The Leader's Kitbag
by Ben Morton
The Leader’s Kitbag is a practical podcast for busy and aspiring leaders, hosted by leadership expert Ben Morton.Each episode is packed with tools, tips and tactics you can use immediately. In 5–10 minutes, you’ll get a clear insight, a simple framework or prompt, and a nudge to put it into practice.If you want actionable tools and a clearer path to leadership success, this is your kitbag for the journey.
Episodes
-
How to Ask for Feedback at Work and Get Honest Answers From Your Team
How to Ask for Feedback at Work and Get Honest Answers From Your Team “How am I doing?” It’s a well-intentioned question. And it almost always gets the same answer: “Yeah, fine. All good.” Over the last two episodes of The Leaders Kitbag, I’ve looked at how to give feedback well. In this episode…
more -
How To Have a Difficult Conversation
“I want to talk to you about your timekeeping. You’re always coming in late at the moment.” If someone said that to you, what would your first reaction be? For most of us, it’s something like: “What do you mean, always? That’s not fair.” And just like that, the conversation has gone sideways. In...
-
How to Make Difficult Feedback Actually Stick
In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I want to pick up somewhere most conversations about feedback stop: the moment after someone's taken it on board and actually improved. I was coaching a senior leader recently. She had a team member whose performance wasn't where it needed to be. She'd tried...
-
How to Run Effective Meetings - For Every Personality Type
If you've ever wondered how to run effective meetings when everyone in the room seems to work differently, this episode is for you. Some people get energy from a meeting the moment it starts. Ideas come out as they talk, and the room moves with them. Others need quiet beforehand just to get their...
-
How to Be Heard in Meetings as an Internal Thinker
How to Be Heard in Meetings as an Internal Thinker Have you ever left a meeting thinking, I didn't say enough? Maybe everyone else seemed to be talking, and you sat there processing, listening, staying fairly quiet. If that's you, this episode is about how to be heard in meetings, even if you're...
-
Why Being Unavailable Could Make You a Better Leader
Leadership Availability vs Productivity If you've ever promised yourself you'd switch your phone off for an hour, only to find your hand reaching for it ten minutes later, this episode is for you. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore why being unavailable, something most leaders find...
-
How to prepare your team before going on holiday
Over the next few weeks, a lot of us will be packing the work bag for the last time before heading off on holiday. And if you're a leader, there's a good chance you'll be carrying a quiet, nagging worry alongside the suncream and the out-of-office: what's going to happen while I'm gone? In this...
-
Why You're Not Delegating - And the Simple Tool That Fixes It
Most leaders I work with know they should delegate more. They say it regularly. And yet, somehow, the same decisions, meetings, and projects stay on their plate. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore why effective delegation is so difficult - not in theory, but in practice - and...
-
High Performance Teams Don't Just Work Hard - They Reset
High Performance Teams Don't Just Work Hard - They Reset Think about the last big project your team completed. What happened the moment it was done? My guess is - not much. A brief exhale, perhaps a quick well done in the next team meeting, and then straight into the next thing. Because there’s...
-
Why the Best Leaders Treat Themselves Like Elite Athletes
Why the Best Leaders Treat Themselves Like Elite Athletes If you’ve ever made it to a holiday only to spend the first two days flat on your back with a cold, this episode is for you. That pattern is more common than we think. And it isn’t just bad luck. It’s a signal worth paying attention to. In...
-
The 60-Second Reset — How to Shift Your State Before It Shifts Your Team
In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore something that most leaders experience but rarely address: walking into a meeting still carrying the weight of the one before it. Research on emotional contagion tells us that your team picks up on your state within seconds of you walking into a...
-
How to Handle Back-to-Back Meetings Without Burning Out
In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore one of the most common and draining patterns I see when working with leaders, moving from one meeting straight into the next with no pause, no reset, and no time to think. While back-to-back meetings might feel unavoidable, the reality is they come...
-
Why Reflection Is Essential for Effective Leadership
If you’re someone who feels constantly busy, moving from one thing to the next with very little time to pause and think, then this episode is for you. In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore why reflection is not a “nice to have” but an essential leadership skill. Too often, leaders...
-
If You’re In the Fight, You’re Not Leading
In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore a simple but powerful idea that can transform the way you lead: you can’t lead effectively if you’re constantly in the thick of the action. Filmed at Berkhamsted Castle - a place steeped in history following the events after 1066 - I reflect on…
more -
Focus On Energy Management, Not Time Management
Time management is something we talk about constantly as leaders. But the reality is… time isn’t something we can actually manage. It keeps moving, regardless of what we do. In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore a more effective and sustainable approach - shifting our focus away from...
-
What Does-Work Life Balance Actually Mean?
Work–life balance is something we talk about a lot. Many of us say we want better work–life balance. Many organisations encourage it. And yet for many leaders, it still feels frustratingly difficult to achieve. Part of the problem is that we often chase the idea of work–life balance without ever...
-
Where Do Good Ideas Come From?
Where do your best ideas happen? For many of us, they don’t appear when we’re sat at our desk trying to force a solution. Instead, they arrive when we’re walking, driving, swimming, or doing something routine. In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore why that happens and what…
more -
Helping Your Team Step Up
Over the past 13 years of coaching and training leaders, one of the phrases I hear time and again is this: “I just need my people to step up.” And yet, here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve had to learn myself. It’s very hard for people to step up if their boss has their foot on their chest. Not...
-
How To Be A Leader
In the last episode, we introduced the Leadership Equaliser - an idea that helps us visualise how much time we spend doing, managing, and leading, and why so many leaders unintentionally let the “leading” dial drop to zero. If you missed it, you can find it here. In today’s episode, we’re staying...
-
How to Lead on a Tight Schedule
In the last episode, we explored the crucial balance between leadership and management, and why it’s never a case of choosing one over the other. If you missed it, you can find it here. In today’s episode, I’m building on that idea by tackling one of the most common and damaging traps I see…
more -
Leadership and Management – Why You Must Master Both
In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I’m busting one of the biggest leadership myths out there: the idea that we must choose between being a leader or a manager. Here’s the truth - real leadership isn’t an ‘either/or’ game. It’s about mastering both disciplines and knowing when to step into…
more -
Building Followership
You may have the title, but do you have followers? In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I explore the often-overlooked side of leadership: followership. We focus on three powerful behaviours that effective followers demonstrate, and how we, as leaders, can enable and encourage them. From...
-
Team Development – Don’t Half-Arse It
Team development is not something you can half-arse. In this episode, I share my own lessons from both sides of the fence; leading teams and facilitating team-development sessions. I reflect on why I no longer deliver one-off off-sites, and how those well-intended but poorly followed-up sessions...
-
Stop Treating Every Group Like a Team
Not every group of people reporting to the same person should be treated as a single team. In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I share a personal story that highlights what happens when we force people into team structures that don’t reflect how they actually work together. It’s a real-world...
-
Are You Really Leading a Team?
In this episode of The Leader’s Kitbag, I challenge the common assumption that every group of direct reports is automatically a ‘team’. Spoiler alert: they’re often not. Drawing on three key characteristics, shared goals, interdependence, and mutual accountability, I offer a simple framework to...
-
Why Productivity Tools Don’t Work for Everyone
If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated by a planning or productivity system — or wondered “why can’t I just stick to this?”- this episode of The Leaders Kitbag is for you. It may not be a discipline problem at all. Instead, it could be a mismatch between the tool you’re trying to use and how…
more -
Time Orientation and Leadership Under Pressure
In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore why leaders respond so differently when the pressure is on. Some double down on structure and cling tightly to the plan, while others seem to thrive when things go off-script, almost as if they’re winging it. The difference often comes down to our...
-
What Pointing to the Past Reveals
In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I share a fascinating moment from a recent leadership programme I ran with 22 managers from across Europe. When I asked them to answer a simple question, “point to the past”, every single one of them pointed behind them. That might not surprise you… but it...
-
The “Cognitive Hunger” That Shapes Successful CEOs with Peter Cohan
In these ‘SHORTS’ episodes of my podcast, I select my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from episode 183, with Peter Cohan, author of Scaling Your Startup, lecturer at Babson College and advisor to hundreds of early-stage and high-growth companies. Only 0.4% of all founders...
-
How Your Relationship with Time Shapes Your Leadership
In this short but powerful episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I’m sharing a concept that’s brand new to me – one that’s genuinely shifted how I think about time, productivity, and leadership. It originates from the world of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and explores the idea that people relate…
more -
Leading With Thought
In one of my earliest podcast episodes, I interviewed Connor Pearce - now President of Samsung Electronics in Poland - who shared a powerful piece of leadership advice he received early in his career: “Think like a man of action. Act like a man of thought.” In today’s Leader’s Kitbag, I unpack…
more -
From Startup to Scale-Up: The 4 Stages Every Leader Must Navigate
In this episode of Leading the ScaleUp, I’m joined by Peter Cohan - author of Scaling Your Startup, lecturer at Babson College, and advisor to hundreds of early-stage and high-growth companies. Together, we dive into the four essential stages of scaling and why skipping just one of them can…
more -
How to Be Heard in Meetings Without Getting Louder
If you’ve ever felt that the only way to be noticed in a meeting is to raise your voice, this episode is for you. In today’s Leader’s Kitbag, I challenge the belief that volume equals influence. Whether you’re a reflective thinker, naturally quieter, or simply not the first to speak up, you’ll...
-
Speak Less, Lead More
Could speaking less actually make you a more impactful leader? Inspired by a quote from author Graham Greene, “The more you say, the more likely you are to look foolish,” this episode of The Leaders Kitbag explores the power of intentional communication in leadership. Some of the most effective...
-
Tackling Workplace Unhappiness with Lord Mark Price
In these ‘SHORTS’ episodes of my podcast, I select my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from episode 182, with Lord Mark Price, former Managing Director of Waitrose, Deputy Chair of the John Lewis Partnership, and UK Trade Minister, who unpacks key insights on happiness at...
-
Do I Need To Say More In Meetings?
Do you ever walk out of a meeting questioning whether you said enough, or even doubting if you made any impact at all? In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore a common struggle for reflective, internal-thinking leaders who often equate airtime with impact. Spoiler alert: the two are not...
-
Fire and Forget Goal Setting
In this episode of The Leaders Kit Bag, I unpack a common leadership pitfall I call "fire and forget goal setting" - when we set big, ambitious goals for our team, then disappear, hoping for the best. Setting the target isn’t enough. Support, guidance, and course correction are essential to turn...
-
From Waitrose to WorkL: Lord Mark Price on Leadership, Values and Happiness
In this episode of Leading the Scale-Up, I sit down with Lord Mark Price — the former Managing Director of Waitrose, Deputy Chair of the John Lewis Partnership, and UK Trade Minister — to explore why happiness might just be the most underrated leadership strategy of our time. With four decades of...
-
The Power of Reciprocity
In this short but powerful episode of The Leaders Kit Bag, I share one simple leadership truth: when you support your team with their personal goals, not just their professional ones, you’re far more likely to get their support in return. This is rooted in a well-known psychological principle of...
-
How To Frame Goals in the Right Way
In this episode of The Leader’s Kit Bag, I explore how two people with the same skills, experience and motivation can produce vastly different results, and why the difference often comes down to the language we use when setting goals. You’ll learn about: Towards and away-from motivation styles…
more -
Fixing the ‘R’ in SMART Goals
In this episode of The Leaders Kit Bag, we’re demystifying SMART goals, specifically the part nearly everyone gets wrong. Many leaders talk about SMART goals, but very few apply them correctly, especially when it comes to the “R”. Spoiler alert: it's not "realistic". Listen in to find out the…
more -
Using Open Questions in Leadership
In this bonus episode of The Leaders Kit Bag, I’m answering a viewer’s question on the topic of open questions: what they are, why they matter, and how leaders can use them to build trust, deepen relationships, and empower their teams. Whether you're looking to create more engaging conversations,...
-
The Hidden Trap of Active Listening
Have you ever been in a conversation where someone nodded, said “yep” or “go on”… but you knew they weren’t really listening? In this episode of The Leader’s Kit Bag, I take a look at what real listening feels like for the person on the receiving end. I unpack common “active listening” techniques...
-
How to Keep Mission and Values Alive When Scaling Your Business
In these ‘SHORTS’ episodes of my podcast, I select my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from episode 181, with Georgia Aubrey, Co-Founder & Partnerships Director at Lovetovisit.com, as she shares how she ensured Lovetovisit.com has stayed true to its mission and culture…
more -
How to Make People Feel Heard — Without Saying a Word
When was the last time you truly felt heard, without judgment, interruption, or unsolicited advice? In this episode of The Leader’s Kit Bag, I explore the transformative power of listening. Drawing on a powerful exercise I ran during a recent leadership programme, I share how simply holding space...
-
The Power of Presence: How Great Leaders Truly Listen
In this episode of The Leaders’ Kit Bag, I’m exploring a deceptively simple yet profoundly impactful skill: listening. In today’s workplace, with its relentless pace and constant distractions, it’s all too easy to rush into meetings, tick off agendas, and miss what really matters. We may be…
more -
Keeping It Scrappy: Straight Talk and Scale-Up Lessons from Georgia Aubrey
In this episode, Ben Morton sits down with Georgia Aubrey, Co-Founder and Partnerships Director at Love To Visit, the UK’s first digital platform for discovering and booking attractions and experiences. From a print marketing background to building a tech platform with over 3.2 million users and...
-
How to Recover When You've Let a Colleague Down
This episode of The Leader’s Kitbag is a little different. It’s a direct response to a brilliant question I received from Suma on TikTok about accountability, specifically, what to do when things fall through the cracks and your colleagues perceive you as not being accountable. In this episode,...
-
Why Nutritional Balance Inspires Better Leadership Practices with James Collier
In these ‘SHORTS’ episodes of my podcast, I select my favourite moments from previous episodes. This one comes from episode 180, with James Collier, Co-founder of Huel and Registered Nutritionist, who explores the parallels between nutrition and leadership. Discover how principles of balanced...
-
Helping Your Boss Make Better Decisions
We often focus on how to lead and support our own teams, but what if one of the most impactful things we could do as leaders is to support those above us? In this episode of The Leaders Kitbag, I explore a powerful idea: helping your boss make better, more informed decisions. Because when we do...
About this show
The Leader’s Kitbag is a practical podcast for busy and aspiring leaders, hosted by leadership expert Ben Morton.Each episode is packed with tools, tips and tactics you can use immediately. In 5–10 minutes, you’ll get a clear insight, a simple framework or prompt, and a nudge to put it into practice.If you want actionable tools and a clearer path to leadership success, this is your kitbag for the journey.
Hosted by
Ben Morton
Categories