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.

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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

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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:
  1. Clarify your goal – create a vision that inspires, not just a process-focused objective.
  2. Understand the current state – stand in the shoes of the person or group you’re seeking to influence.
  3. 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.

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Book a free strategy call: https://calendly.com/jean-balfour/30min

Learn more about my work: https://jeanbalfour.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanbalfour/