Feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure where to even begin? In this episode of The Leadership Lounge, Katie speaks directly to healthcare leaders who feel weighed down by responsibility and unable to see a way forward. Instead of waiting for the perfect solution, Katie shares why the most powerful thing you can do is take one step—any step—different from yesterday. Whether it’s a small shift in your routine or a bold choice that changes your perspective, doing something different is the spark that creates momentum and hope. You’ll hear encouragement, practical examples, and recommended resources to help you reclaim clarity and energy when leadership feels too heavy. If you’ve been feeling powerless or caught in the grind, this episode is a reminder that you already hold more choice than you realise and that change begins the moment you take the first step.

In this episode of The Leadership Lounge, Katie explores what birds flying in V-formation can teach healthcare leaders about teamwork, resilience, and balance. Leadership can feel unbearably heavy when carried alone, but geese remind us of a better way: rotating the lead, encouraging one another, and staying aligned on direction. Katie connects these lessons to the realities of healthcare, where leaders and teams are stretched thin, often overwhelmed, and at risk of burnout. You’ll take away practical insights on how to share the load, support colleagues through challenges, and build collective strength to sustain both well-being and impact.

Leadership isn’t about controlling everything; it’s about focusing on what matters. In this episode, I’m talking about how choosing your attitude and attending to the ‘boring magic’ can transform both your day and your team’s culture. With practical examples, it’s how pausing to check in, practising self-compassion, and noticing small wins help you step out of firefighting mode and into a more sustainable leadership state.

In this episode of The Leadership Lounge, I discuss navigating new job opportunities and career changes for healthcare leaders. I’ve got three steps that come up in all the conversations I have: first, reassessing your core values and strengths to clarify what matters most and what unique skills you bring; second, envisioning your future self and career goals to set a meaningful direction; and third, reflecting on your career history by creating a timeline to identify key leaps, what was left behind, gained, and how these shaped your current self. Understanding these elements helps in making confident, aligned career decisions. This episode is all about encouraging self-reflection and offers practical prompts and resources to support you in your career transitions.

As healthcare leaders, you know the value of consistency, the daily showing up, the small steps, the 1% progress that adds up over time. But what if there are moments when those steady steps aren’t enough? This week I’m thinking about the tension between incremental growth and bold, transformative leaps. I’m listening to 10X is Easier than 2X and having my thinking challenged. Which is a good thing I start with ideas on managing the all-too-familiar feeling of overwhelm, while also exploring how to challenge your own thinking, test long-held beliefs, and rethink your leadership identity. The key is learning to hold contradictions: coping and challenging, comfort and courage, progress and transformation. This episode is your invitation to pause, reflect, and ask: Does your leadership right now need small steps, a big leap, or is it both?

In the whirlwind of healthcare leadership, it can feel impossible to pause long enough to see the bigger picture. That’s where tools like SWOT and SOAR come in. In this episode of Katie’s Leadership Lounge, I’m looking at this classic framework, uncovering history, and showing how they can help leaders challenge assumptions, uncover blind spots, and move from firefighting to focused action. Whether you’re stepping into a new role, leading a team through change, or simply craving clarity, SWOT and SOAR offer simple but powerful ways to reflect, plan, and set direction.

Leading in healthcare isn’t a sprint with a clear endpoint, and there are moments when you can’t do everything and be everywhere, so you get to choose. These moments are about what really matters. Being clear on what that is for you is essential if you want to lead well. In this reflective episode, I’m sharing what pausing, noticing, and being truly present can do for your leadership. You create a triple impact: supporting your wellbeing, building stronger relationships, and improving your work. I’m sharing practical tips on how you can create moments to ground and refocus yourself, all of which you can use in less than 30 seconds. This episode is your reminder that presence is a leadership strength.

Yes, an organisation and a boss have a responsibility to set you up for success. It might be training, definitely an orientation plan, maybe a mentor, and a reasonable, if not manageable, workload (I’ll pause while you all laugh). And you have a role to play in setting yourself up for success. Getting the room ready for decorating and the walls ready for painting so the colour goes on well and evenly, so I can sit back and bask in the joy of a newly decorated and gorgeous room, is setting myself up for success. It’s the same when you’re a leader. This week, we’re into those foundations. Remember, new week, new job, new year, we’re all continual works in progress, and there are moments when it’s time and right to review these. You’ll need a different foundation than someone else, but you can’t neglect any of the 4 areas that I talk through in this episode of the Leadership Lounge.

Starting with one idea, I found myself going in circles. With so much bad stuff going on in the world, who am I to talk about anything? Not to mention my ideas for sustainable leadership in healthcare. So I started with that, and came full circle, from Bittersweet to the Stockdale Paradox and a whole lot more in between.

We’re in the UK, and you’ll tell from the sound that my microphone isn’t. It’s been a wild ride and I’ve had many low points and bumpy stretches. I’m sure there are more to come. What then have been the practices that have stood the test and really helped me keep going? In this episode, I’m sharing the 4 practices that are keeping me moving forward and why they are relevant for anyone working in healthcare right now. This is about the reality of what helps in tough times. So if you are in a new role, facing new challenges or increasing demands, being restructured or leading a new team, these are the things you can use and share.

This episode is for anyone who has ever left a team, a job, or a role, or supported someone else through it. I’m reflecting on what it means to lead through endings, personally and professionally, with the help of Tuckman’s Adjourning stage and Bridges’ Transition Model. I share what I’ve learned (and am still learning) about letting go, closure, grief, uncertainty, and grace. It’s the wrap-up to Season 4 — and a personal pause as I take the leap and we move back to the UK.

With only two weeks till my big move, the period of Matarki and Midwinter has created a space of pause for me. So this week, I’m sharing a calm, reflective episode as this is a natural moment to reflect and take stock. I talk through three prompts: how you got to where you are, what matters most now, and what it would look like to do meaningful work even if the shape of work changed. I also share why I believe that, especially in times of doubt or uncertainty, gratitude is always the answer. If you’re feeling the weight of the season or just need space to think, this episode is a quiet invitation to reconnect with purpose and presence.

In this episode, we look at the difference between routines and habits and why that distinction matters for healthcare leaders under pressure. Drawing on practical examples and experience (including how a one-minute action can spark major change), I’m talking about how habits form the backbone of leadership identity. You'll hear how even in chaos, small, consistent actions build the leader you want to become. With reflective prompts to close, this episode is both a reset and a reframe for leaders ready to align their daily actions with the impact they want to have.

Healthcare loves a crisis, but at what cost? What does it take to shift towards a more proactive way of working? This is where Habit 3 of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People can help us.

As a slightly lost and overwhelmed charge nurse, I knew I wanted to be effective. I also knew that the skills I had learnt in the clinical setting needed to be expanded. Picking up a second-hand copy of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People got me moving from chaos to clarity.

Joy in work is not a flaky, soft, fluffy thing to add on when you have the time or money to do so. Joy in work should be a right for everyone who is committing themselves to the work and leadership in healthcare. This week we are looking at the basis for why joy in work is needed in healthcare right now, what steps you can take tomorrow and how, when you make this choice, you can lift the spirits of the humans around you.

If I'm feeling everything all at once, then the emotional workload of healthcare is a good practice ground. This week we're talking about managing when all unwanted and wanted emotions come up. We'll discuss what this means for you as a leader, and share tips and ideas from the experts in this field

This episode isn’t polished (like it ever is), it’s personal. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing what many leaders are too scared to say out loud—what it’s like to be accused of bullying, and what it feels like to be on the receiving end.

As Star Wars fans celebrate May the 4th, we’re kicking off season 4, reflecting on the stories that shape us. If you’ve ever felt like you should know more as a leader, this episode is a permission slip to lead with curiosity and courage instead.

Wrapping up season 3 with planning ahead tips in a mini-mid-week episode because I completely forgot it was Easter.