Why I started my podcast on leadership - welcome!

In this first episode, I share why I started a podcast on leadership and what inspired me to create a space for practical insights, stories, and strategies to help leaders thrive.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Please comment on the podcast, wherever you listen, or here within the comments below.

Remember to subscribe to get notifications of any future episodes.

Read the Transcript Below (please note this was generated by AI so there may be errors)

Welcome to the Own Your Leadership Podcast. 

I'm Sharon Smith, Leadership Coach and founder of Own Your Leadership. 

This podcast is a space to slow down and explore what leadership really looks like behind the scenes. 

Beyond those quick fixes, those performance pressures and the idea that you should already have it all figured out. 

Each episode is led by my own reflections, my lived experience and the skills and thinking that help people lead with more courage, clarity and compassion in real, everyday work. 

 This is your space to pause, get curious and grow your leadership in a way that feels authentic and sustainable. 

Because when you own your leadership, you create sustainable impact without overwhelm. 

Let's get started. (upbeat music) Hello my lovely leaders and welcome truly welcome to this very first episode of the own your leadership podcast.  

I'm Sharon Smith, leadership coach, mentor and your trusted thinking partner for the moments leadership feels inspiring or impossible or a little bit of both. 

If you're new to me or new to my world, then thank you so much for being here. 

This podcast has been a long time coming and I'm so glad I finally bit the bullet to get this off the ground. 

I'm not going to lie, this is taking me out of my comfort zone, but that's okay. 

As it's the space where the best growth happens, so I'm all in for it. 

I can talk endlessly about leadership. 

I absolutely love it. 

I used to spend a lot of time, particularly with my family talking about leaders who were getting it all wrong. 

You know, I would go home and moan and groan about how things should be or weren't, but now I focus on the good stuff. 

I focus on the way leaders lead the people in ways that support growth, innovation, collaboration and in a way that gets people really excited. 

That's not often spoken about. 

It's a strange thing because leadership isn't even expected to be like that, by most. 

Most team members would never define leadership like that. 

And that's the void I want to fill through my own work. 

My leadership blog, if you haven't checked it out, please do. 

And this new podcast and all of my episodes and articles and all of my information can be found on my website, which is www.onyoureleadership.co.uk Today I thought I'd start by telling you a little bit about me and why this podcast exists and what you can expect from our time together each episode. 

This is absolutely not going to be one of those corporate jargon-filled buzzwordy leadership shows. 

It's not who I am and it's not what this podcast will be. 

If anything, it's going to be the opposite. 

It'll be the space where we talk about the real stuff, the messy stuff, the "I'm supposed to know what I'm doing, but actually I'm winging it and hoping no one notices stuff." 

Because leadership really is not about perfection. 

Leadership is about people, and people are wonderfully complicated, so that makes leadership wonderfully complicated in all of it. 

So, let's move on to my origin story. 

I'm going to start with a confession. 

I learned leadership the hard way. 

Like so many of us have found myself in a leadership role without the training, without the guidance, without any frameworks, any supports and really without the faintest idea of how different leading people is from managing things. 

I didn't know the difference between the two at the time. 

I thought leadership was about meetings and spreadsheets and reacting fast and handling a hundred spinning plates. 

And let me tell you that approach and slowly that approach will burn you out faster than you can say we've got a quick turnaround because I did, I burnt out slowly and then suddenly. 

I was working hard, trying desperately to be good enough. 

I was an acting head teacher at the time of a fairly large primary school and I found myself over the winter period constantly firefighting, covering classes, managing everything to the nth degree. 

If anyone knows what a run up to Christmas in a primary school is like, you can just imagine how complicated and chaotic it was. 

I constantly felt like I was behind. 

I was pushing myself to show up with the energy I just didn't have. 

And I remember thinking, "How do other people do this? 

How do they have long careers as head teachers? 

 I’m just not cut out for this." 

And looking back, now I know the issue, sorry, solely wasn't with me. 

I was trying to lead without having the resource, the support, the tools, the mindset, understanding fully the human side of leadership, but also understanding my own humanity and everyone else's. 

That experience, the exhaustion, the isolation, then nobody told me leadership would feel like these moments is exactly what pulled me towards becoming a leadership coach. 

I didn't want anyone else to feel what I felt. definitely not if I can help it. 

I really needed somebody at that time in my corner to support and guide me. 

I needed to be taught how to lead and at that given time I didn't have the opportunity. 

And then the precursor to that, I didn't see myself as being an acting head teacher, so therefore I hadn't sought out any leadership training. 

So I do have a part to play in that. 

So why does leadership feel hard today? 

I want to zoom out for a moment and I will look at leadership now compared to how it was 20, even 10 years ago. 

We're living in a world of depleted emotional resources. 

There's a pressure to deliver instantaneous results. 

We have shrinking time and attention. 

There is so much digital noise. 

We're always on. 

That expectation to be always available exists now when it didn't before. 

And we have a culture that equates busy with worthy. 

If you ask anybody nowadays, "Oh, how are you doing?" 

"Oh, I'm busy." 

It's probably the first thing they're going to see, or stressed, one or the other. 

And we have that expectation, or that "I'm doing well if I'm busy" culture. 

It's not okay. 

As leaders, as managers, we're expected to move fast. 

We're expected to make perfect, correct decisions. 

We're meant to be emotionally intelligent.  

We're meant to communicate clearly. 

And more so, we're expected to stay calm under pressure. inspiring our teams, managing constant change while still answering the endless emails and running about during our lunch break. 

Break? 

I don't think break's the word for most people nowadays but whilst having lunch. 

It's a lot, in fact it's too much. 

Because what we forget is actually we are human beings and we do need to have a bit of time to be reflective and not responsive so that we don't shoot from the hip, so we don't become unkind, so we don't become harsh and hard on the edges. 

So, if you're feeling drained, confused, like you're on this hamster wheel, you can't get off, you are just not imagining it. 

This is why I am here, because you're definitely not alone. 

And I want this podcast to give you something leadership often doesn't. 

And this is what I advocate so much for and that is space. 

A next colleague of mine used to use the phrase, "We are human beings, not human doings." 

And we just need to find space to be. 

A space to reflect, a space to breathe, a space to remember who you are as a person, not just as your job title. 

So if you've followed any of my work you'll know that my approach to leadership is built around the eight Cs plus one.

And they are the pillars that shape everything I do and they'll be woven throughout many episodes of this podcast. 

Those pillars are for leaders to have courage, clarity, compassion, curiosity, connection, congruence, choice, commitment. 

And the plus one, which is a new addition to my framework there, is that there is a golden thread of communication that weaves through all of those eight Cs. 

And they're not fancy concepts.  

They're human concepts, the foundations of leading in a way that feels aligned, sustainable and deeply grounded in who you are. 

 And when you connect with each of those eight Cs, you will be a better leader. 

Now, I'll be diving into these in a later episode, so please look out for those. 

But even here in our very first conversation, I want you to know that you don't have to lead like anyone else. 

You don't have to perform leadership, and you don't have to harden yourself, Shrink yourself or lose yourself. 

Don't be one of those leaders that people talk about in the canteen because, let's face it, you've turned into such a, you know, a nasty person that no one wants to relate to you in a human way. 

And that's happened because you've lost yourself in that process of trying to do X, Y and Z all at once. 

You get to lead like you and to do that when you get you get to own your leadership And when you own your leadership you lead in a way that feels right for you So what can you expect here then from this podcast? 

Each episode will offer something different, but everything is going to come back to the same goal. 

I'm going to help you create a sustainable impact out over well. 

You're going to hear real talk about the realities of modern leadership. 

You're going to hear practical tools that you can use the same day. 

There'll be stories, there'll be mine, there'll be yours, there'll be our shared human stories. 

Perhaps in this first series I might just have me talking but as I move into future series I'll have guests who I'd like to collaborate with. 

So if you know of anybody that might be a worthy interviewee or if you'd like to join me yourself then please get in touch with me. 

We'll also be looking at mindset shifts that lift that emotional weight of leading, communication strategies that make your life easier, reflections that help you come back to your values, which is a biggie for me, and you'll learn that as you go, and gentle reminders not to lose yourself in the hustle. 

My dear friend, do not lose yourself in that hustle. 

So, this is not a Perform Like a Perfect Leader podcast. 

This is Be a Human Being Who Leads with Intention, Compassion, Clarity and Humour podcast. 

You know, sometimes in a busy office, busy school, busy factory, humour is exactly what we need. 

And when you lead from the top with a bit of humour, that gets you a lot of leeway. 

Leadership is serious work, but you know, we don't have to be serious every second. 

So before I go any further, let me ask you something. 

And if you're walking the dog or listening on the train whilst you're listening to this podcast just let this roll around in your mind. 

What kind of leader do you want to be - not on paper, I'm not asking you to write your CV, but in practice. 

What kind of leader do you want to be? 

I'm not asking you to do that job description. 

I'm not asking you to write down what others expect of you because that is where you're going to go. 

I know it. 

That's the default for any journaling prompts. 

What do others expect of you? 

Put that to a side. 

It's not about who you pretend to be when the pressure's on. 

I'm asking you, what kind of leader do you want to be? 

What are your values? 

What's your way of showing up? 

How do you show up for your people? 

How do you demonstrate your humanity? 

The journey we're going to be starting here. 

So why now? 

Why this podcast now? 

Why is it taking me this long? 

It's taking me this long to settle into myself and my role, my business. 

But I also really feel that the need is here. 

It's now. 

I've read and engaged in so much leadership material that is so highly corporate and as a leader that's come through the education avenue if you like. it's been very non-corporate for me. 

So reading corporate stuff and listening to corporate podcasts makes me bristle a little bit because it makes me as a leader feel inadequate. 

And I don't want any leader to feel inadequate. 

I'd like you to be a leader who has courage to slow down, to reconnect with yourself and to lead from a place that feels grounded, intentional and deeply aligned. 

When we join organisations, sometimes we can get carried away on that corporate train that is gathering speed towards the top jobs. 

But leading isn't about looking up the way always. 

It's not about looking out the way always, but it sometimes can be looking within always. 

In fact, it is always within looking within. but looking at our people and managing our team and ensuring we are a collective group of people that are there for each other and are there for the organisation. 

And to do that, we need to bring our people together. 

And that means we need a leadership that cares, we need a leadership that listens, and we need that leadership that feels like a force of good, not a burden to carry. 

And you deserve the support in building that kind of leadership, whatever your experience, whatever your title or whatever your industry. 

Whether you're contemplating stepping into leadership, you're settling into a new role, or feeling that Nudge because you feel lost, you feel like you've ended up on a route that's not for you and you want to return to your purpose after years of being stretched thin. 

Then this is your space and I'd love you to join me on future episodes of the own New Leadership podcast. 

So my invitation to you is simple. 

If this episode resonated, if you want to explore leadership in a way that feels human, honest, practical and grounded, then please subscribe to the podcast. 

And if you know someone, a colleague, a friend, manager, a fellow leader who might find this helpful, please send their way. 

My desire is to have the biggest impact on the most people. 

So please share. 

Leadership is hard, but we don't have to do it alone. 

So thank you so much for joining me for this first episode. 

I am truly excited for what we'll explore together, because when you're on your leadership, you will create sustainable impact without overwhelm. 

Thank you so much for joining me today. 

I'll speak with you next time. 

Take care.