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Women’s Business Podcast
I have spent much of my life saying things that other people would rather weren’t said. It hasn’t always made me popular or made life easy. And it certainly hasn’t always come without a cost.
But I have seen what happens when people stay silent. When poor care or behaviour goes unchallenged. Or when injustice is tolerated. When leaders know something is wrong but decide it’s easier not to go there.
And I’ve seen what becomes possible when somebody does. My first experience of this was at 16, working in a care home and refusing to accept that vulnerable people should have to put up with poor care.
I didn’t know it then, but that experience would become a thread running through my entire career.
From challenging injustice and institutional failures to working with leaders, boards and organisations facing some of their most difficult decisions, I have learned something important.
The difficult conversation is rarely the real problem. It’s what we allow to carry on by not having it.
This week I am the guest on the Women’s Business podcast. Thanks to Nicky Denson-Elliott for having me!
We get into my childhood, the teenage years, the experiences that shaped my sense of justice, and why I have built a career helping people say the things that need saying.
But we also get practical.
How to challenge someone without humiliating them. How to hold people to account without creating fear. How to disagree without destroying a relationship. How to find the courage to speak when the consequences of doing so might be considerable.
This is not about being confrontational for the sake of it or being endlessly agreeable and without boundaries.
This is about understanding human behaviour, power and consequences. And having the courage and skill to do something useful with that understanding.
I am grateful to Women’s Business for a conversation that went well beyond my professional biography and into the experiences that made me who I am.
If you have ever struggled to say the difficult thing, challenged something that others wanted left alone, or found yourself wondering whether speaking up was worth the personal cost, I think you’ll find something in this episode.
Say the thing. Own the thing. Stay human.