A Curious Space: Leadership, Culture and Teams

In this episode of A Curious Space, Kate and Maddie explore one of the biggest (and most underestimated) forces shaping organisational culture: leaders and founders.
From emotional “weather systems” to decision-making habits and unexamined assumptions, this conversation looks at how culture is created every day — often unintentionally — through how leaders show up, decide, and relate to others.
Along the way, we share practical reflections, coaching insights, and one simple thing you can try immediately if you lead (or influence) others.
What we explore
1. Leaders and founders set the emotional temperatureHow leaders’ moods, stress levels and ways of showing up ripple through teams — whether they intend it or not. We explore why this impact is amplified in leadership roles and how awareness is the first lever for change.
2. Decision-making as culture in actionWho gets listened to, how decisions really get made (not just how governance says they should), and how leaders shape culture through what they prioritise, question, or bypass.
3. The unintended influence leaders carryFrom inherited beliefs and assumptions to past organisational experiences, leaders bring a lot with them. We unpack why unexamined assumptions can quietly undermine good intentions — and what helps surface them.
One thing to try
Before your next meeting, pause for 30 seconds and ask yourself:“How do I want to be in this room — and what will help me show up that way?”
It might be a breath, a reset, a smile before you click “join”, or building small gaps between meetings. Tiny shifts in presence can have outsized effects.
Find out more
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership – Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman & Kaley Warner Klemp(Including the simple but powerful above the line / below the line model)
Harvard Business Review article: If You Want to Be a Great Leader, Be PresentOn mindfulness, presence, and the measurable impact leaders have on team performance and wellbeing
Agony Aunt: your questions wanted
We’re collecting real dilemmas for our upcoming Agony Aunt–style bonus episodes.
If you have:
a tricky team dynamic
a leadership challenge
a culture or collaboration question
📩 Email us at hello@acuriousspacepodcast.com
We’d love to explore it with you.
About the hosts
Kate Nicholroy is a systemic team coach and facilitator working with senior leadership teams across the UK to help them think and work better together. She is founder of the Good Ideas Agency (www.goodideasagency.com) and holds executive coaching accreditations with the EMCC and ICF.
Maddie Fox is a senior HR leader and executive coach working with individuals, teams and organisations, who want to develop authentic, conscious leadership skills, navigate challenging change and build foundations to become more resilient. She is the founder of MadFox Group (www.madfoxgroup.com).
Coming up next
In the next episode, we shift the lens away from leaders and ask:What role can everyone else play in shaping culture — regardless of job title?
Thanks for listening, and see you next time in A Curious Space.

In the first episode of A Curious Space, hosts Kate Nicholroy and Maddie Fox kick off their opening series with a practical exploration of organisational culture: what it really is, how it forms, and why leaders can’t afford to ignore it.
Moving beyond values statements and posters on the wall, Kate and Maddie unpack culture as “the way things actually get done around here” — the visible and invisible forces that shape behaviour, decision-making and performance. Using the iceberg model of culture, they explore the gap between what organisations say they value and what people experience day to day.
Through examples from Timpsons, Netflix and investment banking, they examine how different cultural choices play out in practice, why culture change takes time, and how small leadership behaviours can create powerful ripple effects. The episode also introduces new ways of thinking about organisations as living systems rather than machines — and what that means for leadership, trust and learning.
This episode is for leaders who know culture matters, and want to shape it intentionally rather than leaving it to chance.
Key leadership reflections:
Culture is tested most when leaders are under pressure
Small, repeated leadership behaviours create outsized cultural impact
People are quick to spot dissonance between stated values and lived reality
Owning the culture you actually have enables more honest hiring and engagement
Fear shuts down learning — and leaders set the tone for both
Resources mentioned:
Wheatley, Margaret — Leadership and the New Science
Heffernan, Margaret — Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes
Coyle, Daniel — The Culture Code
Morgan, Gareth — Images of Organization
McCord, Patty — Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility
Gratton, Lynda — work on organisational “hotspots” and high-performing teams
Brown, Brené — writing and talks on leadership, vulnerability and high performance
Send us your agony aunt suggestions, or your general thoughts to hello@acuriousspacepodcast.com  we'd love to hear from you!
About the hosts
Kate Nicholroy is a systemic team coach and facilitator working with senior leadership teams across the UK to help them think and work better together. She is founder of the Good Ideas Agency (www.goodideasagency.com) and holds executive coaching accreditations with the EMCC and ICF.
Maddie Fox is a senior HR leader and executive coach working with individuals, teams and organisations, who want to develop authentic, conscious leadership skills, navigate challenging change and build foundations to become more resilient. She is the founder of MadFox Group (www.madfoxgroup.com).
This episode was recorded by your hosts Maddie Fox of MadFox Group, and Kate Nicholroy of the Good Ideas Agency.  It was produced by Tim Fox with original music by Richard Flindell.

Episode 0: Welcome to a Curious Space
What does it really mean to be human at work, and why does that matter more than ever right now?
Senior leaders are under more pressure than ever, to deliver results, keep teams engaged, and drive innovation, while navigating constant change and uncertainty. In this intro episode, Kate Nicholroy and Maddie Fox explain why curiosity and culture are the two most powerful levers you can pull to build high-performing, resilient organisations.
They share insights from their work as coaches and facilitators, explore the real challenges organisations face today, and explain what to expect from Season 1: practical, actionable ways to influence culture and make your organisation thrive.
If you lead people or teams, this is your space to think differently—and make work better for everyone.
Welcome to A Curious Space!
About the hosts
Kate Nicholroy is a systemic team coach and facilitator working with senior leadership teams across the UK to help them think and work better together. She is founder of the Good Ideas Agency (www.goodideasagency.com) and holds executive coaching accreditations with the EMCC and ICF.
Maddie Fox is a senior HR leader and executive coach working with individuals, teams and organisations, who want to develop authentic, conscious leadership skills, navigate challenging change and build foundations to become more resilient. She is the founder of MadFox Group (www.madfoxgroup.com).
 
Transcript
MadFox (00:09.89)Happy Friday, Kate.
Kate Nicholroy (00:11.765)Friday! How are you doing today?
MadFox (00:15.614)I am good thank you, I am good, how are you?
Kate Nicholroy (00:18.825)Yeah, excited for this intro episode to a curious space.
MadFox (00:23.82)Yeah. So we thought that it would probably be a good idea to let the world know who on earth we are and why we're doing a podcast and what we're going to be covering in our first season. So Kate, why this podcast and why now?
Kate Nicholroy (00:40.565)Well, I think when we were talking about this, this is really a podcast for leaders and people within organizations who want to make their organizations a better place for the people in them so that they can achieve better results, so that they can grow, so that they can adapt to everything that's going on in the world. And I think in our work as coaches and facilitators, what we see is a lot of teams and organizations
Just having a really tough time with everything that's going on economically, a lot of the stuff that is happening politically across the world right now is making it really hard for people working within organisations. And they're having to adapt, they're having to change. And we're hearing a lot about the need to increase resilience and reduce burnout and teams being restructured and restructured and restructured to the point that the organisation has almost lost a sense of who's doing what and how.
work gets done. And within that, it can be really hard to remember actually, what is it to be human at work? And how does being really human help our organisations to thrive? So I think it was all about how do we share some of the things we know that are helpful? How do we help leaders who want to have healthier, more successful, more sustainable organisations?
MadFox (02:03.67)Yeah, lovely. And I think that some of what you're talking about there is actually people are reacting in a very normal way to what is a very extenuating circumstances at the moment with all the things that you've described. And I think that can get a little bit lost too when we're always focused on the outcome in terms of less about how we can support people.
Kate Nicholroy (02:27.733)Absolutely. And we expect a lot about leaders and I think we'll talk about that. Leaders are supposed to lead their teams, help their organisations navigate this uncertainty and ambiguity, still achieve great results, help their teams with their emotions and their resilience and their focus. But actually leaders too are themselves human. So how can we create organisations that work for leaders, work for the people that they're working with?
and still achieve really great things for the organization. And it's how do you navigate what sometimes feel like quite strong tensions within that.
MadFox (03:07.97)Yeah, I'm looking forward to talking about all of that with you.
Kate Nicholroy (03:12.167)And I think for me, there was just something in all of our conversations leading up to this where we're both really curious about this and that there's something about curiosity being a really key skill for this modern age. You you need to keep learning. And also it's a source of a lot of joy, think, learning at work. You when you see people who have learned new skills, who've got new ideas and they want to try them out, like the sort of bubbling energy that comes with that. So...
We thought it might just be useful to introduce ourselves. so Maddy, can you talk us through what curiosity means in your life and what's got you to being on this podcast today?
MadFox (03:56.983)Yeah, absolutely. So I think inherently I've always been quite a curious person. appreciate a lot of people might say this. And I actually think my time at school sort of dimmed that light a little bit. I think I was quite sort of, I wanted to know practically, know, schools taught in a very particular way, particularly when we were at school, I appreciate it might have changed.
somewhat now since I haven't been there for quite a while. But it was that sort of learning by rote, you're learning facts, learning to pass exams, etc. And I always just wanted to know, well, why? What was in that that was going to help me? I definitely drove my maths teacher mad by saying, honestly, can you tell me how trigonometry is going to help me in everyday life?
There have also then been points in my life where someone has actually said to me, it's just basic trigonometry and I went, ah, that's why I was meant to learn it. for me, having some practical connections and pragmatic connection to what I was learning was really important. And I think as a result, kind of missed out a lot at school. And my first job, which I thought was, you know, just a
What am I doing with my life? I'll be there for a few months while I work that out. Actually turned into four years. And I, yes, yeah. I worked for a well-known electrical retailer in the UK for our UK listeners. will know who they are. And I had a wonderful first manager who continually asked me,
Kate Nicholroy (05:26.613)That's always the way.
MadFox (05:46.935)what did I think should be done about something? So I would go with a problem and he'd say, well, what would you like to do about that? I was like, one, I get a choice and two, I get to kind of work this out myself. And then I would make a suggestion and he would really support me on that. And what I found was people then kept coming to me saying, well, what would you do about this? And so I sort of found myself in this place where I was really trying to help other people get curious too and experimental, right? Let's do something. Let's see if it works.
And as part of that job, I ended up on a leadership, three day leadership workshop and the person who ran it was very inspirational. You could see a lot of change happening in the room. You could see people really connecting with him and with the content. And I just went, that's really cool. I want to do that. So it sort of brought me back to learning. And I realized that, actually there are different learning styles.
you as I got to sort of learn more about how you facilitate, how you train, what coaching is all about, all of those sorts of things. And it started to make sense why I wasn't really learning at school, but that didn't mean I wasn't interested in learning or I wasn't curious. Yeah, so I think that kind of remained a thread and from that job on have continued to do things in learning and development, in HR, had a wonderful experience.
sort of, I guess, maybe it was my third job, fourth job, and where I was connected with coaching. And I was like, this is kind of really cool. This is how you help other people or people can help you using coaching style and coaching questions to be curious, to learn things for yourself.
to explore in a different way. There's something so potent about asking a question a particular way that allows someone to let their thinking flow, which is definitely, and we'll talk about this, one of the things that you and I have bonded over. So yeah, yeah, think it remained a thread through all of that. yeah, and here we are.
Kate Nicholroy (08:01.045)100%.
Kate Nicholroy (08:09.909)And I also think a thing that we really have in common is that pragmatic side to all of this. Like, love theory. I love exploring it from a theoretical perspective. But there is something where you get to the point of, but how do you do this in practice? Actually, what are the steps? What is real here? And what is realistic? And what is just a nice idea? And I think we both, well, I don't know. We both really align on the importance of that and the fun of that. Fab.
MadFox (08:35.916)Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. So before we talk about how we met and what's our story collectively, tell us a little bit about your story and what curiosity means to you.
Kate Nicholroy (08:54.088)So my parents were both teachers. So I think that inherently creates an environment where you are encouraged to be curious and to explore what you're interested in and get asked a lot of questions to help you think things through and think things differently. And from there, I went on to do a history degree because I was generally curious about all of the subjects that I did at school. And the joy of history is you can study anything you like as long as it was...
yesterday or before. So, you know, I did the history of medicine, economic history, political history, history of art, history of architecture, history of witchcraft through the ages. Anything you like, you can just look at through that lens. And when I got to the end of university, I was like, I want a proper job, what do I do? And I had the opportunity to go and work in China for a year. And for me, the big driver was that I didn't know
anything like I'd read Wild Swans. That was all that I knew about China. And what an adventure to go somewhere that you don't know anything about at all. And then when I came back, I started my career in HR in a very unionized environment. And I learned a lot there about how organizations try to control people and try to use policies and procedures to control and
you're being involved in employee relations meetings with union reps and HR people and just looking at this going, this is not helping anybody. Like I just don't believe that this is the way to get people doing great work. So I then decided that I would go and work in learning and development and I learned a lot there about how do individuals learn? How do you help people grow as sort of technical specialists and grow and learn as managers and leaders? And then
From there, I moved into a digital product innovation role. Makes no sense as a career move, but I did it. It was a lot of fun. And that was a really interesting lens on organizations because instead of thinking about how do individuals grow, I was thinking about if my innovation team creates something brand new, A, there's a lot of learning that has to go into that. But then B, when we move it into the department that is going to use it ongoing, how do you help them learn?
Kate Nicholroy (11:19.945)and be prepared to receive that and embed that into their processes and structures and thinking. Like the hardest part, I think, of innovation is actually not creating a widget or creating a thing. It's how do you get the receiving team to embrace and adapt and use it and make sure that it works at that level. And so that's really interesting when you're looking at how an organization functions, because it's just a very different lens on it. And from there, I moved into working in an innovation and transformation role where
I was sort of at a strategic level across the organisation. They had this big five year strategy plan and it wasn't going very well and trying to go, right, how do we get all of these different departments who have to work on these big strategic projects who are not used to working together to understand how to do that? And what are the levers to to pull to influence that? And so much of it came down to how do you create understanding and trust amongst people?
How do you create safe environments where people are able to say, I don't understand or don't think this is the right thing? How do you help people learn how to have really healthy conflict, not like really toxic, horrible conflict? And so I fell in love with coaching approaches, with facilitation techniques, with tools like design thinking, because they're just really good at creating ways for people to think about things differently so that organizations can then be different.
and I'm still super curious about all of that.
MadFox (12:51.246)Yeah, I think it's so right that that that sort of that how piece because so many organizations I work with say they want to be a curious or a learning organization say that it's okay to to fail. And what you've talked about there in terms of that trust and safety. It's like, actually does the culture allow for this? And as you said, we really did bond over that pragmatic piece because
all the theory in the world, which we love by the way, and we're very geeky about that, is fantastic. And what really happens when the rubber hits the road with that? And how do people embody that, practice that, get to get it wrong? Like I definitely grew, I feel like I grew up in an environment, I was shaped by an environment that getting things wrong wasn't...
actually that great and that's the antithesis of learning it seems.
Kate Nicholroy (13:53.045)Absolutely, and I've worked for a number of leaders in my career and there is one who stands out because the environment that she created, we were really pushed to high standards and to constant achievement, but there was no failure because if anything went wrong, it was never, well, that's failed, it's right, what are we going to do to get this back on its feet? Or what have we learned from this and how do we pivot? So it was an absolute masterclass in how do you create environments where people are motivated, work really hard.
and if things don't go right, can then work together to fix it. And I think it's that work together piece, because that's usually in the room, there's the solutions. But if people aren't feeling safe or they're feeling they need to protect their own interests, then you don't get the collaboration. And a lot of that culture is driven by leaders. And I find it fascinating when you've got pockets of that in otherwise dysfunctional organisations as well.
MadFox (14:50.412)Yeah, yeah. And so much of that is about being listened to, right? Or being prepared to listen to openly what others have to say in that process of working together to get the result. And I guess that's something else we've bonded over is Nancy Klein and her thinking environment. We love Nancy Klein, who, for a quick quote on her, says that on average, we are interrupted every 11 seconds.
Kate Nicholroy (15:09.971)love Nancy.
Kate Nicholroy (15:21.055)temptation to interrupt you in the middle of that sentence was almost unbearable.
MadFox (15:23.542)Absolutely.
Kate Nicholroy (15:26.877)So I think people are getting the sense of what we're interested in. But how did we meet, Maddie?
MadFox (15:28.654)Yes. Well, so shout out to Kirsty Lewis of the School of Facilitation. We were both at one of her gatherings earlier this year, I think. In fact, when are we putting this out there? Early 2025, should we say, is when we met. this might be out in January, in which case, yes, last year.
Kate Nicholroy (15:36.405)Whoop whoop.
Kate Nicholroy (15:47.983)last year.
MadFox (15:57.031)And I guess those things that are starting to come through, you're starting to hear now, are the things that we really bonded over. And this sort of curiosity and interest in how organizations, teams and cultures work, actually work, what's going on in them and really kind of geeking out on human behavior, particularly in this world where that's a real challenge.
right now. And yeah, I think we got sent off on a walk, didn't we? We were walking around the block and having such a nice time, even though it was 30 degrees and you were worried about burning.
Kate Nicholroy (16:36.309)And we didn't want to go back, we were having such a good chat.
Kate Nicholroy (16:45.129)Yeah, for those of you listening online, I am Ginger.
MadFox (16:48.718)you
Kate Nicholroy (16:49.653)It's just a constant fear.
MadFox (16:51.758)So what was it that you really liked about me, Kate?
Kate Nicholroy (16:56.853)That's such a great question. I mean, I think it was just that we are so curious and interested in all of these things, interested in the research, interested in how people are applying it and sort of enjoying the ridiculousness that comes with this world sometimes. So I think we have a mutual irreverence and hopefully that will make some of our conversations that might be quite theoretical a bit more fun and interesting on this podcast.
MadFox (17:27.532)Yeah, and as we will be learning too, right, we don't have all the answers. So we will definitely be learning as we go along the way as well.
Kate Nicholroy (17:37.269)Totally. So for leaders and listeners listening, what are the things they can expect us to be curious about on this podcast?
MadFox (17:45.359)So cultures, organizations, leaders and teams and essentially how they respond to each other and the world around them is what we are super curious about and what we're really going to be focusing on. And I think because of both our expertise is we do have a clear view on what makes for a healthy organization. But we also want to explore new research.
impact of current trends on organizations and different ways of thinking about challenges that they might face, and also finding new ways of creating great organizations.
So with that in mind, what is our first season all about?
Kate Nicholroy (18:31.263)So the first season is all about culture. So how do you create organizations that achieve higher levels of performance by focusing on creating really powerful, sustainable cultures that drive innovation, drive growth, that are resilient to change and that enable the people in them to thrive and learn and grow and evolve. So if you're interested in how to...
get sustainable growth in your organization and you're interested in how culture might support that. This is the podcast for you. And what I love about culture is I think leaders have a really big impact in it, but I think it's something that anyone can affect in their team. Teams are just made up of people and you can make a decision to influence your team in any way that you like. So hopefully whoever you are.
if you work in an organisation, there should be insights here that will help your team to do better. And we wanted to start with culture as a jumping off point to I'm sure many other seasons to come because it's such a fundamental glue in teams and yet it's so intangible. So people sort of know what it is, we all talk about it, but how do you actually influence it? How do you...
get your hands around it. I think we've all joined new organisations and you can feel that it's different in some way from where you've come from. But if you want to influence and change your organisation, what are the things that you need to be thinking about there? So that's sort of the first episode, first season.
MadFox (20:13.484)Yeah, and with that, articulate it. I think often people really struggle when someone asks them in an interview, what's the culture like around here? And it can be difficult to explain it as well. So with that in mind, we want some shared understanding of what we mean by culture. And our plan for the first episode is called What Even Is Culture Anyway? And should be ready for you to listen now when this intro goes out.
and we will be doing fortnightly episodes.
Kate Nicholroy (20:46.741)And one of the things that we want to do towards the end of the season is to have some sort of agony out slots. So if you have an issue, a challenge, a situation in your team that you think relates to culture that you'd like some advice on, then drop us a line. We'll be putting how in the show notes. And at the end of the season, we will answer some of your questions and queries. So, yeah.
MadFox (21:13.108)And can we also share that Kate has promised me that we can have some bonus sessions on books, another shared passion. Books of all sorts of topics, but particularly on these topics, obviously, because we want to make it relatable. So hopefully we can talk about some of the theory in a bit more depth as well.
Kate Nicholroy (21:36.533)And I think I quite often recommend books to people. If I was a doctor, think books would be my solution to many things. So yes, we'll do some fun book episodes and we'll see where this adventure takes us. So if this sounds up your street, if you are a leader or you work in an organisation and you want to make it an even better place to work, reach even higher levels of performance, then...
MadFox (21:45.513)Yeah.
Kate Nicholroy (22:05.503)Come and join us in our curious space.
MadFox (22:08.856)We look forward to seeing you there.