Advertise on podcast: The Fulfilled Leader with Jean Balfour

How often are you dragging yourself to work at the moment? Too much work and rising pressure are real problems, but underneath them there may be something we rarely talk about: motivation.  In this short episode, Jean revisits the classic theories of Maslow and Herzberg before turning to Daniel Pink’s model of autonomy, mastery and purpose. She explores why so many of us, especially senior leaders, are losing all three right now, and offers a simple way to start getting them back. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE A quick, jargon-free tour of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s hygiene and motivational factorsDaniel Pink’s three intrinsic motivators, autonomy, mastery and purpose, and why they matter so much in knowledge and leadership workWhy acceleration, pressure and uncertainty are quietly eroding all three, and how this trickles down from senior leaders to whole organisationsPractical ways to rebuild each one, from an hour of self-directed deep work to solving a tricky problem without reaching for AIA simple rating exercise to identify which motivator matters most to you, and where to startWHY THIS MATTERS  When work feels like a struggle, it’s easy to blame the workload, the organisation or ourselves. Looking through the lens of motivation can reveal what’s really missing. Motivation is personal, so what autonomy or mastery looks like for you will be different from anyone else. But choosing just one area to strengthen can bring back some joy and meaning to your day. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Every career has a bump in the road: a redundancy, a role that went to someone else, a mistake, a step back or a difficult piece of feedback. These moments often stay hidden, and while they’re hidden they don’t go away. In this episode, Jean explores shame at work: what it is, why it lingers, and how to bring it into the light. Drawing on the work of Brené Brown, Kristin Neff and Russ Harris, she uses one of the most common examples, a gap in your CV, to show how to talk about difficult career moments without dread. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE The difference between guilt (“I did something bad”) and shame (“I am bad”), and what a dog caught stealing food can teach us about itWhy shame is so personal, and how family, culture and background shape the stories we tell ourselvesA step-by-step approach: notice it, name it, normalise it, externalise it and make a practical planHow to apply this to a CV gap, so you can tell your story with confidence, and maybe even prideA simple release exercise from Russ Harris using nothing more than a piece of paperWHY THIS MATTERS  Shame thrives in silence. When we push difficult career moments down, they cost us energy and make them harder to talk about when it counts, in an interview, a conversation with a manager or over dinner with a new friend. Meeting these moments with self-compassion and recognising our common humanity helps us hold them more lightly, and move forward with our heads held high. RESOURCES Brené Brown’s TED talk on shame  My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

When work is hard, it's easy to lose sight of where your career is taking you. In this episode,  Jean explores two ideas about what makes a fulfilling career:  Gay Hendricks' Zone of Genius and Jim Collins' encodings. She also shares a simple daily practice, taking just a few minutes, to help you discover yours. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE What the Zone of Genius is, and why it's less intimidating than it soundsJim Collins' idea of encodings, from his new book What to Make of a LifeA four-step exercise, adapted from Jim Collins' practice of rating each day from -2 to +2, to build a working life with more +2 daysWhat to do with the "should" voices, and with the realisation that you might be out of alignmentWHY THIS MATTERS When we're tired, stressed and short on time, the big questions about values and purpose can feel out of reach.  This episode offers a gentler starting point: noticing which days light you up, and why. Small, steady experiments can bring more of that work into your week and give you the energy to shape where your career goes next.  You can find the exercise on Jean's Substack at https://jeanbalfour.substack.com/ and a more detailed version inside Flourish. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Many successful and rewarding careers rarely unfold the way we imagine, and Melanie Bell's is proof. Melanie grew up on a small farm in Australia and now leads industry go-to-market for APJ telecom, media and entertainment at the data and AI platform company Snowflake, from Singapore. In this episode she shares how a disappointment at 17, a sideways move over a promotion, and a two-year overseas assignment that turned into nine years shaped the senior leader she is today. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE How not getting into the Australian Defence Force Academy became one of the greatest gifts of Melanie's career, and why keeping options open matters when you are unclear about your destinationWhy losing alignment with your values is not the same as losing your capabilityThe sideways move Melanie chose, taking a risk to build a new business rather than inheriting an existing one, and how this grew into a $100 million-plus recurring engine for TelstraMelanie's idea of career experience as compound interest: adjacent experiences that come together over timeHow she built a network in Hong Kong from nothing, coffee by coffee, and why generosity sits at the heart of relationshipsHow studying AI at MIT Sloan School of Management helped her rediscover her love of learningWHY THIS MATTERS Every career is different, and leading with our values is what powers our success as senior leaders. Melanie offers a window into what it really looks like to take considered risks, stay true to your values, and build a career from experiences that stretch you, not just advance you. It's an honest conversation about the choices, the setbacks, and the relationships that help build the leader we become. You can find Melanie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-bell-1876494/ My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Coaches are trained to ask questions, not hand over tools  - but Jean has spent the past year quietly breaking that rule, and in this episode she explains why. Drawing on everything from a taxi driver in Singapore to her own therapist's approach, Jean makes the case for self-coaching, and shares the community she's built to make it possible: Flourish. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE Why coach training actively discourages handing tools over to clients -  and why Jean thinks that needs to changeThe concept of psycho-education, and how Jean's own therapist changed her thinking on itThe story of a taxi driver who taught her something about who coaching tools are really forWhat's inside the Flourish Community - the tools, the live workshops, the hot seat group coaching, and the book clubWhy community, not just tools, is the part of this Jean cares about mostWHY THIS MATTERS Work is harder right now, and one-to-one coaching isn't accessible to everyone who needs it. Jean has spent 25 years gathering the tools, frameworks and guidelines she uses with clients - and rather than keeping them behind a coaching relationship, she's decided to hand them over. This episode is Jean's honest account of wrestling with that decision, and an invitation to be part of the community she's building around it. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Psychological safety gets talked about constantly, but rarely broken down into something you can actually do on a Tuesday morning with your team.  In this episode, Jean is joined by Helen Sanderson MBE -  author of 20+ books, and co-founder of the self-managed home care organisation Wellbeing Teams, which was rated Outstanding by the CQC.  Helen's new book, Psychological Safety in Practice, published by Kogan-Page, is out in October 2026,. In it she distils decades of person-centred work into five practical foundations. This conversation is full of small, doable practices that add up to something much bigger. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE Helen's five foundations of psychological safety - mattering, clarity, voice, connection, and learning - and how to bring each one to lifeThe difference between mattering and belonging, and why it changes how you show up for peopleWhy "closing the loop" is the single most underused practice in staff surveys and appraisalsHow team agreements and tension cards can surface what's really getting in the way of a team working well togetherWhy relationships at work may be the biggest predictor of both wellbeing and performance - backed by the Harvard longevity studyWhere to start if all of this feels like a lot (hint: start quietly, and start with mattering)WHY THIS MATTERS So much of the psychological safety conversation stops at "this is important" without ever getting to "here's how." Helen's work bridges that gap. Her five foundations came out of real, high-stakes experience - building a self-managed care team from scratch, with genuinely vulnerable people relying on it to work. What she's landed on isn't theory, it's tested practice: noticing, appreciation, rounds, team agreements, confirmation practices. None of it requires a big rollout or a culture change programme. It just asks you to start, quietly, with one small shift - and let that build. Links for Helen and her book here: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helensandersonhsa/ Book: Psychological Safety in Practice - Helen Sanderson Tedx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRBMfO8DC0A My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

We're living through a wave of headlines about burnout, disillusionment, and generational rebellion at work. Millennials are exhausted. Gen X are questioning why they're still doing this. And yet, alongside all of this, Jean is coaching people who are genuinely thriving in the same landscape. In this episode, Jean shares her own view on what's really driving this moment - and a slightly controversial take on what to do about it. Spoiler: it's down to us. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE The real factors behind the current wave of workplace burnout and disillusionment - from always-on culture to "regrettable retention."Why our identities get so tangled up with work, and how that keeps us stuck.Four choices you always have when you're struggling at work - and how to tell which one is right for you.How to use Stephen Covey's circles of control, influence, and concern to stop spinning on things you can't change.A real story of how one conversation with a boss completely redesigned someone's role - without them having to leave.WHY THIS MATTERS It's easy to feel like a passenger in your own career right now - at the mercy of restructures, difficult managers, and a job market that makes leaving feel risky. But organisations will always make decisions based on shareholders first, employees third. Waiting for work to fix itself, or complaining without acting, keeps us stuck and drains our energy. This episode is about taking back agency - not by ignoring how hard things are, but by getting honest about the compromises we're making, and choosing our own path with integrity. RESOURCES AND LINKS The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck Free values assessment (sign up to Jean's newsletter): Career Transitions podcast with Vanessa Iloste and Vanessa Teo    My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Anxiety is everywhere at the moment, but the most exhausting part is not always what’s happening in the world. It’s what happens inside us when our mind sprints into the future and our nervous system hits panic, shutdown, or people pleasing. We sit down together to bring mindfulness back to earth as something practical, body based, and usable in real life, especially at work when pressure is rising and roles are stretching.  Helen Williams, a mindfulness teacher and therapist, shares what she notices across cultures: our autonomic nervous system often runs the show through fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. We talk about how to recognise your default pattern, why “just think positive” fails, and how the smallest moment of awareness creates the space to choose a response. If your thoughts feel like traffic, you don’t have to climb into every car.  We also swap simple grounding tools you can try immediately: a hand on the chest with a quiet “come here”, short check ins prompted by phone timers, walking without headphones, gratitude walks, and sensory practices that calm the body fast. We explore why uncertainty is so hard, how constant news can amplify worry, and how self compassion transforms “why me” into genuine support and connection with others.  If you want a realistic mindfulness toolkit for anxiety, workplace stress, and modern overwhelm, press play. Subscribe, share with someone who needs steadiness right now, and leave us a review. What’s one tiny practice you’ll try today? My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

We live in worrying times. Whether it's job security, the impact of AI, or simply the overwhelming feeling of having too much to do, worry at work is something most of us are experiencing right now.  But worrying rarely leads anywhere helpful, and often makes things worse. In this episode, Jean shares a four-step process that has genuinely helped her navigate a particularly challenging period, along with the neuroscience behind why we worry in the first place. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE • Why worry exists  - and why our brains are wired to do it, even when it's not helping us. • The neuroscience of the task positive and default mode networks, and how to use both to your advantage. • A four-step process for working with worry rather than against it. • How self-compassion changes our relationship with the worries we're carrying. • What to do with the worries you genuinely can't control. WHY THIS MATTERS Worry is our brain's attempt to solve a problem - but left unchecked, it exhausts us and stops us functioning at our best, usually at exactly the time we need to.  This episode reframes worry not as something to push down or ignore, but as something to work with thoughtfully. With the right tools, it's possible to move from anxious rumination to creative, generative action. TAKEAWAY You don't have to let worry take over. By externalising it, meeting it with compassion, and taking purposeful action where you can, you can reclaim your focus and your energy  - even in challenging times. RESOURCES AND LINKS Full article + four-step process + journaling prompts: https://jeanbalfour.substack.com/ My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Have you been feeling stuck, lost, or uncertain about what comes next in your work or career? You're not alone - and there's a name for what you're experiencing. In this episode, Jean shares her own journey through what Jim Collins calls the fog — the disorienting period that follows a significant life or career change. Honest, personal, and at moments quite extraordinary, this is a conversation about resilience, trust, and the quiet process of emergence. Jean draws on ideas from Jim Collins, William Bridges, Martha Beck, and Lisa Miller, and shares a remarkable real-life experience of synchronicity that helped her find clarity. You'll also find practical tools to help you navigate your own fog — including reflection prompts, small steps to take, and questions worth sitting with. Books mentioned: What Makes a Life — Jim CollinsManaging Transitions — William BridgesThe Way of Integrity — Martha BeckThe Awakened Brain — Dr Lisa MillerThe Happiness Trap — Russ HarrisFind the full article + journalling prompts: jeanbalfour.substack.com My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

In this moving and deeply human conversation, Jean welcomes  Elaine Robinson, Principal of Sir Manasseh Meyer International School in Singapore. With over 25 years in education, Elaine has led schools across the UK and internationally with vision, courage, and compassion. Elaine shares openly about her leadership journey, from navigating the complexities of leading a school community through COVID-19 to facing her own profound personal loss while continuing to lead with authenticity, grace, and care. Together, Jean and Elaine explore what it truly means to be a compassionate leader  - one who holds space for both accountability and humanity, structure and softness, courage and vulnerability. In This Episode You’ll hear about: The power of compassionate leadership and how it transforms school cultures.How to hold people accountable with kindness and clarity.The importance of creating safe and bold spaces for teachers, students, and staff to bring their whole selves to work.The role of community and teamwork in sustaining leadership through challenge.Elaine’s deeply personal story of leading through her husband’s illness and loss, and what it taught her about resilience, faith, and compassion for self. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Katie Best, a leadership coach, consultant, and author whose career has been shaped by asking one central question: what are the problems leaders struggle with most — and how can we solve them? Katie is the founder of Katie Best Associates, she teaches on the MBA Essentials Programme at the London School of Economics, and is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London. Most recently, she became an author with her new book The 10 Toughest Leadership Problems. Her journey into writing the book began, not in a quiet academic office, but in the middle of the pandemic. Katie began mapping out the recurring challenges she’d seen across decades of coaching and executive education. What she noticed was powerful: no matter the industry or seniority, leaders kept coming with the same tough problems. Out of that work, the SOLVE framework was born. In This Conversation we trace Katie’s journey from consultant and educator to author, and explore the big themes in her book: Personal Effectiveness  -  Why leaders today are carrying jobs that are simply “too big,” and how to tell the difference between organizational overload and self-imposed pressure.Influence  - How the art of influence has shifted in flatter, matrixed organizations, and why relationships and trust are more persuasive than data alone.Managing Performance  - Reframing those dreaded “difficult conversations” as an act of service and growth, rather than conflict.Culture and Values  - What it means to “just be a good human” in pressured workplaces, and how to recover when leaders get derailed.Leadership is hard -  and yet it can also be deeply fulfilling. Katie reminds us that fulfillment comes when leaders find roles and organizations where they can bring their authentic selves to work, and be valued for what they uniquely contribute. Her book is both a handbook for solving problems and a guide to building resilience. By working through the challenges, leaders don’t just fix what’s broken — they grow skills that carry into every part of their work and life. Resources Dr. Katie Best’s book: The 10 Toughest Leadership Problems Learn more about Dr Katie Best👉 Subscribe to The Fulfilled Leader wherever you listen to podcasts, and if you enjoy this episode, share it with a colleague or friend navigating their own leadership journey. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Influencing others at work can often feel like one of the most challenging parts of leadership. Whether it’s navigating difficult relationships, persuading colleagues to collaborate, or aligning a team around a new direction, influence is at the heart of how leaders get things done. In this episode, Jean explores what it really means to influence others with respect and integrity. What You’ll Learn in This Episode Why influencing is a core leadership skill that extends beyond formal authority.The shift from command-and-control leadership to today’s matrixed, collaborative workplaces.A three-step framework for influencing effectively:Clarify your goal – create a vision that inspires, not just a process-focused objective.Understand the current state – stand in the shoes of the person or group you’re seeking to influence.Choose the right action – select an influencing strategy that fits the context and respects others.Seven practical strategies for influence, from using logic and data to building relationships, creating impact, bargaining, and even knowing when to (carefully) lean on authority.How to approach influencing as a human skill rooted in empathy, respect, and adaptability.Why This Matters Too often, leaders approach influence by pushing their own agenda. This episode reframes influence as a relational process, one that can reduce sleepless nights, improve collaboration, and help you achieve outcomes while strengthening trust. Takeaway Influence is not about forcing or persuading, it’s about listening, connecting, and shaping outcomes in ways that benefit everyone involved. With practice, you can become a more confident and effective influencer, no matter your role. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

In this episode of The Fulfilled Leader, Jean Balfour explores one of the most common challenges leaders face, negative thinking, rumination, and self-doubt. Whether it shows up as imposter syndrome, constant worry, or replaying conversations in your head, these thought patterns can drain your energy and undermine your confidence. Jean explains why our brains are wired to focus on the negative, how this evolutionary mechanism once kept us safe, and why it so often works against us in the modern workplace. She shares insights from neuroscience, personal stories from her own journey with anxiety and rumination, and practical strategies you can use to shift your relationship with negative thinking. What You’ll Learn in This Episode Why small triggers at work can send us spiraling into self-doubt.The three evolutionary drivers behind our brain’s negativity bias.How constant rumination impacts our energy, confidence, and leadership.The role of the amygdala in amplifying worry and fear.Why awareness is the first step to change—and how to practice it.Practical tools for “unhooking” from negative thoughts, including writing them down, reframing them, and even playful strategies like singing them out loud.How to hold onto the positive and let go of what doesn’t serve you.Resources and References The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)Rick Hanson’s work on the “Velcro for negatives, Teflon for positives” brain metaphorPractices for mindfulness, distraction, and self-compassionTakeaway Negative thinking never fully disappears—it’s part of being human. But you can change your relationship with it. By learning to observe, unhook, and reframe your thoughts, you free up energy and confidence to lead with greater calm and fulfillment. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/

Have you ever thought about how your school experiences continue to shape you as a leader today? From the sound of the classroom bell to the sting of a teacher’s red ink, our memories from school and college often run deeper than we realise. In this reflective episode of The Fulfilled Leader, Jean invites you to pause and explore the surprising connections between your early educational experiences and how you now show up at work, in leadership, and in life. Drawing on her own journey of revisiting childhood schools in New Zealand, Jean shares stories that reveal how formative those years still are. She then guides you through questions and practical reflections to help uncover your own patterns, strengths, and stories that may still be influencing your leadership today. In this episode, you’ll explore: How early experiences of belonging or exclusion affect the way you connect with colleagues.The power of a teacher’s words, both encouraging and discouraging, and how they echo into adulthood.Why hidden stories from school can hold you back or quietly propel you forward.Ways to reframe old narratives so they serve your leadership now.Journaling prompts and practices to loosen the hold of unhelpful memories.This episode is an invitation to reflect gently on your past. By bringing awareness to how your school years shaped you, you gain the freedom to choose what stories to keep, what to reshape, and what to finally release. Because while our early experiences matter, they don’t have to define us forever. With awareness, compassion, and curiosity, you always have the power to choose anew. My community Flourish is open for new members. Flourish is a space for curious and ambitious professionals, eager to continually grow and enjoy fulfilment at work.  Follow the link for more details https://jeanbalfour.com/flourish/ Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/