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The Change Leader
Six deep-dive episodes for experienced practitioners making the move from doing change to leading it — teams, sponsors, reputation, and the judgment calls nobody teaches you.
The Change Leader is Change Academy's third premium podcast series — built for practitioners at the inflection point. Where The Change Room goes deep on the craft of change management, The Change Leader addresses what changes about the practitioner themselves as they grow into seniority: leading a team, coaching a sponsor, establishing yourself in a new organisation, knowing when to push back on the strategy, and protecting a professional reputation built over a career. Season 1: The Senior Leap. Six episodes on the shift from practitioner to change leader — the skills that don't transfer, the relationships that have to be built differently, and the judgment calls that define a senior career. Hosted by Ava and Andrew, with Sarah and Marcus returning for the conversations that require the hard-won perspective of experienced practitioners. No generic leadership advice. Just honest, specific, practitioner-grade insight from the people who've made the transition — and lived with the consequences. Six episodes. Thirty-six minutes. The conversations worth having before you step up.
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Login or sign up →Ep 1: From Practitioner to Leader
The skills that make a great change practitioner are often the exact instincts that derail a new change leader. Andrew on the three things that have to change — and the moment he understood the transition he hadn't actually made.
6 min
Ep 2: Coaching Your Sponsor
Sponsor coaching isn't stakeholder management — it's behaviour change at the executive level. Sarah on reading sponsor readiness before day one, raising uncomfortable truths without losing access, and the relationship she walked away from.
6 min
Ep 3: Building a Change Team
Most change teams are built for delivery speed, not capability depth — and the difference doesn't show until you're a year in. Ava and Andrew on hiring for judgment, developing without dependency, and what mid-program restructures really cost.
6 min
Ep 4: The First 90 Days
Most new change leaders lose influence in the first month by leading with expertise before they've built trust. Ava on what not to do before day 30 and why the first 90 days are about something entirely different.
6 min
Ep 5: When You Disagree with the Strategy
Marcus ran a $55M workforce transformation while believing the strategy it was built on was wrong. He waited three months to say so — and this is what that cost, and what he now puts in every engagement letter.
6 min
Ep 6: The Change Leader's Reputation
Reputation in change management travels further than most practitioners realise — and it's built in small moments, not big ones. Sarah on what quietly erodes senior client trust, what to say after a program fails, and which engagements to decline.
6 min