A beehive may hold the clearest blueprint for how leaders can sense disruption early, close cycles cleanly, and move an entire organization as one.

In this conversation, Maartje sits down with Philip Atkinson, beekeeper, leadership coach, and author of BeeWise, to explore the concept of Beehive Leadership as a powerful model for modern organizations. Through the lens of Structure & Cycles, they examine how healthy systems operate with clarity around roles, rhythm, and responsibility. What if leadership is about shaping the conditions that allow others to perform at their best? What shifts when teams understand the seasons of their work and recognize when it is time to begin, endure the messy middle, or close with intention?

The discussion moves into Organizational Sensing & Signals and the subtle cues that often precede disruption. Bees detect storms before they arrive. Organizations have signals too, embedded in tone, engagement, and silence. Are you noticing the changes in energy before performance drops? Are you closing projects and meetings cleanly so your team can move forward with focus? At its core, this episode invites leaders to think of their company as a living system that thrives on alignment, shared purpose, and disciplined attention to the cycles that shape sustainable success.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Beehive Leadership: A New Model for Navigating Business Disruption

03:02 The Beehive as a Leadership Metaphor

05:22 Servant Leadership vs. Command and Control

09:00 Structure and Cycles in Business

13:44 Sensing Disruption and Early Warning Signals

18:22 Purpose and Alignment: Building a Business Superorganism

25:15 Why Bees Matter and Global Impact

Connect with Philip Atkinson:

About the book BeeWise:

ALL proceeds support the charity, Bees for Development.

Books can be ordered on Amazon and all book platforms and shops.

To learn more please see beewisebook.com

You can follow on Instagram and Facebook; BeeWiseBook.

Contact Philip at Philip@Hive-Logic.com

HiveMeet - community of business leaders, learning together | Meetup

Philip Atkinson helps leaders rethink work and lead wisely, drawing unexpected yet powerful lessons from the hidden world of bees. A trusted advisor to global companies like Novartis, Roche, Sanofi, and Publicis, he brings decades of leadership expertise and a fresh, metaphor-driven lens through his book Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons from a Busy Beehive.

Philip Combines boardroom experience with beekeeping insights to reimagine modern leadership and is featured in Forbes, CEO World, Management Today, and on BBC TV & Radio.

Philip is a father of 4 and keeper of over a million bees in the Alsace region of France. His company serves clients globally from its office in Basel.

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Most businesses don’t lose value because of one bad decision. They lose it slowly, while everything still looks fine on paper. This episode delivers a clear reality check on how business valuation quietly erodes when leaders rely on outdated assumptions, familiar metrics, and past wins. It focuses on fixing misalignment early, before small gaps turn into costly consequences.

In this episode of The Business Emergency Room, host Maartje van Krieken explores a moment many leaders miss. It happens when the way you see your business no longer matches how the market sees it. Valuation does not fall apart overnight. It weakens when old numbers go unquestioned and important signals are ignored.

This conversation is designed for founders and leadership teams who feel confident in their results yet sense tension beneath the surface. Maartje explains why silence in meetings does not mean alignment, how past success can create false security, and why teams often stop pushing back long before problems show up in the numbers.

Rather than leading with fear, the episode offers practical ways to realign while you still have options. Through regular check-ins, outside perspective, and honest benchmarking, leaders can stay grounded in what actually creates value today.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 When Your Business Story No Longer Matches Market Reality

04:15 How Misalignment Quietly Destroys Business Value

09:10 Emotional Bias and Business Valuation Mistakes

14:45 The Seven Warning Signs of Business Misalignment

17:30 Silent Teams and Misleading Growth Metrics

23:10 Valuation Hangovers and Outdated Growth Benchmarks

29:40 Why Investors and Buyers Challenge Your Valuation

35:50 Leadership Risk and the Key Person Dependency Problem

41:20 Practical Tools for Fixing Misalignment Early

52:30 Building Ongoing Reality Checks Into Your Business

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction.

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The conversations leaders avoid are the fastest way to lose trust, stall performance, and weaken credibility.

In this episode, Maartje van Krieken speaks with executive coach Emma Collyer to explain why leaders hesitate to say what needs to be said and how that hesitation quietly undermines teams. Avoidance often comes from care rather than neglect, yet softened feedback and delayed conversations leave people unclear about expectations. When clarity fades, trust in leadership weakens and performance follows. Direct communication, handled thoughtfully, becomes a form of respect rather than confrontation.

The conversation also looks at how difficult communication shifts under pressure. Change and uncertainty demand more than one-way messages. Leaders need space for dialogue, trusted voices to help carry clarity, and the discipline to show up calm and composed when stakes are high. The episode challenges leaders to reflect on a simple question: are your conversations creating alignment, or protecting short-term comfort at long-term cost?

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Hidden Cost of Avoiding Difficult Conversations

03:15 Why Leaders Avoid Honest Feedback

06:55 Framing and Timing Difficult Conversations

08:45 Communicating Hard Messages During Change

14:30 Emotional Regulation Under Pressure

21:00 Practical Frameworks for Difficult Conversations

27:45 Turning Difficult Conversations Into Clear Action

Connect with Emma Collyer:

Connect with Emma on LinkedIn

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Visit the Aspire Executive Coaching website

Email: emma@aspireexecutivecoaching.ca

Freebie: https://needmoretrust.com

Emma Collyer is the owner and principal coach of Aspire Executive Coaching, where she helps leaders turn everyday interactions into powerful, two-way conversations that spark trust, creativity, and results. Known for her down-to-earth approach and energy in the room, she transforms “tough talks” into growth moments that bring teams closer together. A certified ICF-ACC coach and Emotional Intelligence practitioner based in Canada, Emma works with leaders around the world—helping them communicate with clarity, lead with empathy, and enjoy the ride along the way.

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

Visit The Chaos Games Consulting website

Visit The Business Emergency Room website

Subscribe to The Business Emergency Room on YouTube

Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and...