In this episode I’m joined by leadership expert, speaker and author Helen Beedham to explore what really keeps people in organisations.

Helen returns to the podcast to talk about her new book, People Glue, and the research behind it. We dig into how to create a working environment where people feel able to do their best work, stay engaged, and choose to stay — even when other options are available.

In this episode, we explore:

1. What People Glue really means
2. The paradox at the heart of retention: why giving people more freedom often makes them more likely to stay
3. The four freedoms people want at work
4. How to tell if your team or organisation is truly “sticky”
5. Practical, low-risk ways leaders can offer more freedom while maintaining clarity and accountability
6. What leaders can do to protect morale and people glue during restructures and periods of change
7. How individuals can reflect on their own experience of freedom at work and take more control of their careers

Helen also shares practical examples from organisations that are getting this right, including simple leadership practices that build trust, psychological safety, and connection - without losing focus on results.

This is Influence & Impact for Leaders, the podcast that helps leaders like you increase your impact and build a happy and high performing team. Each episode delivers focused, actionable insights you can implement immediately, to be better at your job without working harder.

Work with Carla:

1. 1:1 Leadership Coaching with Carla – get support to help you get your voice heard at work and develop your career. Book a discovery call

About Helen Beedham

Helen Beedham, MA Cantab, is an organisational expert, business book author, speaker and host of The Business of Being Brilliant podcast. Her first book 'The Future of Time: How ‘re-working’ time can help you boost productivity, diversity and wellbeing' was named People, Culture & Management Book of the Year at the Business Book Awards, and her second book 'People Glue: Hold on to your best people by setting them free' was published in January 2026.

Helen advises business and HR leaders on creating a positive culture that fuels growth; helps teams to deliver more and have more fun; and coaches executives to become their sharpest, brightest best. She speaks publicly about the future of work and is regularly featured in national, business and HR press including the FT, Financial News, Forbes, FastCompany and HR Review.

Helen's website

Helen on LinkedIn

The Business of Being Brilliant podcast

In this episode, I’m joined by Joe Lalley, author of Question to Learn, to explore why questions are one of the most underrated — and misused — leadership tools.

We talk about curiosity, influence, and what really happens when leaders feel they’re supposed to have all the answers.

In this conversation, we explore:

1. Why most of us stop asking good questions as our careers progress
2. The subtle ways workplace culture rewards answers and punishes curiosity
3. The different motives behind questions — and why some shut people down
4. How questions can build influence without needing certainty
5. What leaders can learn from children, improv, and discomfort
6. Why “I don’t know” might be one of the most powerful things a leader can say
7. The role curiosity plays in a world increasingly shaped by AI
8. Joe’s favourite question — and why it opens doors most people miss

This is Influence & Impact for Leaders, the podcast that helps leaders like you increase your impact and build a happy and high performing team. Each episode delivers focused, actionable insights you can implement immediately, to be better at your job without working harder.

Work with Carla:

1. 1:1 Leadership Coaching with Carla – get support to help you get your voice heard at work and develop your career. Book a discovery call

About Joe Lalley

Joe Lalley is a writer, speaker, and workshop facilitator who has spent much of his career leading innovation workshops for companies of all industries, shapes, and sizes.

Joe has published multiple articles ranging from how to use curiosity to navigate remote work in the pandemic to how to fix the endless cycles of bad, inefficient meetings.

In 2011, Joe completed the Stanford d.school Design Thinking Bootcamp, an intensive program that draws executives from Fortune 500 companies worldwide. As part of a team with peers from Google and Cisco, he worked directly with JetBlue to redesign the passenger ground experience at San Francisco International Airport. Through field research, interviews, and rapid prototyping, Joe and his team presented innovative solutions to JetBlue executives—a transformational experience that helped shape the next chapter of his career.

Joe has held leadership roles at Columbia University, MTV/Viacom, WWE, PwC, and his own consultancy, Joe Lalley Experience Design. His client portfolio spans global brands and organizations such as Meta, Pfizer, Cisco, Chegg, General Assembly, Match Group/Tinder,

Latham & Watkins, and Lam Research, as well as mission-driven groups like the American Physical Society, Optica, Banyan Global, and CAQH.

In October 2025, Lalley released ‘Question to Learn: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Career, Team, and Organization.’

Website...

Self-awareness is often listed as a core leadership skill — but how many leaders truly understand what it involves, and how many are unintentionally overestimating it?

In this episode of Influence & Impact, I am joined by Dr Julia Carden, former Royal Navy officer, leadership coach, and author of You Are Not As Self-Aware As You Think You Are. Drawing on her PhD research and years of coaching senior leaders, Julia shares why self-awareness is harder — and more confronting — than most people expect.

Together, we explore how self-awareness goes far beyond surface-level feedback, why it’s essential for healthy team dynamics, and how leaders can start uncovering their blind spots without becoming defensive.

In this episode, we cover:

1. Why self-awareness is often a blind spot for leaders
2. The moment you say “I’m very self-aware” — and why that’s a warning sign
3. How a lack of self-awareness shows up as team tension, conflict, and disengagement
4. Julia’s practical definition of self-awareness using interpersonal and intrapersonal “ingredients”
5. Why feedback can feel threatening — and how to work with it constructively
6. How leaders can build self-awareness without a coach or 360-degree feedback
7. The role of beliefs, values, emotions, and even physiological responses in leadership behaviour
8. Why the people who irritate us most can be powerful mirrors
9. Simple reflective practices that highly self-aware leaders use consistently
10. The one question leaders can ask themselves daily to deepen self-awareness
11. How greater self-awareness can lead to more compassion, acceptance, and connection at work

This is Influence & Impact for Leaders, the podcast that helps leaders like you increase your impact and build a happy and high performing team. Each episode delivers focused, actionable insights you can implement immediately, to be better at your job without working harder.

Work with Carla:

1. 1:1 Leadership Coaching with Carla – get support to help you get your voice heard at work and develop your career. Book a discovery call

About Dr Julia Carden PhD MSc PCC FCIPD

Julia was born and raised in Cornwall and “made in the Royal Navy” and now lives in Hampshire. She has been and continues to be on a lifelong journey in developing her own self-awareness. She works as a relational coach and coach supervisor practitioner, with an academic underpinning. Her work focuses on working with the whole person (both individuals and teams) to expand and deepen self-awareness, so that individuals can connect deeply with others and develop the capacity to sit with uncertainty. Julia has a deep interest in...