Nowhere to Hide: Simon Lester on Small Teams, Safety and Hard Conversations

Simon Lester, Head of Product Design at Nuix, has spent his career proving that great teams don't need scale — they need proximity, trust and honesty. In this episode, Simon takes us back to the bosses who shaped him early on (the good and the genuinely bad), and unpacks what he's built since: small, high-functioning teams where mistakes are safe to make, feedback happens daily rather than in a monthly review, and nobody gets to hide behind the numbers.We discussed: What psychological safety actually looks like day to day Why empathy is non-negotiable when hiring How his own experience with workplace bullying shaped the way he leads now. If you've ever wondered whether bigger really is better when it comes to teams, this one might change your mind.