surface what's really happening beneath the team dynamics most of us are too nice to name. In this episode, you'll discover: • Why nice teams go slow, and what psychological safety actually requires of us • How the four Ds of healthy debate (diagnose, dialogue, decide, dedicate) create alignment without consensus • Why making people feel they matter goes far beyond the work they do • How leaders can operate as both contributors and orchestrators, not just participants • Why shared accountability ripples across organisations when teams co-create their goals • How to navigate the post-COVID reality of reinforced silos and fractured stakeholder connection • Why silent agreement probably means you don't have alignment at all • How to create joint ownership rather than defaulting to the leader for every decision Timestamps: (00:00) - Understanding Psychological Safety (20:20) - Healthy Debate vs. Argument (23:51) - The Four Ds of Healthy Debate (26:52) - The Role of the Orchestrator in Teams (31:20) - Creating Joint Ownership and Accountability (32:08) - Building a Culture of Accountability Other References: Thriving Teams Book | Claire GrayThriving Leaders Book | Claire GrayThriving Leaders PodcastGoogle’s Project AristotleMcKinsey Post-COVID StudyThe Power of Mattering | Zach Mercurio You can find Claire at: Website: a href="http://thrivingculture.com.au" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

49 min

JAN 12

[Interview] Creative Practice, The Power of Quiet Influence, and Impact Beyond Ego | David Murdoch

What if the most lasting leadership isn't about the monuments you build but about the quiet spaces you create for others to thrive? Many senior leaders wrestle with this tension: how do we create impact that endures beyond our tenure without becoming the very "founder effect" that stifles the organisation's future? We know intellectually that leadership is about developing others, yet our systems still reward personal visibility over collective growth, heroic intervention over sustainable culture. This conversation with Professor David Murdoch offers a different lens. We explore what happens when leadership becomes less about being essential and more about making yourself unnecessary. Through his experience moving from technical expert to Vice Chancellor, from academic to industry leader, and through his two years running a remote hospital in Nepal, David reveals how unconventional detours often become our most formative experiences. His practice of building guitars (30 of them, all given away to friends around the world) isn't a hobby separate from his leadership, it's the creative renewal that sustains it. What's possible when we stop treating our "opposite world" as optional? Professor David Murdoch is an infectious disease expert, former Vice Chancellor of Otago University, and currently works with PHF Science leading organisational transformation. His father's quiet championing of women in education shaped David's approach to what I'm calling "covert mentoring," lifting others into opportunities without fanfare or expectation of recognition. In this conversation, you'll discover: How creative practice serves as a barometer for your work-life integration (when your mind wanders to the workshop during boring meetings, you're in a good spot)Why taking opportunities that "wreck your career" often become the best decisions you'll makeHow to build high trust, high accountability cultures through deliberate delegation and learning to let goWhy working with young people isn't just about developing them, it's about their fresh questions keeping your thinking aliveHow succession planning is the ultimate success metric (things continuing well when you're not there)Why you can't assume you have a legacy, and how that humility actually creates enduring impactHow experiences in radically different environments (like running a remote hospital in Nepal for two years) shape your leadership in ways conventional career paths never couldWhy the "founder effect" happens and what warning signs to watch for in your own leadership Timestamps: (00:00) - Introduction (03:02) - The Creative Outlet: Guitar Building and Leadership (09:13) - The Journey from Expert to Leader (23:59) - Trusting Young Talent in Leadership Roles (32:54) - Creating Lasting Impact in Leadership (38:20) - Building a Culture of Trust (42:02) - Lessons from Nepal: A Unique Leadership Experience Other References Nick Petriea href="https://thesiredmundhillaryfoundation.ca/healthcare/"...

57 min

12/29/2025

[Solocast] Leading Lasting Impact, Systems Thinking, and Living Deliberately | Digby Scott

What if the most important measure of your leadership isn't what you achieve while you're in the role, but what continues after you've moved on? It's a question most senior leaders avoid because the answer is often uncomfortable. You've built the strategy, delivered the results, transformed the culture. But if you left tomorrow, how much of it would actually last? In this special Year in Review episode, Digby reflects on five interconnected themes that emerged from a year of deep conversations with remarkable leaders, change-makers, and systems thinkers. These aren't isolated insights, they're facets of the same question: how do we create change that endures? From understanding complex systems and shifting from hero to host leadership, to embracing unhurried productivity and living with deliberate authenticity, each theme builds toward a powerful framework for leading lasting impact. This episode is Digby's invitation to step back and see the bigger picture. Drawing on insights from over 50 conversations, personal experiences of burnout and breakthrough, and years of working with leaders across sectors, he maps a journey from crisis-driven leadership through to creating change so embedded that people don't want to go back. You'll discover: How to assess where you sit on the spectrum from crisis-driven to lasting impact leadership (and why most leaders get stuck at stage two)Why systems thinking is essential for addressing root causes rather than just treating symptoms, and how the dragonfly metaphor reframes our understanding of generational impactHow shifting from hero to host leadership transforms dependency into capability, and why your job isn't to be the answer but to create conditions where answers emergeWhy unhurried productivity isn't about slowing down but about creating spaciousness within the work itself, and how this becomes the foundation for everything elseHow living deliberately means making daily choices that align with who you truly are, not who you think you should beWhy these five themes aren't separate ideas but interconnected pieces that, when working together, create leaders whose impact outlasts their tenureHow to measure leadership success differently, focusing on what continues after you're gone rather than what you achieve while you're there Leading Lasting Impact self-assessment Other References: James McCulloch Podcast EpisodeDr. Richard Hodge Podcast EpisodeAdam Cooper Podcast Episodespan class="ql-ui"...

52 min

12/15/2025

[Interview] Listening Beyond Words, and Choosing What to Say No To | Oscar Trimboli

How much of what matters most are you missing while you're listening? Not the words themselves (you're good at capturing those) but what's underneath them, between them, beyond them. Here's the uncomfortable truth: most of us believe we're better listeners than we actually are. We're busy preparing our response, managing the future, or distracted by the ping of the next urgent thing. Meanwhile, the people in front of us (the ones we're meant to be leading) are telling us everything we need to know. If only we knew how to truly hear it. In this conversation with Oscar Trimboli, we explore something deeper than communication skills. We venture into the territory of how we show up, what we say no to, and why the foundations we've already built might matter more than the future we're chasing. This is about the shift from hero to host, from infinite ambition to the surprising lightness of a ‘tour of duty’, and from listing ingredients to sharing the story of the meal. Oscar Trimboli is on a quest to create 100 million deep listeners in the workplace. He's spent decades discovering that the gap between speaking and listening isn't just about paying attention. It's about understanding that how we frame something can change what happens next. His work helps leaders see what they're missing when they focus only on the words. In this conversation, you'll discover: • Why the legacy you're creating might already exist in ways you can't yet see, and how acknowledging your past builds the foundation for what's next • How setting boundaries isn't about limitation but about the strategic clarity of knowing what you choose not to do • Why corporate funerals (literally burning what no longer serves) can create the trust that moves organisations forward when change initiatives get stuck • How the "tour of duty" mindset releases the weight of infinite responsibility and brings unexpected lightness to leadership • Why effective leaders operate as hosts rather than heroes, facilitating learning instead of performing expertise • How metaphors become mental shortcuts that help people understand the unfamiliar through the familiar, and why food and music work better than sport • Why distraction isn't just about devices but about the stories we tell ourselves when our attention wanders, and what choices we have in those moment • How "getting over yourself" enables you to serve the work rather than protect your ego, and why this shift makes everything else easier Timestamps: (00:00) - Introduction (06:39) - The Importance of Boundaries (10:32) - Navigating Change and Acknowledging the Past (19:11) - Corporate Funerals: Letting Go to Move Forward (24:41) - The Power of Rituals in Leadership (32:46) - Navigating Distractions in Conversations (42:59) - The Impact of Metaphors in Communication Other references: Animal Liberation OrchestraDeep Listening: Impact Beyond Words by Oscar TrimboliDeep Listening Quiz You can find Oscar at: Website: oscartrimboli.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oscartrimboli Take the Deep Listening Quiz: a...

47 min

12/08/2025

[Solocast] From Proving Yourself to Backing Yourself

Are you the bottleneck in your organisation? What if your greatest leadership contribution isn't solving every problem, but creating the conditions where others can thrive without you? I've been reflecting on a pattern I keep seeing in leaders—this constant pressure to prove our worth by being indispensable. Yet the organisations that truly transform are the ones where leadership doesn't depend on any single person staying in the room. This episode explores a fundamental shift: moving from proving yourself to backing yourself, and what that means for creating lasting impact. Drawing on insights from my conversation with James McCulloch, CEO of Victim Support New Zealand, I unpack what it takes to build systems that outlive your tenure, why organisations often reward heroics over sustainability, and how small, consistent choices can shift you from being the solution to creating the space where solutions emerge. You'll explore: The hidden cost of trying to prove your worth through constant interventionWhy backing yourself changes everything about how you show upWhat sustainable leadership actually looks like in practiceHow to create conditions for others to succeed rather than being the sole heroThe shift from individual heroics to building systems that thriveWhy true leadership effectiveness is measured by the capability you build in others Check out my services and offerings: https://www.digbyscott.com/ Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.digbyscott.com/subscribe Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/digbyscott/

10 min

Dig Deeper

[Solocast] Five Ways to Mentor Others

[Interview] Chasing Certainty, Guerrilla Mindfulness, and Teachable Moments | Mike House

[Solocast] When a Prime Minister Shows Us What Real Leadership Looks Like

[Interview] Moving Beyond Nice, The Art of Mattering, and Creating Cultures of Accountability | Claire Gray

[Interview] Creative Practice, The Power of Quiet Influence, and Impact Beyond Ego | David Murdoch

[Solocast] Leading Lasting Impact, Systems Thinking, and Living Deliberately | Digby Scott

[Interview] Listening Beyond Words, and Choosing What to Say No To | Oscar Trimboli

[Solocast] From Proving Yourself to Backing Yourself

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