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How to Lead with Kate Waterfall Hill

How to Lead with Kate Waterfall Hill

By: Kate Waterfall Hill
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How to Lead is the go-to podcast for CEOs, founders, business owners, and leaders who want to strike the perfect balance between authority and empathy. I’m Kate Waterfall Hill - leadership coach, author, and creator of Linda, the bad manager, my alter ego who shows us how not to lead. With over 30 years’ experience working with and coaching CEOs and founders (and being one myself), I’ve helped hundreds of leaders elevate their skills and confidence. In each episode, I’ll share simple, actionable tips and habits to take the stress out of people management. Every episode starts with Linda’s “what not to do” moment, followed by practical insights on how to handle leadership challenges with finesse. You’ll find How to Lead on all major podcast platforms, plus video episodes on YouTube. My best-selling book, How to Lead, is also a great companion to the show. Subscribe or follow so you don’t miss an episode, and if you enjoy it, please rate, review, and share with fellow leaders. For coaching programmes or my self-paced Digital Academy, visit www.waterfallhill.co.uk. Got a topic suggestion? Email me at hello@waterfallhill.co.uk. Follow me on all major social platforms - just search Kate Waterfall Hill or Linda, the bad manager, and join a community of over 300,000 leaders.Copyright 2026 Kate Waterfall Hill Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • The Danger of Back-to-Back Meetings

    The Danger of Back-to-Back Meetings
    Jul 2 2026

    In this latest episode, Kate explains how nonstop meetings crowd out strategic thinking, leaving leaders reactive, exhausted, and “behind” despite being fully booked. A leader’s job is to spot patterns, join dots, see risks early, and make considered commercial and cultural decisions - all requiring real mental space. Never having time to think means teams drift and leaders stay permanently reactive.

    Episode Highlights

    00:00 Back to Back Meetings

    00:54 Meetings Skit

    01:28 Busy vs Effective

    03:09 Leader Value Shift

    04:24 Comfort Blanket Trap

    06:51 Diary Is Leadership

    07:27 Audit Recurring Meetings

    07:57 Protect Thinking Time

    08:29 Say No Ruthlessly

    08:45 Over Reliance Warning

    09:40 Wrap Up and Next Steps

    10:02 Subscribe and Closing

    Useful links:

    The Digital Academy Online Course

    Free Resources and more information on Kate's coaching programmes

    Buy the "How to Lead" book

    Connect with Kate on LinkedIn

    Follow Kate on TikTok

    Contact Kate

    https://www.waterfallhill.co.uk/links
    Show More Show Less
    11 mins
  • If You’ve Said It Three Times and It’s Still Not Happening

    If You’ve Said It Three Times and It’s Still Not Happening
    Jun 18 2026

    In the final episode of this three-part mini series, on why it still all comes back to you, Kate explores how to fix situations where you’ve repeated expectations multiple times and nothing changes. She argues the issue is usually not just communication, and offers a diagnostic lens: is it a clarity problem, a capability gap, or a consequence problem. With a practical weekly reset.

    Episode Highlights:

    00:00 Series Finale Setup

    00:26 Meet Your Host

    00:55 The Three Diagnoses

    02:41 Clarity Gap Fixes

    04:27 Capability Gap Coaching

    06:27 Identity Versus Scale

    07:25 Consequence Gap Systems

    08:32 Five Step Reset Plan

    10:16 Coaching And Accelerator

    11:12 Final Takeaway And Outro

    Useful links:

    The Digital Academy Online Course

    Free Resources and more information on Kate's coaching programmes

    Buy the "How to Lead" book

    Connect with Kate on LinkedIn

    Follow Kate on TikTok

    Contact Kate

    https://www.waterfallhill.co.uk/links
    Show More Show Less
    12 mins
  • Why Your Team is Waiting to be Told What to do

    Why Your Team is Waiting to be Told What to do
    Jun 4 2026

    In part two of a three-part miniseries on why it still all comes back to you, Kate explores why teams often wait to be told what to do, and how leaders are inadvertently reinforcing the pattern. She outlines the cost of centralised judgment - leaders becoming the organisation’s bottleneck - and offers three shifts to build ownership while protecting quality.

    Episode Highlights:

    00:00 Why Teams Wait

    00:39 Welcome and Setup

    01:17 The Linda Problem

    01:39 Waiting Is Learned

    02:37 What Waiting Looks Like

    03:51 How Leaders Teach Waiting

    06:08 The Quality Control Dilemma

    06:58 Shift One Boundaries

    08:13 Shift Two Coaching

    09:19 Shift Three Debrief

    10:36 Staying Consistent Under Pressure

    11:48 Two Diagnostic Tests

    12:42 Three Actions Next Week

    14:02 Wrap Up and Next Steps

    14:34 Outro and Subscribe

    Useful links:

    The Digital Academy Online Course

    Free Resources and more information on Kate's coaching programmes

    Buy the "How to Lead" book

    Connect with Kate on LinkedIn

    Follow Kate on TikTok

    Contact Kate

    https://www.waterfallhill.co.uk/links
    Show More Show Less
    15 mins
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if you perhaps need seen, to guage your own biases, and even improve others around you, then Kate delivers. In many instances she'll have you laughing, dropping everything to focus on her insight, and often revisiting very considerate strategy. A must have podcast for that daily commute or volunteer role.

Relatable, Empathetic and Hugely Reassuring

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