Across our first Coaching Café series, we’ve explored the leadership capabilities organisations are prioritising for 2026 and beyond—from psychological safety and emotional intelligence, to critical thinking in the age of AI.

This week, we turn our attention to innovation.

Innovation is consistently identified as a top leadership capability, yet many organisations struggle to create the conditions where new ideas can emerge, be tested, and be sustained. Innovation requires more than creativity—it relies on trust, curiosity, challenge, and the willingness to think differently.

This is where coaching plays a critical role.

A coaching approach enables leaders and teams to question assumptions, explore new perspectives, and move beyond habitual ways of thinking. It supports innovation not as a one-off initiative, but as an ongoing capability embedded in everyday conversations and decision-making.

Join Natalie and Paula as we explore innovation through a coaching lens.

You’ll walk away with:

✔️ What innovation really means as a leadership capability ✔️ The conditions required for innovation to thrive in organisations ✔️ How coaching enables curiosity, experimentation, and new thinking ✔️ Practical ways leaders and coaches can foster innovation at work

Transcripts can be found here:

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed the podcast please leave us a 5 star review wherever you listened to us! It helps promote the podcast to streaming services and other listeners.

Watch the webinar of this episode on YouTube or read the blog by visiting our website.

Want to join us live on Friday? Register Here!

Engage with The Coaching Café Podcast

• Stay up to date on our socials
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
• Check out the YouTube Video of this podcast.
  • YouTube
• Email us at learn@opendoorcoaching.com.au

Thanks for listening!

So far in the Coaching Café Podcast 2026, we’ve explored the trends shaping leadership, performance conversations, psychological safety, and emotional intelligence as a core leadership capability.

This week, we turn our attention to critical thinking—increasingly recognised as an essential capability as organisations rapidly adopt AI, automation, and new technologies.

As AI accelerates decision-making and access to information, the real challenge for leaders is not having answers, but thinking well. Critical thinking enables leaders and teams to question assumptions, interpret information thoughtfully, make sound judgments, and avoid simply outsourcing thinking to systems and tools.

This is where coaching plays a vital role.

A coaching approach slows the conversation down just enough to create space for reflection, challenge, and deeper thinking. It helps leaders and teams move beyond quick answers to considered decisions—especially in complex, fast-moving environments.

Join Natalie and Paula as we explore how coaching enables critical thinking at work.

You’ll walk away with:

✔️ What critical thinking really means in today’s workplace ✔️ Why critical thinking is more important than ever in the age of AI ✔️ How coaching supports better thinking, judgment, and decision-making ✔️ A practical framework for developing critical thinking through coaching

Transcripts can be found here:

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed the podcast please leave us a 5 star review wherever you listened to us! It helps promote the podcast to streaming services and other listeners.

Watch the webinar of this episode on YouTube or read the blog by visiting our website.

Want to join us live on Friday? Register Here!

Engage with The Coaching Café Podcast

• Stay up to date on our socials
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
• Check out the YouTube Video of this podcast.
  • YouTube
• Email us at learn@opendoorcoaching.com.au

Thanks for listening!

So far in the Coaching Café Podcast 2026, we’ve explored the trends shaping coaching and leadership, the importance of strong performance conversations, and the role of psychological safety in building trust and engagement.

This week, we turn our attention to emotional intelligence—consistently identified as one of the most critical leadership capabilities in today’s workplaces.

As work becomes more complex, pressured, and human, leaders are increasingly expected to navigate emotions—their own and others’—with awareness, empathy, and skill. Emotional intelligence underpins how leaders communicate, build trust, handle performance conversations, and create psychologically safe environments.

This is where coaching plays a powerful role.

Coaching creates the space for reflection, self-awareness, perspective-taking, and behaviour change—key elements of emotional intelligence. It supports leaders to respond rather than react, and to lead in ways that strengthen relationships and performance.

Join Paula as we explore emotional intelligence through a coaching lens.

You’ll walk away with:

✔️ A clear understanding of emotional intelligence and why it matters now more than ever ✔️ How emotional intelligence shows up in everyday leadership and performance conversations ✔️ The role coaching plays in developing emotional intelligence ✔️ Practical ways to support leaders to build emotional intelligence at work

This is your space to stay informed, reflect on practice, and connect coaching to what’s happening in real workplaces—right now.

Transcripts can be found here:

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed the podcast please leave us a 5 star review wherever you listened to us! It helps promote the podcast to streaming services and other listeners.

Watch the webinar of this episode on YouTube or read the blog by visiting our website.

Want to join us live on Friday? Register Here!

Engage with The Coaching Café Podcast

• Stay up to date on our socials
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
• Check out the YouTube Video of this podcast.
  • YouTube
• Email us at learn@opendoorcoaching.com.au

Thanks for listening!