In this episode of the How to Lead – 2025 Edition series, Julia shares the practical steps that can turn a nerve-wracking speaking slot into a powerful moment of connection.

She breaks a good speech into two halves: preparation and delivery. From using A5 cue cards and writing your opening and closing lines first, to finding the right pauses, stories, and shifts in volume, Julia’s approach is rooted in years of trial, error, and speaking to audiences around the world.

Along the way, she shares tips for calming nerves, holding attention, and making sure your message lands and lasts.

Listen to this episode to learn how a well-prepared, well-delivered speech can change the room, the conversation, and maybe even the course of events.

About the Speaker:

Julia Middleton is the host of the Women Emerging podcast and a best-selling author of “If that’s leading, I’m in” as well as two previous books: "Leading beyond Authority" and "Cultural Intelligence". She is deeply committed to helping people from all backgrounds to find their own approach to leading.

In 2022, Julia led an expedition of 24 women to find 'an approach to leading that resonates with women'. In 2024, she founded Women Emerging. She leads expeditions with women all over the world using the 4Es methodology, discovered on the first expedition.

Prior to that, Julia was founder and, for over thirty years, Chief Executive of Common Purpose, which grew to become one of the biggest leadership development organisations in the world.

Julia is also an Ambassador for the Aurora Prize based in Armenia, on the boards of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World and Equality Now which operates globally, and on the Advisory Councils of Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil and Synapse in Pakistan.

Born in London and brought up in New York, Julia was educated at French Lycées and graduated from the London School of Economics. She is married, with five children and lots of grandchildren.

In this episode of the How to Lead – 2025 Edition series, Julia speaks with Autumn Phillips, a travel writer, adventurer, and change leader, who spent two decades as a newspaper editor leading award-winning newsrooms across the United States.

Autumn shares how to run a strategy meeting that doesn’t feel like a slow march through an agenda. Drawing from her experience leading both high-pressure editorial rooms and creative retreats around the world, she explains how to create conditions where people feel safe enough to speak up and bold enough to think differently.

From setting the right physical environment to lowering the stakes so risk-taking feels possible, Autumn offers practical steps to help teams listen better, push ideas further, and leave the room with a shared sense of momentum.

Listen to this episode to learn how a well-led strategy meeting can do more than setting a plan. It can unlock creativity, trust, and collective energy.

About the Guest:

Autumn Phillips is a travel writer, adventurer and change leader.

She retired in 2024 from a 20-year career as a newspaper editor, leading newsrooms across the United States.

Her leadership was recognized with many national awards, including two projects that were Pulitzer Prize finalists.

In 2023, she began taking readers on international trips, teaching them how to write about their journeys as a way to deepen the experience. She is starting the year by leading a women’s creativity retreat in Lamu, Kenya.

She was named NATJA Travel Journalist of the Year for stories on Lebanon, Sudan and Finland.

She writes a weekly newsletter and has published long-form narrative pieces on Kyrgyzstan, Ireland, Finland, Pakistan, Sudan, Zambia, Lebanon, Cuba, Morocco, the Grand Canyon, the World Nomad Games in Kazakhstan, and the Galapagos.

In this episode of How to Lead: 2025 Edition, Julia is joined by Susan Taylor, a CEO & leadership coach and facilitator whose work invites us to reimagine what real leadership feels like; not just from the outside, but from within.

Susan talks about entering a room grounded, choosing observation over reaction, and how to read the atmosphere of a meeting not just for what’s being said, but what’s being felt. Susan shares practical insights from her work.

This isn’t leadership as performance. It’s leadership as presence. And it’s a conversation that gently but powerfully asks: how do you want people to feel after sitting with you?

If you’ve ever led a room and walked away unsure why something didn’t land, or if you’re learning to show up without rushing to solve, this episode offers a calm, precise lens on what might be happening beneath the surface. It will teach how to hold the future. Quietly. Intentionally. Together.

About the Guest:

Susan Taylor is a transformational coach and facilitator with over 30 years of experience helping entrepreneurs and executives unlock their potential through heart-centered and purpose-aligned practices. As CEO and co-founder of Generon International, she draws on her expertise in Bohmian Dialogue to foster clarity, transform relationships, and build cultures of innovation and inclusivity. A former Forbes contributor and founding member of the Conscious Leadership Guild, Susan also serves on the Advisory Committee of the American Leadership Forum.

In this episode of the How to Lead - 2025 Edition series, Julia speaks with Dr. Fiona Kerr, a neuroscientist, engineer, and systems thinker, about how to lead a strategy day in a way that truly taps into the collective intelligence of the room.

Fiona begins with neuroscience: why proximity makes us smarter, how brains sync when people interact face-to-face, and what that means for the quality of thinking in a strategy session. She then explores how to design and steer, not control a conversation. From setting boundaries and naming non-negotiables, to using intuition, spotting weak signals, and asking the right questions, her approach is built around high trust, curiosity, and deep listening.

She also unpacks the role of leaders as both participants in the system and observers of it, holding a bifocal view that allows for creativity and rigour at once.

Listen to this episode to learn how to lead strategy sessions that go beyond sticky notes and PowerPoints and instead unlock clarity, ownership, and systems-level thinking.

About the Guest:

Dr Fiona Kerr is a researcher and advisor working at the intersection of human connectivity, technology, and systems thinking. She is the founder of the NeuroTech Institute and FOCUS, and works with public and private sector organisations on building adaptive, human-centred approaches to complex challenges. With a background in neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and complex systems, Fiona brings over 40 years of industry experience. In 2023, she was named a Fellow of ATSE for her work on human proximity and problem-solving. She currently serves as Director of Applied Integrative Research at MindChamps in Singapore, focusing on how digital tools and human interaction affect learning and cognition across ages.

In this episode of the How to Lead – 2025 Edition series, Julia speaks with Paula Redway, Culture and Community Development Manager at Oxford City Council, who shares practical, creative, and refreshingly honest advice on running a strategy day.

Drawing on her background in the arts, Paula offers guidance on everything from how to set the tone and read the room, to how to use physical space, body language, and structure to help people open up and contribute. She discusses what makes people switch off in strategy sessions, how to deal with difficult participants, and how to use tools like parking intense conversations for later, movement, and physical prompts to keep energy and focus alive.

She also unpacks how to frame the day with clarity by setting the context, stating the purpose, acknowledging the politics in the room, and always keeping an eye on the outcome.

Listen to this episode to discover practical, people-centered strategies that will help you lead better strategy days.

About the Guest:

Currently the Business Lead for Culture and Community Development at Oxford City Council, Paula Redway has extensive experience as a CEO of arts centres, theatres and festivals in England and Wales. She is also a member of the executive committee of CLOA (the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association) and a trustee for Farnham Youth Choir and the Magna Carta Trust.

Outside of work, Paula loves singing, travelling and exploring the great outdoors with her family.

In the very first episode of the How to Lead - 2025 Edition series, Julia explores the concept of followership with Ruth Sims, who brings a research-informed perspective to a topic often overlooked in conversations about leading.

Ruth reframes followership as an active choice, not a passive role. You’ll hear why deciding to follow comes before any leader’s bid for attention, how those roles shift constantly in modern organisations, and which leadership missteps like micromanagement, poor communication or lack of direction cause followers to disengage.

Ruth introduces two key dimensions of followership:

Deferral: stepping back, allowing the leader to lead while still engaging and asking clarifying questions.

Support: stepping up to help the leader succeed through effort, advice, feedback, and shared purpose.

Listen to this episode to rethink the assumption that leading is always about being in charge and discover how following well can be just as powerful, intentional, and impactful as leading.

About the Guest:

An organisational development and communications professional based in Australia with global connections into leadership and followership communities. Dr Ruth Sims brings a unique, research-based and expert understanding of followership and the difference that effective followership can make in your organisation.

In this episode, Julia speaks with Sasha Vaswani and Kamden Maas, two participants of the Women Emerging Renewable Energy Expedition, about the unexpected leadership insights they took away.

Women Emerging runs group expeditions for up to 24 women who want to find their own approach to leading. They run over 7 months—explorers commit to 5 hours of exploring each month. Each group is formed around a community, geographical or sectoral. Most expeditions are online, though some groups meet at different points.

They talk about the pressure to fit in and how the expedition gave them the confidence to bring their whole selves into their work. Sasha reflects on how the pursuit of neutrality often dulls trust, and Kamden shares how she’s learning to value her uniqueness rather than suppress it. Together, they explore how trying too hard to match expectations kills both innovation and authenticity.

Through the lens of renewable energy, they redefine leadership using metaphors from their field: energy efficiency as emotional resilience, solar panels as people absorbing and transforming knowledge, and emulsion as the leader’s role in holding contradictions like authority and collaboration together.

Listen to this episode to discover why leading is like an emulsion how to lead like an emulsifier.

About the Guests:

Sasha Vaswani is an Onshore Power Analyst at Shell, driven by a deep commitment to championing a Just Energy Transition. She is the creator of the short-form educational series #TalkingTransition, a contributor to the Energy Institute magazine, and an active supporter of their Young Professionals Network. Sasha has shared her insights at major industry events including ADIPEC and Climate Circle, and aspires to lead on the frontline of a net zero future.

Kamden J. Maas is deeply driven to leave the world better than she found it. She specializes in gas storage, a critical field spanning everything from medical oxygen to cutting-edge hydrogen. Her strong background in renewable energy, fuels her commitment to scientific advancement, further enhanced by her unique grasp of logistics—a domain she notes is essential for global operations. Kamden is also constantly addicted to learning, whether it's expanding her expertise in her field or growing personally. When she's not immersed in work or working out, this former collegiate athlete and engaged community leader finds joy in baking and traveling.

In this final episode of the Leadership Insights I Wish I Had Known at the Start series, Julia speaks with Saki Chen who is a lawyer, pilot, and the first woman from China to fly around the world in a small single-engine plane.

Saki reflects on what she learned about leading while navigating a complex and high-risk expedition with a small, intimate crew, many of whom were older and more experienced than her. She speaks about the importance of being bold enough to dream big, even when the odds (and the funding) aren’t in your favor and how that boldness can inspire others to believe in your vision, too.

She also shares how she handled self-doubt, the power of clarity when leading more experienced people, the need to own your mistakes, and why it’s vital to stay focused on what success really means.

Listen to this episode to hear how leading doesn’t always come with a title sometimes, it’s about taking responsibility, earning trust, and finding your way through, even when you’re not entirely sure you can.

About the Guest:

Saki Chen is an attorney licensed to practice in both New York and China, and a certified FAA private pilot with ratings for fixed wing land and sea, instrument flying, high performance, and complex aircraft. She serves as the China Governor for The Ninety-Nines, Inc., the international organisation of women pilots. In 2016, Saki flew around the world in a small single-engine aircraft, an extraordinary journey that combined precision, perseverance, and a pioneering spirit.