In this episode, Guy Bloom sits down with long time colleague Jamie MacPherson for a conversation grounded in real leadership experience.

This is not theory. It is what leadership looks like in practice when expectations are high, pressure is real, and people are watching.

Together, they explore:

• The gap between knowing and doing in leadership
• What shows up under pressure
• The behaviours that build trust and the ones that quietly erode it
• The reality of leading peers, not just teams
• Why experience does not always equal effectiveness

This is a conversation shaped by years of working in and around leadership, not observing it from a distance.

If you are serious about your impact as a leader, there is something in here for you.

00:00 Introduction to Leadership Dynamics
01:03 Defining Leadership: What Does It Mean?
04:11 The Spectrum of Leadership: Big L vs. Small L
10:02 Contextual Leadership: When Position Doesn't Matter
14:02 The Role of Followership in Leadership
19:48 The Essence of Being a Leader
29:47 Conclusion: When Does Leadership Truly Start?

To find out more about Guy Bloom and his award winning work in Team Coaching, Leadership Development and Executive Coaching click below.

The link to everything CLICK HERE
UK: 07827 953814
Email: guybloom@livingbrave.com
Web: www.livingbrave.com

In this episode of Leadership Bites, I sit down with Gary Clarke, Group Head of Learning and Development at Qatar Airways, based in Doha.

Gary leads group wide learning across a 65,000 person organisation, with a team of around 80, covering everything from operational training that keeps aircraft flying, to leadership and capability, learning tech, digital content, and vendor partnerships. Along the way, we get into what it really takes to run an internal learning function like a business, build credibility fast, and become the supplier of choice inside a complex, high pace, multi subsidiary organisation.

We talk about leading in a multicultural reality, the tension between standards and psychological safety, why bland harmony is a risk, and how to create a community of practice that pulls people together without forcing compliance. We also touch on AI and learning, not as a shiny distraction, but as a tool, while the real edge remains human connection, trust, and leadership craft.

If you care about culture in the real world, not the poster on the wall, this one will land.

Connect with me at livingbrave.com

Subscribe for more episodes and share this with someone who cares about doing leadership properly.

Chapters
00:00 Intro and welcome
00:29 Gary Clarke and Qatar Airways context
02:51 Scale, growth, and operational pace
05:03 What learning covers in an airline
08:57 Supplier of choice mindset for internal L and D
10:43 Quality, credibility, and Brandon Hall Awards
12:14 Centralised vs federated learning models
14:19 Building community through internal conferences
21:17 Multicultural leadership, standards, and integration
33:04 Clear standards, clear intention
34:03 Human centred leadership and psychological safety
49:13 AI, generational gaps, and learning strategy
57:12 The next few years and what matters most

To find out more about Guy Bloom and his award winning work in Team Coaching, Leadership Development and Executive Coaching click below.

The link to everything CLICK HERE
UK: 07827 953814
Email: guybloom@livingbrave.com
Web: www.livingbrave.com

In this episode of Leadership Bites, Guy Bloom sits down with Dr Steven Farmer DBA MPhil MBA, Chief Executive Officer of Alconex Infrastructure and Solutions Ltd, author of Soft Skills, Hard Numbers. Steve leads a multi utilities business delivering gas, water and electric connections to homes, while expanding into energy transition work across data centres, battery energy storage and solar.

Steve shares a straight talking leadership philosophy that blends soft skills with hard numbers. He talks about rising from an apprenticeship and life on the tools, to senior leadership and board level accountability, then pushing himself through an MBA and a doctorate while working full time. The conversation moves into what servant leadership really means when performance dips, why poor behaviour is a fast route to the exit, and how leaders can build psychological safety without lowering standards.

They explore the human reality leaders are dealing with right now, a workforce arriving already anxious, the importance of being excellent at receiving bad news, and the practical power of one simple principle: do not make life worse for people at work. Steve also unpacks his doctorate research into values based recruitment in construction, and why the industry needs a new story if it wants young talent to choose trade and craft over debt and drift.

Expect clear thinking, grounded experience, and leadership that respects people while still hitting the numbers.

Key moments and ideas
• The route to CEO, and why effort beats talent when talent coasts
• Doctorate level work while leading a business, what it really takes
• Values based recruitment and making construction a cause people want to join
• Servant leadership without softness, command without control
• Psychological safety and performance, do not shoot the messenger
• Bad news is like fresh bread, better when it is new
• High performance, low tolerance, high nurture, the leadership balance
• Creating workplaces where people do not get the Sunday scaries
• One leadership book Steve would still recommend: Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

Guest
Dr Steven Farmer DBA MPhil MBA
Chief Executive Officer, Alconex Infrastructure and Solutions Ltd
Author, Soft Skills Delivering Hard Numbers

Host
Guy Bloom
Leadership Development, Executive Coaching and Team Effectiveness
Living Brave Leadership
Leadership Bites podcast

To find out more about Guy Bloom and his award winning work in Team Coaching, Leadership Development and Executive Coaching click below.

The link to everything CLICK HERE
UK: 07827 953814
Email: guybloom@livingbrave.com
Web: www.livingbrave.com