Theme 01
4 resources
Difficult Conversations
Why we avoid them and how to handle them well
Resources on difficult conversations at work, including how to prepare, lower defensiveness, give clearer feedback and repair trust afterwards.
Resources
Useful thinking for
the human bit of work.
Practical reads, explainers and tools on leadership, self-awareness, communication, conflict, motivation, trust and what happens in our brains and relationships under pressure.
Journal
Personal essays from the live edge of the work.
More personal, opinionated and reflective than the learning resources. These pieces still use the same behavioural and brain-based lens, but they start closer to lived experience.
Resilience at work
Resilience Under Pressure: What One Room of Insurance Professionals Revealed About Work Today
A journal from Innovate This 2025 on resilience, attention, always-on work and what one room of insurance professionals revealed about pressure today.
Women In Work
Perimenopause does not care about your leadership reputation
A personal, brain-based journal on perimenopause, leadership confidence and what happens when the standard playbook stops working the way it used to.
Women in work
Leading with ADHD: the superpower narrative is doing you a disservice
A journal on ADHD, leadership, gender and why the superpower narrative is useful only when it does not hide the real cost.
Habits at Work
You are not being collaborative. You are being conflict-avoidant. There is a difference.
A journal on people-pleasing in leadership, the threat response underneath it, and the difference between real collaboration and avoiding the useful conflict.
Neuroscience & Behaviour
The Omaze house draw is a neuroscience masterclass. Which is more than you can say for the lottery, or most PowerPoint decks.
For the price of a charity ticket, Omaze will make you genuinely believe, for approximately four seconds, that you live in Cornwall. That is not an accident. It is, depending on your mood, either impressive or alarming.
Psychology & Power
You feel like a fraud. Congratulations. You are probably the most qualified person in the room.
Imposter syndrome is a well-documented psychological phenomenon. What is less well documented is the phenomenon of the room being full of people who have no such feelings and absolutely should.
Technology & Cognition
I can't pair my Bluetooth speakers. But I use AI every day. And I'm starting to wonder what it's doing to my brain.
The tech bros who built these tools won't let their own children near a screen. That is, if you'll forgive the observation, a fairly significant red flag.
Power & Visibility
Britain's most successful women are hiding in plain sight. It turns out that might be the smartest thing they ever did.
Denise Coates took home £281 million last year and has never once given a television interview. That is not shyness. That is a risk calculation. And it turns out she has done the maths correctly.
Psychology & Work
You can see exactly what's wrong. You've seen it for months. So why haven't you said anything?
The gap between knowing something is broken and actually naming it out loud is one of the least examined spaces in professional life. It is also, right now, getting wider.
Browse by theme
Find the pattern you are dealing with.
8 themes
Theme 02
4 resources
Feedback That Lands Badly
Make it easier to give, hear and act on feedback
For feedback that gets softened, delayed or taken personally. These resources help leaders prepare the message, lower threat and make feedback usable.
Theme 03
4 resources
Teams Being Careful Not Honest
Build the trust and psychological safety honest teams need
For teams that are warm, capable and quietly cautious. Explore trust, psychological safety and the after-meeting conversations that reveal what is really happening.
Theme 04
4 resources
Carrying Too Much as a People Leader
How to lighten the load and get the right support
For founders and People leaders carrying too much emotional, strategic or relational weight. These guides make the load visible and easier to place.
Theme 05
4 resources
Values Strong, Behaviour Inconsistent
When good intentions need clearer habits
For organisations whose values are clear but whose habits wobble under pressure. This theme connects self-awareness to repeated behaviour.
Theme 06
4 resources
Growing and Culture Stretched
How to notice what growth is asking of people
For teams growing faster than their culture, roles or relationships can comfortably absorb. Use these reads to spot what growth is asking of people.
Theme 07
4 resources
Understanding the Models
Clear guides to the tools and ideas behind the work
Plain-English explainers for the models behind the work, from SCARF and SDI to psychological safety and neuroleadership.
Theme 08
4 resources
Practical Tools to Try
Simple frameworks and habits to use in real life
Short practical tools for choosing where to start, resetting after difficult moments and running better conversations with a team.
Also in the library
Model guides, tools and extra practical reads.
The main themes above are the front door. These are the supporting explainers and shorter pieces that help the work make sense when you want a specific model, phrase or starting point.
Explainer
What is a conflict sequence?
Why people do not always respond to conflict in one fixed way, and how noticing the sequence can reduce blame.
Explainer
What is SDI Core Strengths?
A practical guide to SDI Core Strengths, motivation, strengths, overdone strengths, conflict sequences and how relationship intelligence helps teams work better.
Explainer
What is somatic coaching?
Why leadership is not only cognitive, and how body awareness can help people notice pressure, presence and patterns sooner.
Explainer
What is the Brain-Based Coaching Certificate, and how does brain-based coaching work?
A plain-English guide to Kate's Brain-Based Coaching Certificate from the NeuroLeadership Institute, what brain-based coaching is, and how it differs from other coaching approaches.
Explainer
Why naming the feeling can change the conversation
Why putting feelings into words can reduce emotional heat and help people think more clearly.
Article
Changing the energy you bring into the room
How to notice when you are rushing, shrinking, pleasing or pushing, and choose a more useful way to show up.
Article
For new leaders: confidence does not mean having all the answers
A more useful way to think about confidence when you are stepping into leadership.
Article
What to do when someone goes quiet in a meeting
How to respond when silence might mean thinking, disagreement, discomfort or withdrawal.
Article
Why conflict makes clever people go weird
Why smart, capable people can become oddly defensive, quiet or over-certain when tension enters the room.