The Leadership Edge: Impact, Influence, and the Science of Presence

Marking International Women's Day — the mindset shifts and behaviours that move leaders from capable to genuinely influential.

A practical conversation across executive experience, behavioural science, and front-line health leadership. Susan, Juliette and Jo unpack why the old model of leadership no longer holds, what separates managers from influencers, where leaders (particularly women) quietly shrink at the moment they should expand, and the taboo conversations — power, ambition, money — that senior rooms keep avoiding.

Hosted by Susan Pearse, Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb & Jo Campbell

Five things to take from this episode.

1. 01

   Lead from presence, not from title

   Influence is decided in the two seconds before you speak. This week, before every meeting that matters, take ten seconds to land: feet on the floor, one slow exhale, name the one thing this conversation is about. Walk in regulated. Authority transmits before you open your mouth.

2. 02

   Catch yourself shrinking — and stop

   Notice the moments you soften: hedging a strong opinion, adding "just" or "sorry" before a point, deferring to the loudest voice. Pick one of those tells this week and remove it. Say the sentence without the softener. The discomfort lasts a second. The shift in how you are heard lasts longer.

3. 03

   Have one taboo conversation

   Power, ambition, money — the three conversations senior leaders still avoid. Pick the one you've been dancing around — a pay conversation, a promotion ask, a leadership ambition you've never named out loud — and put it on the calendar this week. Naming it changes what becomes possible.

4. 04

   Trade competence for one act of influence

   Competence delivers what was asked. Influence shapes what is asked next. Identify one decision being made above your level this week and add your point of view to it — a written note, a corridor conversation, a clear position in the meeting. Influence is a muscle. It grows with reps.

5. 05

   Protect your capacity like it's the asset it is

   Sustained influence is impossible from a depleted system. Block one non-negotiable recovery window this week — a walk, a workout, an hour with no inputs — and defend it the way you'd defend a board meeting. The leaders who hold their edge over decades are the ones who treat their own capacity as the operational asset it actually is.