Welcome to Trusted
Sharing stories of leadership that relate to people, trust and culture.
Most of the important stories about leadership don’t get told.
Not because they aren’t interesting. Because the people who witnessed them are still in the room as a leader, a colleague, a direct report.
And if they’ve left, they’re usually hoping to get back into one like it. So they keep it to themselves, or share it across the dinner table, or quietly down the pub.
I want to talk about the real moments
I've spent years working alongside founders and leadership teams at some of the most consequential moments in their organisations. Growing pains, strategic pivots, leadership politics, the conversations nobody quite knows how to start.
As someone brought in from outside I often see things that employees can't say and leaders can’t always hear. Those real moments, and not the polished case studies, are the most useful lessons.
This is a chance to share
I'm calling this publication Trusted. It's for people who want the truth, not the polished version.
I'm writing it because these stories deserve to be told honestly, not to expose anyone, but to share the patterns. Names and organisations are always changed or omitted. The patterns matter more than the specifics.
The U-turns and the gut-wrenching decisions. The moments someone realises a team member is quietly sabotaging the goal, or that the person everyone underestimated has exactly the capability the business has been longing for. How these moments happen, when they happen and why.
I’m writing because leaders making difficult decisions right now would benefit from knowing that others have faced the same thing and what actually happened next.
I’ll write plainly and from experience
I'll also speak to people I know and relay the conversations from coffee shops and staff canteens. The power dynamics, the whispers, the people keeping their heads down while perpetuating the very problems they complain about.
I hope some of it is useful and, at times, cathartic. A therapeutic read if you’re already in these rooms. And if you want to be in these spaces, an honest glance at the realities.
Because the truth, if I tell it carefully, is the most useful thing I can offer.
Nic
