Ep46: Human-Centred Leadership in Action- How Listening Drives Business Value with Jane Adshead-Grant
Unlock the power of human-centered leadership and discover why slowing down could be your organization’s greatest competitive advantage. In this thought-provoking episode, executive coach and “Time to Think” expert Jane Adshead joins host Helen Wada to explore how deep listening, psychological safety, and compassionate leadership can bridge the gap between human value and business growth in today’s hyper-pressured workplaces.
Hear candid stories from Jane's decades-long journey in financial services and coaching, including practical frameworks leaders are using to boost trust, fuel innovation, and tackle burnout. Learn why “soft skills” are actually the hardest—and most critical—tools for modern teams to thrive, and how simple practices like intentional pauses and thinking environments can transform not just meetings but whole cultures.
Whether you’re an aspiring leader, team builder, or simply passionate about creating better work environments, this episode arms you with actionable insights and reflection questions to become more present, build stronger connections, and drive real results in the age of AI and constant change. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation—your people (and your performance) will thank you.
Topics Discussed:
Human centered leadership strategies
Crisis of connection and trust
Compassionate leadership development skills
Generative listening in organizations
Creating psychological safety at work
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
03:21 Aligning Human and Business Value
09:16 Rethinking Leadership and Productivity
11:20 Confident Communication and Presence
16:44 "The Essence of Coaching"
20:07 Courageous Leadership Through Listening
21:06 Cultivating Curiosity for Deeper Coaching
27:33 Courageous, Trust-Driven Leadership Conversations
30:27 "Impact of Thinking Environments"
32:31 Engaging and Gratifying Discussion
About Jane Adshead-Grant
Follow janeadsheadgrant on LinkedIn
Learn more about Jane here
Learn more about the Listening Coach here
Jane’s purpose is to create the environment and leadership that enables growth and
fulfilment. She does this through listening. Listening to ignite the best thinking,
ideas and solutions in others. In her executive coach and facilitator roles she
supports individuals and teams develop human-centric leadership and cultures
where everybody matters generating people and business growth in harmony. She
is an Ambassador for Truly Human Leadership and hosts a thought led community in
developing this approach to leadership.
Jane is a master credited coach with the ICF and global faculty member with Time
to Think. Jane brings the thinking environment to life for others through her
teaching all courses to the qualifying level and offers supervision to thinking
environment practitioners.
Jane has over 35 years’ experience within people focused roles in professional and
financial services. Her experience includes Director of her own coaching practice,
and HR Executive within European and US Investment Banks and an International
Law Firm where she was responsible for the strategy and implementation of
resourcing and development of people across front line businesses. Jane’s work is
underpinned with post graduate diplomas in Human Resources Management and
Psychological Coaching. Jane is also author of The Listening Coach – Coach yourself
through the elements of listening that are critical in life business and our
communities and Are you listening, or just waiting to speak? – The secret to
propelling your business relationships.
Current and former clients include Munich Re, Rothschilds, Columbia Threadneedle,
Pask Partnership, The Marketing Academy, Deloitte, Bottomline Technologies, Sony
Pictures, Barry Wehmiller, Ince & Co, Land Securities, HP.
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Ep46: Human-Centred Leadership in Action - How Listening Drives Business Value with Jane Adshead-Grant
[00:00:00]
Introduction and Guest Welcome
Helen Wada: Hello and welcome to another episode of Human Wise. I'm absolutely delighted to have Jane Adshead with me this morning. Jane, you and I connected about two years ago, didn't we? Through the wonderful Anthony Howard and our focus on human centered leadership. You know, one of those networks that you get introduced to, somebody who leads you onto another conversation.
Very much through my motto of. One conversation at a time because you never quite know where they're gonna get to. But we connected and as soon as I met you, I [00:01:00] felt that spark around something special around human-centered leadership. Jane is a master accredited coach with the ICF and a global faculty member.
Time to think. For those of you that have been following this PO podcast, you'd have heard of time to Think. We've mentioned in the past the, the great work done by Nancy Klein, and I know you are a real advocate of that, Jane. And so really looking forward to hearing your insights and stories with us today.
But before we kick off, tell us a little bit more about who is Jane, who are you, a little bit of career history, what do you enjoy
Jane Adshead: doing? Thank you, Helen.
Jane Adshead's Career Journey
Jane Adshead: Well, I'm thrilled to be here. So my background is almost 40 years in the city of London working in professional financial services. But you know, for me it was interesting.
It was three years after I'd been working. I took a year off and traveled the world, and it was when I was working in Australia that I discovered what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And I was lucky enough to work in what was then called a personnel department. Today [00:02:00] we know it as hr
Helen Wada: goodness, that that's an old term.
If everyone, it's That shows how my age I a member, personnel teams. Yes. It's really revealing my age. But you're looking fabulous, so I know people are listening, but you know, it's,
Jane Adshead: well, when I was there, I discovered through that work, having opportunity to work in lots of different departments, the impact of work on our lives, and I saw.
Where business could be a force for good in terms of work being a place for us to find and nurture our gifts and talents and develop who we are meant to be. And so after that experience, I came home and I retrained and got a postgrad in HR management. And then that's my career took off. So from secretary to HR manager, HR director, and that took me through the corporate environment.
And then I was lucky enough to become a mom. I have two daughters who have congratulations, possibly graduated.
Helen Wada: Congratulations.
Jane Adshead: Wow. So big transition in our life. Yeah,
Helen Wada: absolutely.
Human-Centered Leadership
Jane Adshead: And I then, so for the last 23 years, [00:03:00] have had my own business and the sim similar environment of professional financial services, coaching leaders, emerging leaders, and senior leaders as they navigate really generating human value as well as business value.
Yeah, and that's where the focus of my work is today, Helen. It's focusing on compassionate leadership leaders, developing the skills and character of care, empathetic listening, generative listening to ignite the finest thinking in their teams, and inspiring others to be their best selves at work. And this is my take on what it means to be human at work is when we can really tap into the values that we hold dear and as leaders, really bringing those values of others to the fore.
I, I love that Jane, and I
Helen Wada: think. That's absolutely right. You know, it really, and this is why we connected, but aligns with the human advantage and what we're trying to do, and I think what you [00:04:00] mentioned there about intertwining human value and business value. Is the real key here, because it's not about one or the other.
And I think that's where we really need to be honest in the world that we are in today, that we do operate in a commercial world. You know, even if you are running a not-profit organization or you are, you are running a, you know, a charity or trust or. Government business, we need to find the money we need to run a successful business, but we need to do it in a different way because so often I see, and you know, when I trained as a coach back in 2015, you know, I feel very privileged like yourself that to see and hear about others' experiences in the world of work.
But unfortunately, as we all know, they're not always great. And we need to find a way that we can help people be true to themselves, live their values thrive, but [00:05:00] also generate business growth. And that's really the genesis of the human Advantage and, and where I'm working with leaders and others in professional services firms.
To say actually the two can work closely together. And ironically, the skills that we need, and I'm sure we're gonna come onto this, through the listening work that you do, the skills that we need to be human at work
Jane Adshead: mm-hmm. Are
Helen Wada: also the same skills that we need to drive the growth in our business. And for many years, never the twain shall meet.
Mm. And, you know, I'm on a drive to say, actually, let's make this happen. Let's prove that the skills that we use in coaching are very human skills, are actually those same skills that we need to create business growth for ourselves, our stakeholders, our futures. So yeah, no looking forward to, to the conversation.
And just on that topic, Jane.
Challenges in Modern Organizations
Helen Wada: From where you sit, what [00:06:00] are some of the challenges that you see the organizations face?
Jane Adshead: I think for me, what, in fact, I wrote about it only recently. The theme that I'm witnessing is this crisis of connection and sometimes trust. Actually, that's still revealing its head, and I think it's because we're in a very fast paced place right now.
The environments where leaders are still under a lot of pressure to decide quickly, to speak more, to listen less. And I think this creates a real culture of reactivity rather than responsiveness. And so I think for me it's really around how do we as leaders mentors and coaches sustain wellbeing.
Actually I think this is essential. Mental health, wellbeing and performance. We talked about that generation value in harmony. Mm-hmm. And also some of the challenges around decision fatigue. You know, sometimes I work with clients and they're just exhausted. Yeah. And under quite often under underused their capacity [00:07:00] to think reflectively.
Yeah. And often I have clients coming into me and saying, you know, Jane, this is the first time this week, or even in the last three weeks that I've really had the time to think. Yeah. And I think, you know, that's the organizational challenge is around this crisis of disconnection and trust, Helen. What people want more than anything is to be seen, heard, and understood.
And I think when they do, they can contribute more meaningfully and then they can develop. And so these are kind of some of the challenges that I see today. What about you? What do you think?
Helen Wada: I think you make some really good points there in terms of what you are seeing. And to be honest, I see similar, you know, when I'm coaching, people have been running from one meeting to another meeting driven by, numbers, targets, managing people, different [00:08:00] stakeholders, teams, you name it.
By asking for more, we are actually creating the complete opposite of what we need to do for people to really think creatively, think differently, and actually take time to say, what do we really need to be doing? Where do we focus? I think it's this real dichotomy that we're in at the moment that I think people do recognize that, you know, the term human-centered leadership is where we need to be headed.
But quite frankly, there's a dichotomy with the drive for more, the drive for numbers and the drive to do more with less. Because everybody thinks, quite frankly, the artificial intelligence is gonna save the world. And you know it, it maybe will make us more efficient, but for me, that just emphasizes the importance of the human skills that we need to bring to collaborate, to connect, and to really think about how we work in a different way.
I think it's a [00:09:00] real, I think it's a real challenge but one that I don't think is insurmountable, you know, and, and that's where the work that I'm doing comes in with the human vis, you know, the book that I'm just writing them, I'm just finishing to, to get to the publisher next week.
But it's all about being human. It's about thinking about how we show up. It's about exploring how do we really understand others? And that really comes into the listening work that you do. And I know we'll talk about that in a moment. It's about having the confident mindset to speak up, to say things, to call things out, but also having a commercial focus.
But with it, a coaching approach to what we do. It's a real blend. And then when we're in conversations. How do we actually show up to these conversations? Are we really present? I was talking to somebody yesterday and they were talking about somebody that they worked with. It was incredibly frustrating because they were trying to do two, three plus things [00:10:00] at once in the meeting, and then they never listen to what's being said, and that creates even more problems and even more conversations that need to be had.
So how we act and adapt in the moment is really important. And then taking those next steps. So what? So what does this mean? What are we going to do about it? 'cause again, unless we take time to really think about how we're thinking, we end up creating more work for ourselves, and then we're in this perpetual, vicious cycle.
Right.
The Importance of Thinking Environments
Jane Adshead: true, Helen. You know, for me, I think in this fast-paced world, slowing down our conversations is the competitive advantage.
Helen Wada: No, it really is. And as you say that, there's something about the speed at which we, we say things, I mean, I'm, I'm a fast talker, but I love work that I'm doing when I'm coaching and, and we walk outside and one of the first things that I do with a lot of my clients is just get them to stop. [00:11:00] And getting to pause, you know, you know what it's like and you're, you feel like you are, you are running a hundred miles an hour for coaching conversation.
And that acknowledgement of, hang on a minute, we are just working way too quickly and not just for ourselves, not just for teams, but where I'm really passionate is around our client conversations as well. Helping our clients to think in a different way and give them space so that you can use time to think, to help them think about their challenges and their problems.
And that for me is where some of the magic happens. I'd love to know more about, you know, your experience with, you know, the thinking concept with Nancy Klein's brilliant book, but as we as coaches use it. But it's still not really prevalent in the working world today.
Jane Adshead: [00:12:00] Well, thank you for the invitation and, and I think, Helen, you're spot on that, you know, providing an opportunity for people to tap into their finest independent thinking is what a people want more than ever, but sometimes they don't know that that's what they want.
And I think it sounds paradoxical in terms of creating time to think actually saves time in the long. In my experience, when people are uninterrupted less, when they're listened to more, they access better thinking, make fewer mistakes, and in fact, engage more fully. And so for me, the thinking environment isn't a luxury.
It's actually a strategic necessity. But you know, some listeners might be thinking, what do you mean time to think? What is a thinking environment? And so perhaps if you'll indulge me for a moment just to help our listeners, for those of who don't know, a thinking environment is simply a way of being.
It's to your point [00:13:00] earlier, how do we show up for others in a way that generates their finest thinking? And it is, as a listener, the way that we behave around them. It's around providing an attention, we call generative attention. That is a palpable respect for that human being. Being interested in who they are, what they think, and where they go next rather than simply waiting to speak.
And it's also about celebrating our equality that whilst we have differences, different education, different culture, different background. What we celebrate is that what brings us together is our humanness. Yeah. So our capacity to think as a human being is what brings us together. And I think this together with creating a sense of ease, a world which today is peppered with interruptions.
Fast paced, we spoke about. Mm-hmm. A persuasion to be somebody other than who we are. So therefore for me, [00:14:00] being a thinking environment is about creating a psychological safety in the clarity and clarity in the midst of pressure and, you know, persuasion to be, as I said, somebody other than who we are. And therefore, this is why I feel that this work, this way of being is essential.
And it's what people want more than ever. And the fabulous thing is that it's not complex. It's about. Who we are, being who we are naturally. And so just taking some time to reflect and to be that total present with somebody else is one of the greatest gifts I think we can give another.
Coaching and Human Skills
Helen Wada: I, I think you're right.
And I, I completely agree and it's one of the reasons that I fell in love with coaching all those years ago is because I realized that coaching was almost the antithesis. Of where I was. And I know I'm at my best when I'm coaching because I'm [00:15:00] 150% focused on the person in front of me. You have to leave everything at the door.
'cause as you say, it's a way of being. And there was a podcast I had a few weeks ago now with a, a, a great man called Carl Edge, who's a people leader at kpmg. And we talked about human beings, not human doings. Hmm. And it's such a wonderful phrase because we never think about how we want to be. It's always what are you going to do?
You know, we wake up in the mornings. What your to do list? What do you know? How often do we really think about who we want to be and how we wanna be in the moment? Yet how you show up first H in my human framework is so critical to shaping how. Others feel about you, how you connect, how you communicate, and you talk about psychological safety, and I think it's just worthwhile, again, for the listeners because psychological [00:16:00] safety is one of these terms that sort of bounded around quite a lot.
But ultimately for me, and you know, welcome your thoughts, it's about just creating a safe space, a place where people can feel that they can share their opinions and be heard. And not be criticized or thoughty of because of their personal perspectives. And, and so sometimes we tie ourselves up in knots, but it's just about, you know, you say it simple, it's about being human.
I mean, it's, I do sometimes wonder, I'm like, is there really a need for this? You know, you've created the human advantage. The focus is on human skills. But fundamentally, what I saw. Is that the skills that you and I have as coaches are human skills. I mean, they are effectively one of the same, and I feel very privileged that my listening, for example, [00:17:00] and that has improved, it's still not perfect.
My kids will tell you, but my muscles, you know, we think about, we talk about going to the gym and we talk about building our muscles and in our bodies, but actually. We need to embrace the muscles in our mind, and that takes work.
Jane Adshead: I think that's a really great point. And one of the things, what you ignited in me was this idea of human skills. And I wonder if Helen, there has been a real focus and actually people are rewarded for the technical skills. So whether it be strategic thinking, visioning, and the technical roles, you know, technical skills around their role and over the many years that's been seen to be the driver of performance and therefore, what you and I determine as human skills.
In the olden days, they were referred to as soft skills, interpersonal skills, communication, listening, influencing, inspiring skills. [00:18:00] Actually for me. They're courage building skills. Absolutely. So to listen to somebody takes as much courage, if not more. Than it does to speak out loud. And that for me, I think really differentiates our leaders of today.
In fact, there was a Harvard review written I think it was 2021 came out, whereas the leaders of, you know, this next generation are those that listen, that seek to ask questions of themselves, their stakeholders, and the environment more than ever. I think to be a good listener is about being willing to ask questions, but not questions that lead people questions.
That ignite the thinking to help people think, as you were saying, from multiple perspectives, and given that we live in an increasingly polarized world, then creating the space to listen free of judgment. So that people can bring their best thinking and ideas and different perspective into the workplace that generates this [00:19:00] idea of human value as well as business value.
Helen Wada: Absolutely. And the word that I use, you know, to wrap all that together is, is curiosity. It's having as coaches that natural curiosity to, to inquire more and go deeper and not necessarily. Take what you hear on the surface and and very often in, and it's something that I learned and I hadn't really linked the two until I was coaching, but when I was working in finance, you know, it's as much as about what people don't say as what people do say, and we then get into somatics and the body language and what you are sensing.
That for me was sort of a light bulb moment with my coaching work, was really to tapping into the senses and essence of who we are, [00:20:00] because there's as much data in our guts as there is in our heads. But as you said, you know, before people are awarded for the thinking that we are doing in our minds, in our heads.
Whether it's a promotion, whether it's financial reward. But to date, and we, you know, we stray into measurements, but around what are those measures that we need to be thinking about differently to embrace a human-centered working culture, A culture where people can thrive, but also where organizations can grow.
And, and for me, it does all come back to these skills that you and I are talking about, critical skills. Human skills that in the wonderful world with artificial intelligence, which will help us along the way, you know, we are not going anywhere. At least I wasn't last time. I, you know, but I think we need to shift the dial.
I think we [00:21:00] need to shift the dial in terms of looking at these skills as a critical investment, and that's why I link them to generating better decision making. Creating new customers, focus on expanding conversations because that's what will generate top line growth, bottom line growth, but ultimately growth for our people.
And I guess, you know, thinking about your work with time to Think and what are you seeing where we need to shift to make, because it, it's not happening naturally. And if anything, since the pandemic, we've seen underinvestment. Skills. You know, we saw everybody human at work, but then it's just been relentless in the last two or three years.
Jane Adshead: Yes, I think the same. I think we were all hoping, weren't we? We had, as you said, we had this window an opening into what it meant to be more human at [00:22:00] work during those period, that period. But we seem to have returned not only back to what it was, but full pace, subtle, straight out there in terms of people's working.
Lives, I think for me the link if you like to commercial, sorry, to yeah. To the commercial side of generating commercial value. And human value is the approach of coaching. And what I'm seeing increasingly is organizations providing opportunities for their leaders to develop a coach approach to their leadership, which I think is fabulous.
And for me this year I launched my caring leadership framework called Care Spread and you generously came on my program, which was wonderful, and I called it Dare to Care because I think it is daring. And for me, again, this is a strategic investment or idea in when we coach others, whether as a leader or a mentor, as a coach, with empathy, with respect, and with deep listening, we generate trust.
And when people feel trusted, [00:23:00] they then will generate trust in their teams. And for me, trust is what enables innovation. It enables resilience and also loyalty, all of which will generate that. Commercial growth we've been talking about. And I guess I'd love to share briefly that for me, the data care leadership program came out of 10, 12 years of my own observation of working with leaders and observing and emphasizing the behaviors like accountability.
Recognition and emotional agility. None of these skills are again, rocket science. They are what it is to be human, but it's about how do we prioritize these? Prioritize our listening, prioritize gratitude. Gratitude around what we have, and also the skills and values that we see in those around us. And also communicating clearly, providing people with a vision of where we are heading is better [00:24:00] than we were today, where we are today, and then inspiring them to come with us with that psychological safety.
To your point earlier around, that's what people need, which for me, with that combination is a proven. Recipe that impacts our performance and also retention because of course, this next generation are moving from role to role much more quickly than we ever did. And there's nothing wrong with that.
But this is one of the, another challenges that we face in organizations is constantly bringing new people on and this gap in the market where. You know, sadly, whether it be hybrid working or ai, our youngsters coming into the workplace are not getting those fundamental foundational skills because they're not around the senior leaders to pick up from, to have those coffee conversations.
And also AI is taking out a lot of that kind of work. That was the groundwork that we had to do before we moved on.
Helen Wada: Yeah, absolutely. And I think you, you bring in two points there and it's, yeah. I echo all of [00:25:00] that, that I, I, I see the same in, in the work that I'm doing. You talk about the younger generation, the next generation.
I also think that there's a pressing need because the younger generation that are coming through are not accepting of the ways in which we've used to be working. There is far more challenge if, for those middle managers that are trying to blend the demands at the top. With the, the people that are coming in that are just quite frankly saying no, they're saying, I'm not gonna work on my weekend.
I'm not gonna work, you know, 12, 13 plus hours a day now. Now, you know, in different industries there's a need and there's an ebb and flow, and that requires you to have some honest and transparent conversations. But that all comes back to trust that that fundamentally comes back to your word of college.
Being courageous to really have a different type of conversation to really lead in a [00:26:00] coaching style. And I, I take that and I extend that with a human advantage because I say that you absolutely agree 150% with all of that. But these skills are still the same skills when you are working with external stakeholders, when you are looking to grow new client relationships.
When you're looking to develop business, when you're looking to be in sales, and you know, I rolled the clock back 20 plus years and I never wanted to be in sales. I was at Arthur Anderson chartered accountant and never wanted to set because I didn't like that, you know, the feeling of what traditional salesperson was like.
And quite frankly, there's many people that we still have that sales has that sort of dirty word about it. But actually in my research and the work that I've done, when you unpick it, those people that are great at selling are actually great at these human skills and these human skills are coaching skills.
And [00:27:00] so what, what I'm now doing and what the book will do is really explain how this knits together. We come back to where we started, how it's not about having one or the other. But it's about fundamentally realizing that investment in they're not soft skills. Let's just knock that on the head right now.
They're actually the hardest skills to master because actually it requires courage. It requires discipline, it requires consistency. But these are the skills that are gonna make a difference for the humans that we work with and the clients that we support. And that's where I get, I get all excited because it's, you know, it's, it's, it brings it together.
And I think for me, you know, the next few years is really going to be about how do we move that forward? How do we shift the dial and start to give others the opportunity that you and I have had the privilege of the work that we do through our coach training and, and [00:28:00] working with clients.
Final Thoughts and Reflections
Helen Wada: I'm really conscious of time, Jane, because it, these conversations fly so quickly and I know you've got another really important meeting to go to as well.
Before we finish off with the listeners, I always ask the guests to give sort of one topic tip and one question for listeners to reflect on having heard our conversation. What would those be for you?
Jane Adshead: I'd love to share that with you. And just before I do, I wondered if I might just share with where being a thinking environment has really impacted my clients.
Absolutely. A very brief example, actually more than a long story. So in one of my chief exec clients, he implemented a three minute, can you imagine three minute reflection before the beginning of each meeting for his meetings, and that really generated. Greater clarity and confidence for the people within his team, but also for himself.
And one other story or other example is I was working with a [00:29:00] leadership team and another way of being a thinking environment is to hold rounds. Other people will be familiar this with this concept where. The facilitator of the meeting will give everybody the opportunity to contribute in turn at equal time.
And this is a really impactful way of including all the voices in the room. Because I think for me, and I think you share about, you share it in your wonderful book that you know people want to be heard, but at the same time, we need to ensure that those verse voices are given the opportunity to be heard And holding around is a really powerful way of doing it.
But lemme ask your, lemme answer your question. So I think a top tip would be, before your next conversation, take a pause and ask yourself, what kind of attention will I offer this person? Just one minute of your undivided attention. A listening that is free from interruption and free from judging.[00:30:00]
Because when you offer this, it can transform that person's thinking. And I guess one reflection that I'd love listeners to perhaps take away from our conversation today is when was the last time that you felt truly listened to, and what difference did it make to your confidence, your clarity, and your own contribution?
Helen Wada: Thank you, Jane. Wonderful questions. Super conversation. I could keep it going all, all morning, but you know, it's, we, we talk about time and, and there's meet meetings ahead, but it's been really great to share this thinking space with you. I hope the listeners have enjoyed the conversation as much as I had and I look forward to seeing you very soon.
Jane Adshead: Likewise. Thank you again, Helen. It's been wonderful to be with you and your listeners.
Helen Wada: No worries. Take care.