Battling with Business

Episode 165 - When Ordinary People Do Extraordinary Things - With Felicty Ashley Atlantic Rower, Cancer Survivor and Everest Marathon Runner

In this week’s episode we explore what really drives resilience, leadership, and high performance when everything is on the line. What happens when ordinary people, just like you or me, are placed in extraordinary circumstances and there is no escape from the team, the pressure, or the goal?
We sit down with Felicity Ashley, a mother of three and former marketing leader who decided while recovering from a hip replacement to row the Atlantic. What follows is a story that challenges almost every assumption about leadership, preparation, and what people are capable of when they truly commit to something.
We unpack what it takes to build a team that can survive 40 days at sea on two hours on, two hours off rotations, and why most teams fail not because of capability but because they neglect the fundamentals of alignment, purpose, and relationships. We explore how clear shared intent, deep understanding of individual needs, and deliberate preparation turned a team of underestimated “ordinary” people into a high performing unit.
There are powerful lessons here for any leader,  but more importantly something for each and everyone of us to think about, irrespective of what we do in our day to day lives. We learn why purpose only works when it connects to the individual. Why resilience is built long before the moment you need it. And why small, human actions inside teams often matter more than grand strategies.
If you are leading a team, building one, or trying to understand what separates those who endure from those who fall apart, this episode is worth your time.

Episode 164 - Influencers #28 - Malcom McClean and The Box That Built the World

In this week’s episode we explore a deceptively simple idea that reshaped the modern world. We tell the story of Malcom McLean and the rise of the shipping container, not as a tale of invention, but as a masterclass in leadership, systems thinking, and the real impact of change.
We start by stepping back into a world where global trade was slow, fragile, and expensive. Goods were moved by hand, ports were bottlenecks, and inefficiency was built into the system. From that chaos, McLean saw something different. His insight was not about building a better ship, but about removing friction across the entire system. By standardising how goods were moved, he connected trucks, ships, and ports into a seamless flow.
The leadership lesson is powerful. Real transformation does not always come from new technology. It often comes from rethinking how things connect. McLean’s willingness to prioritise scale and interoperability over control, even giving up his own patent advantage, shows what it means to lead beyond short term gain.
We also confront the harder side of progress. Entire industries were disrupted. Jobs disappeared. Cities declined. The container made the world more efficient, but it forced painful transitions that leaders struggled to manage.
Whether we are talking about globalisation or AI today, the challenge is the same. How do you lead through change that benefits the system but harms individuals in the short term? How do you communicate trade offs honestly and act early enough to shape the outcome?
If you are interested in leadership that deals with real complexity, this episode is worth your time. It is a story about systems, consequences, and the responsibility that comes with changing how the world works.

Episode 163 - The UK Government's Top Secret War Book : The Idiot's Guide For What To Do In Case Of Apocalypse - Part 2

In this week’s episode we continue our two part series exploring one of the most unusual leadership problems imaginable. How do you prepare an organisation or even an entire country for something that everyone hopes will never actually happen.
In the previous episode we introduced the idea of the British Government War Book, a set of detailed plans created to guide the country through the first chaotic moments of a national emergency. These documents attempted to answer an extraordinary range of questions about what would happen if the United Kingdom suddenly found itself at war.
In this second episode we move beyond the idea of planning and start asking a more difficult leadership question. How much should leaders rely on plans and how much should they rely on the people expected to execute those plans when reality refuses to cooperate.
That debate leads to a fascinating discussion about the balance between preparation and adaptability. Plans are valuable because they force leaders to think through difficult scenarios in advance. But no plan survives contact with reality and the individuals responsible for executing the mission still need the judgment, experience and confidence to adapt when circumstances change.
We explore how this tension appears both in military environments and in business. Detailed preparation can create clarity and alignment, but it can also create a false sense of certainty. The real test of leadership comes when events begin to unfold in ways that nobody fully predicted.
The episode also reflects on what these historic wartime preparations can teach modern leaders about resilience, decision making and the importance of building capable teams rather than relying purely on process.
If the first episode was about the challenge of planning for catastrophe, this second episode is about what really matters when those plans meet reality. It is a conversation about leadership under pressure and about the human judgment that ultimately determines whether preparation succeeds or fails.

Episode 162 - The UK Government's Top Secret War Book : The Idiot's Guide For What To Do In Case Of Apocalypse - Part 1

In this week’s episode we start the first of a two part series looking at how people plan for events that they hope will never actually happen.
The story begins with a visit to the National Archives at Kew where Chris spent time reading declassified documents about real British wartime planning that started just after the First World War and continued late into the Cold War. This plan, the British Government's War Book, raises a fascinating challenge that is relevant not just for the Government of the United Kingdom, but also for every other kind of organisation. How do you plan for something that is unlikely but world changing?
In this first episode we explore the idea that good planning is not about predicting the future perfectly. Instead it is about preparing organisations to deal with a range of possible futures. We discuss the concept of a cone of plausibility and why the further you look ahead the wider the range of possible outcomes becomes.
We also look at why organisations often struggle to take low probability but high impact risks seriously until they actually occur. Using examples from wartime planning and more recent events such as the Covid pandemic, we explore how leaders try to make sense of uncertain futures and what practical preparation can look like.
The discussion starts to touch on the British government War Book, a detailed set of preparations that attempted to answer practical questions about how the country would function if war broke out. These plans covered everything from broadcasting and aviation to the mechanics of keeping government running during a national emergency.
This first episode focuses on the leadership challenge of thinking ahead and recognising risks that may feel distant or unlikely. In the second episode we will explore what happens when those plans collide with reality and what leaders can learn when planning meets execution.
If you are interested in leadership, strategy and decision making under uncertainty, this is a fascinating starting point for a conversation about how individuals and organisations prepare for the unthinkable.

Episode 161 - Pressure Is the Point : What UK Special Forces Can Teach Leaders About Performance with Simon Jeffries

In this week’s episode we explore a simple but uncomfortable truth about leadership: pressure is the point. It is not something to be avoided, minimised or delegated away. It is the arena in which performance is revealed.
We sat down with Simon Jeffries, a former Special Boat Service operator turned mindset and performance coach, to unpack what elite military environments can teach leaders in business. From Royal Marines training to Special Forces selection and operational life in small, high stakes teams, Simon shared what it really means to operate when the margin for error is zero.
We talked about the difference between discomfort and damage, and why learning to sit with discomfort is a trainable skill rather than a personality trait. We explored how selection environments expose mindset weaknesses long before they expose physical ones, and why in both military and business settings the stories we tell ourselves under pressure often determine whether we push on or quit.
One of the strongest themes was performance as a system. Not motivation. Not inspiration. A system. Simon broke it down into three practical pillars: hardware, which is your physical state and nervous system; software, which is your mindset and self talk; and structure, which is the habits and routines that either create control or chaos. The insight was clear. Most businesses train skills but ignore performance.
We also discussed small team dynamics, dissent under pressure and why effective debriefs create cultures where vulnerability exists in behaviour even if it is never labelled as such. There were powerful lessons about culture being defined by behaviours rather than words on a wall, and why clarity around expectations beats slogans every time.
If you lead people, run a business or simply feel that you are operating below your potential despite outward success, this conversation will challenge you. It is direct, practical and grounded in lived experience at the sharp end of performance.
This episode is about ownership, resilience and the discipline of showing up well when it matters most. If you want to think differently about leadership and how to perform under pressure, this one is worth your time.

Episode 160 - BHAGs and 3HAGs Re-Release : Turning Vision into Action

In this week’s episode, re-released from the heady early days of the podcast in 2023, we tackle a question that sits at the heart of leadership and management: how do you move from a bold vision to meaningful action? It is easy to talk about strategy. It is much harder to create a clear destination that inspires people and then connect it to what people are actually doing on a Monday morning.
We explore the concept of the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, first introduced by Jim Collins in Built to Last. A BHAG is not a polite target or a marginal improvement. It is a statement of intent that feels almost out of reach. It should be compelling, energising and transformative. Think of enabling human settlement on Mars, or putting a computer on every desk at a time when computers filled entire rooms. If you already know exactly how to achieve it, it is probably not bold enough.
But vision without execution is theatre. So we introduce the idea of the Three Year Highly Achievable Goal. This is where long term ambition meets operational reality. What does the organisation look like in three years if we are genuinely on track? What capabilities must exist? What numbers must be true? What would customers say about us? By breaking the audacious goal into achievable stages, leaders create a golden thread that links strategy to quarterly focus and even weekly priorities.
Along the way we compare business thinking with military concepts such as operational art and mission command. We discuss how leaders generate the moral energy that motivates people to contribute to something bigger than themselves. We also confront the risk of becoming obsessed with managing the plan rather than delivering the outcome.
If you have ever felt that your organisation has a strategy on paper but no clear sense of direction in practice, this episode is for you. We move beyond abstract discussion and offer a practical framework you can apply immediately. Listen in if you want to connect bold ambition with disciplined execution and give your team a destination worth striving for.

Episode 159 - Influencers #15 Re-Release - Niccolò Machiavelli - Power and Principle in an Age of Strongmen

This week we revisit, as a re-released episode, one of the most controversial figures in political and leadership thinking as part of our Influencers series. We ask a simple but uncomfortable question. Do good leaders sometimes have to do bad things? It seems particularly relevant given the world around us today.
We return to Niccolo Machiavelli and explore whether he truly deserves his reputation as the patron saint of manipulation and ruthless ambition, or whether he was in fact one of the first serious thinkers to describe leadership as it actually is rather than as we might wish it to be.
As we unpack The Prince and his wider thinking, we explore realism versus idealism, virtue versus effectiveness, and the enduring tension between being loved and being feared. We look at why Machiavelli separated personal morality from the morality of leadership, why he believed fortune favours the bold, and why he thought leaders must be prepared to act decisively in a world where not everyone plays by the same rules.
This re-release feels strikingly relevant. From modern geopolitics to business leadership and even product management, the dilemmas he described five hundred years ago remain unchanged. How do you balance ethics with outcomes. When does pragmatism become compromise. And if the good people refuse to get their hands dirty, who fills the vacuum.
If you care about leadership in the real world rather than leadership in theory, this episode will challenge your assumptions and sharpen your thinking. Whether you end up agreeing with Machiavelli or not, you will almost certainly see power, influence and responsibility differently by the end.

Episode 158 - Leadership and Management in an AI Powered World - Part 3

In this week’s episode we conclude our three part series on AI by tackling one of the most uncomfortable and important questions of all: surveillance, control and the future of decision making.
If AI can see more than we can, interpret more than we can and act faster than we can, what does that mean for leaders, managers and the societies we operate in? Are we witnessing a natural evolution of tools that improve safety and efficiency, or are we quietly normalising a level of oversight that could reshape trust, accountability and power itself?
We explore how surveillance is not new. From CCTV networks to financial forensics, from Rolls Royce monitoring engine performance to battlefield targeting systems, organisations have always gathered data to understand and act. What AI changes is the speed, scale and autonomy of those decisions. Dashboards become insights. Insights become actions. And actions increasingly happen without a human in the loop.
We dig into the tension between efficiency and control. When machines outperform humans, should we step back? Or does leadership require us to retain oversight, even if it slows things down? We examine real examples from autonomous vehicles to military defence systems to workplace monitoring, asking where trust ends and overreach begins.
A central theme emerges: explainability and accountability are not optional. If we cannot understand why a system made a decision, we have already surrendered more control than we realise. The challenge is not rogue robots. The challenge is how people use powerful systems, and whether we build in the guardrails that protect values, culture and civil liberties.
This episode is not about easy answers. It is about asking better questions. As leaders, managers and participants in organisations, we cannot afford to treat AI as someone else’s problem. The pace of change is accelerating. The trade offs are real. The responsibility is ours.
If you care about leadership, decision making and the future of power in organisations, this is an episode you will want to hear.

Episode 157 - Leadership and Management in an AI Powered World - Part 2

In this week’s episode we continue our exploration of what it really means to lead and manage in a world increasingly shaped by AI. Rather than asking whether AI is good or bad, we focus on a harder and more important question: how leadership, culture, trust and experience change when intelligent systems begin to make decisions alongside us, or instead of us.
We reflect on how quickly AI is moving from a visible tool to an embedded part of everyday systems, much like navigation or automation in heavy industry, and what that means for managers who may find themselves acting less as decision makers and more as the accountable interface between machines and organisations. We dig into the uncomfortable reality that junior roles, often the foundation of experience and judgement, may be the first to disappear, and ask how organisations can still develop depth, mastery and resilience without simply hollowing out the future talent pipeline.
The conversation then turns to values, culture and trust. If AI systems increasingly communicate with customers, recommend actions, or even shape strategy, how do leaders ensure those systems reflect the culture they claim to stand for. We explore why culture is not something you can just encode once and forget, why predictability matters, and why leading by algorithm demands very different skills from leading by example.
We also challenge the idea that humans will always retain a unique edge, questioning assumptions about creativity and empathy, while still arguing that leadership choices, trade offs and restraint matter more than ever. This episode is not about answers. It is about asking better questions, understanding the risks of being confidently wrong, and recognising that how leaders respond now will shape whether AI strengthens organisations or quietly undermines them. If you lead people, build teams, or care about the future of work, this is a conversation you cannot afford to ignore.

Episode 156 - Leadership and Management in an AI Powered World - Part 1

In this week's episode we start a new mini series by asking a question that sits underneath all the noise about artificial intelligence and jobs.
What does leadership and management actually mean when AI becomes a permanent participant in how organisations think, decide, and act?
Rather than debating whether AI is good or bad, we focus on the practical reality that it is already here and already shaping behaviour, decisions, and power. We explore how leaders can lead when parts of the organisation are no longer human, how experience and judgment are built if entry level roles disappear, and what happens to values, culture, and trust when decision making becomes increasingly opaque.
Drawing on examples from business, education, policing, medicine, and the military, we talk through why this is not just a philosophical discussion but a very real leadership challenge.
The leaders who succeed will be the ones who understand how to work with AI as a judgment system rather than treating it as a simple tool or a replacement for thinking.
This episode sets the context for the rest of the series and makes the case that leadership in an AI enabled world will demand more clarity, accountability, and intent than ever before. If you care about building teams, developing future leaders, and retaining trust in complex organisations, this is a conversation worth spending time with.