Beyond Leading

Beyond Leading
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Most leadership content gives you frameworks and five-step plans. Beyond Leading goes somewhere different. This is the podcast for senior leaders and those building toward that level, people who already know that leadership is harder and more human than any framework prepares you for. Hosted by executive coach and Non Executive Director Alec Pearson, with regular contributions from fellow coaches Tiffany Barnard and Nick Sellers, Beyond Leading goes inside the real human experience of senior leadership. The pressure. The identity questions. The decisions that don't have clean answers. What's really going on beneath the surface when things get hard. The conversations draw on SME business owners, corporate leaders and coaches who've been in the seat, people who'll talk honestly about what senior leadership cost them, what they got wrong, and what they'd do differently. No frameworks sold. No glossy success stories. Just the conversation senior leaders actually need. We don't claim to have all the answers. What we do is ask the questions worth reflecting on, and give you the space to work out what they mean in your world. If you're a senior leader, or someone building toward that level, this is your podcast. Subscribe and join the conversation. 🎙 Let's go beyond leading — and everything in between.

  1. 14h ago

    Ep 23 - Listening Skills for Leaders: How to Hear What People Aren't Saying - with Joseph McGuire

    with Alec Pearson, Joseph McGuire Joseph McGuire has spent a career learning to read people — three decades as a therapist before moving into executive communication, behavioural profiling and leadership development. Through his company, Clearsight Communications, he now helps leaders understand human behaviour, build trust, and hear what's really being said. We tend to think communication is about how well we speak. Joseph thinks it's the other way round. The leaders who truly understand a room usually aren't the ones doing the talking — they're the ones who can hear what isn't being said. In this episode, Alec Pearson sits down with Joseph to explore listening as a leadership skill almost nobody is actually taught. Not the "active listening" box-tick — but hearing tone, hesitation, the gaps, and everything a person's body says while their words say something else. As Joseph puts it, communication begins before a word is spoken. For senior leaders, and anyone building toward that seat, it may be the most underrated skill you own. In this conversation: Why the higher you rise, the more your listening can quietly slipThe one simple question that pulled a struggling company back from the brinkWhat an ancient way of reading people reveals about the skill we keep getting wrongWhy the sharpest leaders treat a hire almost like an interrogation — and the failure rate that proves the pointHow to catch the exact moment someone's words and their body stop agreeingThe kind of presence that commands a room without ever raising a voice If you've ever walked out of a conversation certain you missed something, this one's for you. You can connect with Joseph McGuire and Clearsight Communications on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-mcguire-face-facts/ Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes - wherever you listen.

  2. Aug 6

    Ep 22 - The Wellbeing Lie: Part 2 - When High Achievers Break

    with Alec Pearson and Dr Calvin Lightbody In Part 1, Alec and Calvin took apart the comfortable version of wellbeing - the fruit bowls, the tick-box initiatives - and named the warning signs leaders are so good at driving past. This time it gets personal. Because there's a harder question sitting underneath all of it: what's really happening to the high achiever who keeps pushing long after the tank is empty? When we feel stuck, the instinct is to work harder. Calvin has watched where that leads - in senior clinicians, in managers, in himself. There's a concept from healthcare that explains it better than any wellbeing survey ever could: the slow, repeated wear that cracks even the strongest people, one small pressure at a time, until something gives. It has a name most leaders have never heard, and once you understand it, you start seeing it everywhere. Including in yourself. We explore: When you feel stuck, why is working harder so often the wrong move, and what's really hiding underneath it?What quietly gets worse the higher you climb, not better, and why does no one at the top talk about it?There's a kind of damage that builds up one small knock at a time. What is it, and why isn't it just a healthcare problem?If you've recognised yourself in any of this, what's the one thing to do tomorrow morning? If you've been holding it together for longer than you'd care to admit, this one is worth your time. To submit an anonymous question for discussion in part 3, visit: Beyond Leading: Ask Calvin & Alec – Fill in form Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes - wherever you listen.

  3. Jul 23

    Ep 21 - The Wellbeing Lie: Part 1 - Wellness Isn't Wellbeing

    with Alec Pearson and Dr Calvin Lightbody Every organisation says it takes wellbeing seriously. The fruit bowl, the yoga session, the mindfulness app someone signed everyone up to. And yet the people carrying the most keep quietly running on empty. Not because the perks aren't pleasant, but because almost none of it touches the thing that's actually wearing them down. What if most of what your organisation calls wellbeing isn't wellbeing at all? There's a difference between wellness and wellbeing that most leaders have never stopped to notice, and once you see it, you can't unsee how much of the well-meaning stuff misses the point. Calvin has watched it play out on the front line of an emergency department, and what he's learned there lands in every high-stakes workplace. Including yours. We explore: What's the difference between wellness and wellbeing, and why does mixing them up cost you more than you think?Could your wellbeing initiatives actually be making things worse rather than better?Why do the strongest, most capable people so often drive straight past their own warning signs?What's the one question Calvin believes every leader should ask themselves on Monday morning, that almost none of them do? If you lead people, and you care whether they thrive or just survive, this one is worth your time. Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes - wherever you listen.

  4. Jul 2

    Ep 20 - 5 Leadership Questions Every Leader Must Answer

    with Alec Pearson After 19 honest conversations with leaders, founders and coaches working in very different worlds, the same themes kept appearing. Questions about identity, energy, trust, change and what really happens when leadership becomes personal. Why do some leaders know exactly what needs to change, yet still do nothing about it? And what are the questions that leadership keeps asking, regardless of role, sector or experience? In this 20th episode, Alec Pearson looks back across the first six months of Beyond Leading to explore the recurring themes that have shaped the podcast so far, what those conversations have reinforced for him personally, and why knowing what to do is rarely the same as being ready to do it. We explore: Why does leadership become more personal the further up you go?What happens when reflection is constantly squeezed out by the diary?Why can knowing the right thing still fail to change our behaviour?How do energy, trust and self-awareness affect the way we lead?What have 19 very different conversations revealed about the reality of leadership? If you lead people, carry responsibility or find yourself knowing what needs to change but still not acting on it, this episode is worth your time. Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes — wherever you listen.

  5. Jun 18

    Ep 19 - Change Management: Why People Don't Think They Have a Problem

    with Alec Pearson, Tiffany David and Graham Da Costa Change is no longer a one-off event, it's the constant backdrop of working life. New technology, shifting client expectations, the rise of AI. And yet most change programmes still fail. Not because the strategy was wrong, but because of something far more human. What if the real problem is that your people don't think there's a problem at all? You can't sell a solution to someone who doesn't believe anything is broken, and that one insight, borrowed from the world of addiction psychology, might explain more failed change programmes than any strategy document ever will. We explore: Why do so many change programmes fail before they've even started?What's the one question Graham put to leaders that stopped most of them in their tracks?When your team asks "what's in it for me?" - do you actually have an answer?Could your people already be ready for more change than you think? If you lead a team through change, and every leader does, this one is worth your time. Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes - wherever you listen.

  6. Jun 4

    Ep 18 - Team Leadership: It All Starts With Trust

    with Nick Sellers, Tiffany Barnard and Ellen Putz. In this episode of Beyond Leading, Nick Sellers takes the host's chair and is joined by Tiffany Barnard and Ellen Putz. The topic: team leadership. And the conversation goes a lot further than the textbook version. Because the way teams are led has changed. The old hierarchical, fear-based, command-and-control playbook is being replaced by something very different, and not every leader is keeping up. We explore: what really sits at the heart of every effective team, and what most leaders still get wrongthe line between leading and managing, and why it matters more than people thinkthe trap most people fall into when they go from doer to leaderwhy people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad leaders If you lead a team, or you want to, this is a conversation worth sitting with. Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes — wherever you listen.

  7. May 21

    Ep 17 - Somatic Leadership: What Your Body Is Trying To Tell You

    with Alec Pearson and Lucy Nicholson, Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Movement Analyst. In this episode of Beyond Leading, we explore an approach to leadership that most people have never come across, and once you hear it, you will not be able to unsee it. Somatic leadership. Most leadership development focuses on what we think, what we say and how we behave. Very little focuses on what our body is doing, and what it is telling us, in the moments that matter most. Lucy Nicholson brings a fascinating and genuinely different perspective to this conversation, rooted in years of working with leaders, communities and organisations on the power of bodily awareness. We explore: what somatic leadership actually is, and why most leaders have never considered itwhat the connection between mind and body has to do with how you leadwhy the pressure leaders carry shows up in the body, and what to do about itwhat happens when you give yourself permission to pause, ground and resethow something as simple as the way you carry yourself can change how others respond to youthe role of stillness and silence as leadership tools, not indulgencesand what one leader discovered when she stopped trying to be heard and started leading differently If you have ever felt the weight of leadership in your body without knowing what to do with it, this episode will give you a completely new way of thinking about it. To find out more about Lucy's work visit www.in-movement.co.uk or find her on LinkedIn. Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes — wherever you listen.

  8. May 7

    Ep 16 - Procrastination: It's Not What You Think

    with Alec Pearson, Nick Sellers and Tiffany Barnard. In this episode of Beyond Leading, we tackle something every leader, manager and professional quietly struggles with, but rarely talks about honestly - Procrastination. This conversation challenges some of the most common assumptions people make about why they put things off. It is not about laziness. It is not about poor time management. And it is not always a bad thing. We explore: what procrastination really is, and what it is notwhere the line is between putting something off and genuinely thinking it throughthe role perfectionism and self-doubt play and why most people never make the connectionwhy some leaders actually need stress to get things done, and whether that is a good thingthe practical approaches that help, and why some popular advice misses the markwhat procrastination reveals about how leaders ask for help If you have ever found yourself doing everything except the one thing you actually need to do - this episode is for you. Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes — wherever you listen.

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About

Most leadership content gives you frameworks and five-step plans. Beyond Leading goes somewhere different. This is the podcast for senior leaders and those building toward that level, people who already know that leadership is harder and more human than any framework prepares you for. Hosted by executive coach and Non Executive Director Alec Pearson, with regular contributions from fellow coaches Tiffany Barnard and Nick Sellers, Beyond Leading goes inside the real human experience of senior leadership. The pressure. The identity questions. The decisions that don't have clean answers. What's really going on beneath the surface when things get hard. The conversations draw on SME business owners, corporate leaders and coaches who've been in the seat, people who'll talk honestly about what senior leadership cost them, what they got wrong, and what they'd do differently. No frameworks sold. No glossy success stories. Just the conversation senior leaders actually need. We don't claim to have all the answers. What we do is ask the questions worth reflecting on, and give you the space to work out what they mean in your world. If you're a senior leader, or someone building toward that level, this is your podcast. Subscribe and join the conversation. 🎙 Let's go beyond leading — and everything in between.

Information

  • Creator
    Beyond Leading
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Beyond Leading
  • Show Website
    Beyond Leading