Leadership is never only about the leader.
Beyond Leading is for people who want to understand what is really going on when leadership gets complicated — when teams get stuck, decisions aren't clear, businesses change, relationships become difficult or the usual leadership advice simply isn't enough.
Hosted by executive coach and Non-Executive Director Alec Pearson, the podcast explores the whole leadership system — from self-awareness, confidence and behaviour, through trust, conflict and team dynamics, to decision-making, accountability, organisational performance, executive leadership and the boardroom.
Each episode is designed to make you think differently about the situations you are dealing with. Not by offering another neat five-step formula, but by looking beneath the surface, challenging assumptions and asking the questions that are easy to miss.
Through solo episodes and conversations with leaders, business owners, coaches and specialists, Beyond Leading helps you make better sense of yourself, your team and the organisation around you.
Because what happens in one part of the system rarely stays there.
🎙 Beyond Leading — and everything in between.
Ep 27 - When the Horse Says No: What It Reveals About Your Leadership
with Alec Pearson and Jude Jennison.
What does a horse know about leadership? Quite a lot, as it turns out.
Jude Jennison works with senior leaders and executive teams using a herd of horses to expose something that's much harder to see in the meeting room: our default patterns of behaviour.
A horse doesn't care about your job title, experience or intentions. It responds to what you're actually communicating: your confidence, clarity, energy, emotions and behaviour. And when it doesn't want to follow you, the feedback is immediate. There is no carefully worded performance review. The horse simply says no..
In this episode of Beyond Leading, Alec talks with Jude about what happens when experienced leaders are taken outside their comfort zone and can no longer rely on the behaviours that have always worked for them.
They explore:
why horses reveal leadership blind spots so quickly
what control, self-doubt and lack of clarity look like under pressure
why stronger relationships don't mean avoiding challenge or conflict
what happens when teams work harder but aren't genuinely aligned
why effective leadership starts with paying attention to yourself and the people around you
Jude also shares some remarkable examples from her work, including an exhausted leadership team whose fatigue was exposed when the horses simply lay down.
Ultimately, this is a conversation about what horses can reveal that the boardroom often cannot: the hidden patterns, blind spots and behaviours that shape how we really lead.
Jude Jennison is the Founder of Leaders by Nature. A former IBM leader, she has developed more than 5,000 leaders, written three books and works with organisations to change how leaders and teams behave under pressure, uncertainty and change.
Find out more about Jude and Leaders by Nature:
Website: https://www.leadersbynature.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judejennison/
Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast (https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast)
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1 Oct 2026
Ep 26 - The Business That Got You Here Won't Get You There
with Alec Pearson and Claire Ryan.
A business can be successful and still reach a point where the way it has always worked is no longer enough.
The systems may be creaking. Too much may still depend on the owner. Different parts of the business may be working in isolation. And now AI is adding another layer of pressure — and another set of decisions.
So how do you know when the business needs to change? And how do you avoid reaching for new technology before you really understand the problem you are trying to solve?
In this episode Alec Pearson is joined by Claire Ryan, a business transformation specialist who works with successful business owners at exactly this kind of turning point.
Claire helps businesses step back, look at how they are really operating, and work out what needs to change if they are going to remain relevant, competitive and ready for what comes next.
In this episode:
Why successful businesses can outgrow the systems, processes and ways of working that got them this far.
What AI is exposing about technology, data, governance and decision-making inside organisations.
The leadership challenge of changing a business when people, including sometimes the founder or MD, may not be ready to move.
This is a conversation about business transformation, but also about judgement. About knowing when something that once worked no longer does. And about recognising when the next stage of growth requires more than simply doing more of the same.
To connect with Claire Ryan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-ryan-mba/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-ryan-mba/)
Email: claire@fusioneconsulting.co.uk
Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast (https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast)
Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes — wherever you listen.
17 Sept 2026
Ep 25 - When Nobody Owns The Outcome
with Alec Pearson
What happens when everyone follows the process, does exactly what they are supposed to do, and the problem still isn’t solved?
That is where ownership gets interesting.
In this episode Alec Pearson explores what happens when responsibility is spread across teams, functions and organisations, but nobody is truly accountable for the outcome.
A recent experience with a serious mechanical failure brought the issue into sharp focus. Everyone involved appeared to have a role. Everyone had a process. Everyone could explain what they had done.
And yet one question remained: Who actually owned the outcome?
It is a pattern that appears inside many organisations more often than we might like to admit. Problems are handed over, escalated, logged and passed on. Everyone can point to their part of the process.
But the problem itself can remain unresolved.
In this episode, I explore:
The difference between responsibility and genuine accountability
Why following the process is not the same as owning the outcome
When judgement and leadership need to take over from process
What leaders should ask about ownership across their organisation
Because organisations can become very good at processing problems.
The real test of leadership is what happens when somebody recognises that the process is no longer enough.
And if everybody owns a piece of the process, there is always a risk that nobody owns the problem.
Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast (https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast)
Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes — wherever you listen.
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