Psychological safety is the foundation of every high-performing team—yet many leaders unintentionally undermine it without realising. This week my Impactful Teams Co-Founder Lara Cullen and I explore psychological safety, why comfort isn’t the goal, and the small (but powerful) leadership behaviours that create a culture where people feel safe to contribute, challenge and innovate.

💡 We talk about:

• What psychological safety really means
• The difference between psychological safety and trust
• Why mistakes aren’t a bad thing
• What destroys psychological safety
• Why comfort isn’t the goal

This is Influence & Impact for Leaders, the podcast that helps leaders like you increase your impact and build a happy and high performing team. Each episode delivers focused, actionable insights you can implement immediately, to be better at your job without working harder.

Work with us:

• Impactful Teams Scorecard – It takes just 2 minutes to discover where your team is strong and where you might want to focus next. You’ll get personalised results—and for a limited time, you can also book a free 30-minute call to talk through them.
• Visit our new Impactful Teams website

Work with Carla:

• 1:1 Leadership Coaching with Carla – get support to help you get your voice heard at work and develop your career. Book a discovery call

📢 If This Resonated…

Please share this episode with a fellow leader who needs to hear it.

Leave a review to support the show or reach out to me directly — I’d love to hear what landed most for you.

In this episode, I talk with Julia Middleton, founder of Women Emerging, about how women everywhere are redefining what it means to lead. Julia shares how her global “expeditions” help women discover their own authentic way of leading and introduces her Four E’s framework — Essence, Elements, Expression, and Energy.

We explore why traditional models of leadership don’t always fit women, how to lead in alignment with who you are, and the courage it takes to lead your way in systems not designed for you.

💡 We talk about:

• Why many women don’t relate to traditional leadership
• The Four E’s of authentic leadership
• How to find and lead from your true essence
• The power of energy in leadership
• How to trust yourself and lead your way

This is Influence & Impact for Leaders, the podcast that helps leaders like you increase your impact and build a happy and high performing team. Each episode delivers focused, actionable insights you can implement immediately, to be better at your job without working harder.

About Julia Middleton:

Founder Women Emerging

Julia Middleton is a best-selling author of “If that’s leading, I’m in”, "Leading beyond Authority" and "Cultural Intelligence" and the host of the Women Emerging podcast.

She is deeply committed to helping people from all backgrounds to lead and speaks regularly about leadership to audiences around the world.

In 2022, Julia launched an expedition of 24 women to find 'an approach to leading that resonated with women'. In 2024 she then founded Women Emerging. She now leads expeditions with women across the world using the 4Es methodology, discovered on the first expedition.

Prior to this Julia was Founder and Chief Executive of Common Purpose, which she 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 advisory councils of AUB in Lebanon, Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil and Synapse in Pakistan. She is also a board member of Equality Now globally.

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

LISTEN TO JULIA’S TED TALK ON CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE

Julia’s books can be found here:

1. If that’s leading, I’m in

2. Beyond Authority: Leadership in a changing world

3. Cultural Intelligence: The competitive edge for leaders crossing boundaries:

CONNECT WITH JULIA ON LINKEDIN

Work with Carla:

• Impactful Teams Scorecard – Discover how your team measures up and how you can grow your team’s impact.
• 1:1 Leadership...

There are a lot of misunderstandings about Gen Z in the workplace and in this episode we aim to clear some of those up and equip you to lead intergenerational teams successfully.

My guest Alex Atherton—former head teacher turned leadership coach and author of The Snowflake Myth—is here to challenge the “snowflake” stereotype and get practical about leading Gen Z.

We explore what’s really driving Gen Z at work and how to recruit, onboard, and set expectations without lowering the bar. We also talk about how to get intergenerational teams communicating successfully and the skills we need to develop as leaders to get the most out of this younger generation entering the workplace.

This is Influence & Impact for Leaders, the podcast that helps leaders like you increase your impact and build a happy and high performing team. Each episode delivers focused, actionable insights you can implement immediately, to be better at your job without working harder.

About Alex Atherton:

Alex Atherton is an experienced educator, keynote speaker and leadership coach. Previously Alex spent 25 years working in inner-city comprehensive secondary schools, of which over half was spent as a headteacher in London.

Links for Alex:

Website

Book: The Snowflake Myth

LinkedIn

Work with Carla:

• Impactful Teams Scorecard – Discover how your team measures up and how you can grow your team’s impact.
• 1:1 Leadership Coaching with Carla – get support to help you get your voice heard at work and develop your career. Book a discovery call

📢 If This Resonated…

Please share this episode with a fellow leader who needs to hear it.

Leave a review to support the show or reach out to me directly — I’d love to hear what landed most for you.