The future of every organisation is in hands of their young talent. 

Yet, companies are struggling to retain the best talent for long enough to see a profit, the journey from onboarding to high performance is taking too long and young talent falls into the trap of doing just enough to get by.

Whilst our Education system is overwhelmed with Ofsted frameworks, a ridiculous teacher workload and declining engagement. 

So, I started Aim A Little Higher to fix that. We're on a mission to equip young people with the clarity, confidence and communication skills necessary to thrive in the real world and become an undeniable asset for their organisation.  

We've worked with amazing organisations such as HSBC, Siemens Energy, Goldman Sachs, Greenwood Dale Academies & The Sutton Trust to name a few. All working on the ground with their young talent and accelerate their journey from potential to high performance. 

Young talent should be excited to be part of the journey, contributing fresh ideas and become the largest asset in any organisation.

We help organisations in a number of ways
We put together programmes that increase employee engagement & company alignment.
Develop strategies that improve output and contribution from young talent by increasing confidence & skillset.
Build a road map that enables young talent to gain clarity, confidence and effective communication at an accelerated pace.

Ultimately, leading to a return on investment for employers, managers & educators alike.


I'm a Husband who married up, a Father figuring it out as I go and an Arsenal fan who has been convinced next year will be our year since I was 12. 
I went from coasting to 7A's & 2A*'s, crowned as Peter Jones' National Entrepreneur of The Year & was recently part of Lincolnshire's 30 under 30. 
Fresh Prince of Bel Air is my theme tune and if you borrowed my headphones you'd be met by Podcasts & Audiobooks.

Let's get your young people performing like the pro's!

Drop me a DM and we'll book a call to get started!

Kamal Ellis-Hyman

How do you make a boring, played out topic practical and engaging?
HSBC gave us the call...

'Communication & Leadership' 

HSBC's ET Team, invited us to level up leaders in their Early Careers Talent Council. 

⚠️ The challenge: Deliver a session that engages, shifts perspective & results in real behaviour change. 

⚠️ The problem: Leadership and Communication, are topics that have been HAMMERED. 

It's impossible that these young people have not already seen the TED talk, read the quotes & had the pep talks!

So the session had to be fresh. 

❌ We refused to deliver something off the shelf
❌ We didn't want quotes they'd seen on their feed for years 
❌ Attendees could not be passively learning

So Eliza Ellis- Hyman MSc , Jackson Ogunyemi  and I spent hours, discussing, debating and creating a fresh Leadership & Communication workshop!

We put young leaders in situations where they had to think fast, speak up, and take real risks. No room for passivity. 

We took them on a journey:

✅ Adopting the Entrepreneurs mindset, from within the company
✅ Understanding the power of a leader to engage or kill a room
✅ Frameworks to give their communication the competitive edge

Then it got real..

✅ We made it uncomfortable
✅ Put people on the spot
✅ Demanded honest feedback in the moment

Best of all... it worked!

This was confirmed by a comment at the end of the session, a young man shook my hand and said:

"I'm usually cynical about these kinds of sessions. But this was actually engaging and I found it helpful"

That's the point. Growth only happens when people feel pressure. If they're comfortable, nothing changes.

Credit to HSBC's ET Team Laura Anderson , Francis Reed , Elisha Kopec , Kiran Bhalla, Neve Savage , Vicky Benham for allowing us to approach this in our way. They supported, added context and let the silence sit when needed!

Real impact must be based on the brief, not recycled information. 
True transformation is personal. 
It's bespoke.

undefined undefined

Developing Young Talent From Potential to High Performance 🚀 Director of Aim A Little Higher

Partnering with school leaders to advance student happiness and success by delivering powerful, entertaining workshops and seminars across UK schools.

Emerging Talent Development Lead | ISE Vice Chair, Board Director

Emerging Talent Undergraduate Programmes & Skills Strategy Lead at HSBC

Emerging Talent Events and Projects Lead

Emerging Talent Support Specialist

Emerging Talent Development Coordinator HSBC via AMS

Senior Project Coordinator via AMS

Your Early Career Cohort Has Potential. I Build Performance. 🟠 Founder @ Aim A Little Higher

This is what fantastic careers education looks like! ⭐
Last week I delivered the opening speeches for a series of school takeovers in partnership with HSBC and Zero Gravity!
 
Halls full of young people who came in unsure but left with something real.
 
I set the energy, got every student locked in, before they were introduced to the main challenge! 

As I walked around, I love what I saw!

✅ Real conversations, 
✅ Young people, genuinely curious about their futures.
✅ Gearing up for the big challenge!
 
The HSBC volunteers were exceptional. 

✅ Enthusiastic
✅ Knowledgeable
✅ Completely invested in the young people in front of them. 

Not there to tick a box. There to make a difference. Fantastic to get such great pre-session clarity too from the team Katherine Bond, Luke Beresford, @Matthew hall, 
 
The Zero Gravity team were a pleasure to work alongside, as always! 
Organised, passionate, and fully bought into the mission. 
Nothing but positivity from the dream team Sophie Radford, @Izzy read, Rachel Harwood , Alex O'Connor 👌🏾
 
And Katherine Bond, sharing a stage with someone who cares that much just makes the whole thing better. 
She made it real, accessible and about the individual young people, not the company!
 
This is the standard. Real people, real insight, real impact.
 
What a couple of months it's been!

It has arrived!

National Careers Week 2026!

With the theme of ‘Own Your Future’, which in a time of mass distraction, manipulative algorithms and AI chat bots. 

Is so perfectly timed!

My two pence for a great National Careers Week…

1 - Do NOT be passive. 

Get stuck in. Be it a careers fair, virtual work experience, practice interviews, speeches. 
Get stuck in!

2 - Experiment constantly 

The best way to find out your best path; test a bunch until you find the thing that resonates. Happiness, fulfilment, capability - all great signs you’re on a solid path. 

3 - Ask more questions than feels comfortable 

Everything you need to know; on the other side of a question. 

One great answer, key insight or perspective shift can change everything. So ask, ask then ask again. 

Happy National Careers Week 🎉

Huge shoutout to the wonderful Sir nick newman, Stephen Logan  & the whole team making NCW happen!

Proud to be an ambassador for such a worthwhile organisation!

This National Careers Week...
The power of public facing part time roles!


My absolute superpower! What to search for...

✅ High footfall 
✅ Varied customers 
✅ The need to adapt on the fly

An absolute formula for real world preparation!

Look I know...

👉🏾 Tik Tok shop
👉🏾 Vinted
👉🏾 Etsy
👉🏾 Video Editing

You can make money without even leaving your bedroom. 

BUT. 


Do not underestimate the power & the opportunity to work face to face with the public!

Hogan Lovells invited us to launch their Pathways To Law programme with a bang!

If I could go back in time, I wouldn't change my career choices.
I'd change my level of exposure, so I know I'm making an Educated decision.

Career choice is not easy and far too often our decisions are made based on our circumstances, not our potential. 

So we loved joining forces with Hogan Lovell & The Sutton Trust to get this group of high potential young people, ready to take on the challenge and explore the new world of Law!

From the start we could see the apprehension. 

Of course!

How intimidating to be in a Law Firm for the very first time.
Sat at tables with people you've never met
Hearing from high performing Law professionals. 

So rather than diving into legal jargon and lectures, we hit pause. 

✅ Helped them understand they deserve to be in the room
✅ Broke down the skills, lessons and unique abilities they could bring to the table 
✅ Took them through a process to relieve the nerves and get stuck in
✅ Delivered our Potential to Performance framework so they could understand their journey in context
✅ Pushed them beyond their comfort zones, (better they learn with us than in their one shot at meeting a partner)

🤯 The before and after of this group... astounding. 🤯

👏🏾 Huge shout out to Anna Rutowicz , whose passion for young talent shines through and to Hogan Lovells & The Sutton Trust for making 'social mobility; more than just a buzz word!

If you work with young talent, don't just open the door. 
Pull up a chair and show them they belong.

Most people are terrified of public speaking!
Here are three ways to up your game!

1. Knowledge beats nerves.

We all get nervous, some way more than others. But believe it or not, nerves aren't actually the biggest barrier. In fact, most speakers who genuinely care about their audience feel nerves. 

They get through those nerves anyway, mainly because they know what they are speaking about. Do not step into a public speaking arena without knowledge of your topic. It's a recipe for disaster!

2. Silence, is your best friend. 

Stop fearing silence. It's not a sign of weakness, it doesn't make you look bad and it's not awkward... If used correctly. 

Silence is the ultimate tool to let a point land, to give your audeince time to chew on the information and give you a second to gather your thoughts. 

Rush to fill the silence and you're going to end up waffling!

3. Don't be them.

Too often we see a speaker we like and instantly steal their entire style. No no no, don't be them. Be you. 

You've got a way better chance of doing a good job being yourself. 

Take inspiration, acknowledge skill sets but take those and filter them back through your own lens. 


Which of the three have you struggled with in the past?

Why do we belittle ourselves so often?

Language is so important, I'm slightly obsessed with the words people choose to use. 

Your words tell me so much about you. 

Your world view.
Your intention.
Your feelings.

Worst than what they say to others about you...

YOU hear them too. 

Those internal conversations are dangerous and even something as subtle as the word 'just'. Can continually undermine you. 

Undermine your progress
Undermine your self-image
Undermine your sense of confidence. 

So next time you're describing yourself. 

Don't you DARE. Use the word "Just".

As National Careers Week comes to a close, three ingredients to truly 'Own Your Future'

  
Awareness, Questions & Action


Have a fantastic year ahead!

Perspective is everything. 

That’s why I’m climbing on the cieling like Spider-Man. 

“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change”

Real transformation begins with a shift in perspective. 

🕷️

No alternative text description for this image

On the search for positive male role models? 
Let me point you towards a Man, that I personally look towards as a fantastic example...

This week the world gave us:
⚠️ A documentary on the 'Manosphere', 
⚠️ A live debate where two ego's collided and a Wife was collateral damage. 
⚠️ A focus on men who think their power comes from a domination of women.

Today there's a man being honoured whom offers a slightly different version manhood. 

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St.Joseph.

The Husband, Father and ultimate servant. 

Joseph, from the bloodline of a king, yet humble beyond measure. 

Provides for his Wife & Child even in circumstances that could lead to shame

Protects his Wife & Child at the warning of danger, regardless of his own desires

Raised and taught Jesus Christ... I mean... wow. 


So today I'd like to point towards a Man that I personally look towards as a fantastic example. 

In a world where noise & controversy wins - St.Joseph did not utter a word in the entire New Testament.

In a world where the value of Marriage is to be judged against 'who wins' - St.Joseph served his Wife as his absolute priority 

In a world where we want to be seen as clever, impressive & important - St.Joseph was simply described as a Righteous man. 

Following my Baptisim, I needed to choose my confirmation Saint. 

Not an easy choice.

Once I really, truly, understood the journey of St.Joseph, the choice was clear & simple. 

Happy Feast of St Joseph.

Pure class. 👌🏾 Communication is everything!

There's a way to disagree, here's a lesson on how not to...

LinkedIn can sometimes, be full of trolls, negative opinions and mostly lazy responses. 

Eliza posted about Burnout. 

👉🏾 The post warned, to be very careful when self-diagnosing yourself with 'Burn Out'. 

It challenged people, especially young people entering a career for the first time. 

Most people who claim burnout, aren't burnt out. There are simpler, easier to fix issues that can be addressed as a first port of call. 

💡 Sleeping enough?
💡 Managing your time effectively?
💡 Are you hydrating?
💡 Overcommitting to tasks?

There were a flurry of comments, questions and challenges. 

🧡 Beautiful, I love ideas being tried, tested and ensure that they stand on solid ground. 

👏🏾But this comment, took the cake. 👏🏾



Three absolutely beautiful elements I'd like to congratulate on:

1 - The tone, such a wonderful manner in speaking to Woman online and I hope one day to emulate such mastery. 

2 - Fantastic interpretation. You know, some would have read the post and understood that it's saying - before you self-diagnose, make sure you master the basics as you may not be experiencing the true definition of burnout.  Maybe even ask a question, share a challenge or open conversation where they explain a different viewpoint. 

This individual not only read between the lines of the actual post, but wrote some imaginary elements too! Masterful. 

3 - The ability to diagnose narcism. Phenomenal. Without conversation, question, meeting. Truly phenomenal. Many train years and years and still have to actually get to know and understand a patient before reaching diagnosis. So hats off 👏🏾 




I actually like LinkedIn, 
I LOVE debate,
I am happy to be corrected and learn. 

I have never, and will never insult. 
"ignorant" , "narcisist". Na. 

This could have been such a great conversation on burn out and introverts. 

But nope.

As a High Performance Coaches & Speakers, it's only right that we set ourselves new high performance goals..

So as January 2026 came round, we took the time to set a huge new goal.


⚠️ Deliver three, international speeches/workshops. ⚠️


Have we done it before.. nope. 

Did we have a plan on exactly how it would happen... not really.

Was it a scary goal, way outside our current comfort zone.. oh yes. 

👉🏾 Which is EVERYTHING we coach our high potential clients to do.

Well...




Some exciting news to share...

Over the last 10+ years, I’ve worked exclusively with more than 30 Australian Boards, CEO's and C-suite teams across NSW Government, corporates and NFP’s focused on one thing: getting greater ROI from their teams.

In that time, I’ve delivered 10,000+ hours of hands-on leadership and performance work across the country. 

What we consistently find is that underperformance rarely comes from laziness or lack of skill it comes from structural issues like:
●	Misaligned collaboration
●	No real accountability loop
●	Avoidance of hard, necessary conversations

We help leadership teams fix these exact problems through a customised, embedded strategy tailored to specifically to each organisation.

We’re not a volume-based consultancy. We work with a maximum of 3 clients at a time so we can go deep, not wide, and actually move the needle.

If you're an Aussie executive who’s serious about building high-trust, high-performance teams (without adding more complexity), give me a call: 0466 997 717.

We’re based in Sydney and Orange, and regularly work with clients across Australia.

Rex Wood

I sat down with a Sydney based CEO last month, running a $60m business.
 
Done everything he's 'supposed' to.
 
Built a strong senior team. Hired well. Put structure around the business. Even brought in consultants to sort out his strategy.
 
On paper, he's nailed it. Revenue growing. Team in place. Board happy enough.
 
But here's the problem — he's still the one doing the heavy lifting
 
His senior team wait for him to make a call.
 
His strategy? Great on the slide deck. Nobody's executing it without him pushing.
 
His week? Back-to-back from 7am. Laptop open again after the kids are in bed. Every night.
 
He told me something I hear constantly: "I built this team, so I could have freedom. Now I can't take a week off without it falling apart."
 
And for the first time, he realised the issue wasn't his team's capability. It was that nobody around him was stepping up — because the business had been built around expecting him to answer all the questions.
 
This is the conversation I have almost every week with CEOs running $5M–$50M businesses. They're not failing. They just haven't built the leadership layer that lets them actually do less and lead more.
 
The business doesn't need a better CEO. It needs the CEO to stop doing everyone else's job.
 
If that sounds familiar — I'm running a small, in-person CEO session in Sydney mid year. No fluff. Real challenge. DM me "FIT" and I'll send you the details.

CEO: “The team’s just not firing.” That’s typically where the conversation starts. Sydney based $5M-$50M businesses. You’ve outgrown your team and and the numbers aren’t following.

It's happened again - fur flying and claws out

And it's only the Monday morning stand up

Take a beat to look around - notice what's going on
Not a casual glance... stop - observe - reflect

What are you seeing?
A bunch of high-fliers - fighting for space
OR a team working together like an Oxford 8... and nailing it

A team of stars - is NOT a star team

Team Coaching fixes the 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺... 𝗔𝗡𝗗 the individuals
So you're tearing down the Thames with barely a ripple

CEO: “I know exactly where we need to go. What I can’t figure out is why this team can’t seem to get us there.”

CEO's who aren’t present, are burning $'s

It hit me on my walk this morning...

That's why I don't wear headphones
And CEO's shouldn't either!

It's easy to spend 90 mins walking and never really 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 your surroundings. 
It's just as easy to be a CEO and never really experience what's going on around you 

Not the surface stuff - the real stuff.
That requires your full attention - being mindful

Don't have a conversation - and look over their shoulder
Don't sit in a meeting - doomscrolling
Don't ask a question  - and ignore the response

You'll piss your team off and miss the deal... the issue... the money.
It's about being present and aware - just turning up is insufficient.

So are you 'at work'?  Or just 'turning up'?

Experience the world around you - Jan 26

I'm not a great travelling companion!

I'm not a grump... just good on my own
Plus, I snore

So when a good mate suggested we take a few days out and check out the beach house
I said okay - then immediately started to unwind it [in my head] 

Then I spent 3 weeks dealing with that niggle
I'll feel constrained, he'll be bored, it's only 3 days...

For somebody who spends their life encouraging people to step outside their comfort zone
I was doing a pretty sh*t job of it!!

The net result? A great weekend
good food, good wine and great craic

Punctuated with a lunch of Sydney Rocks, king prawns, washed down with bubbly.

Bottom line - comfort zones shrink your life faster than failure does.
Good thing, I took some of my own advice for a change

HEAD OF OPS: "3 down... 4 to go!"

ME: "Brilliant... tell me how your 1:1's have gone?"
 
HEAD OF OPS: "Great! Pay rises and bonuses all set for this year!
And I'm off on holiday as of next week"

Text book stuff, till I asked how his boss had gone, with hers!
HEAD OF OPS: "She got hers emailed to her and told to email it back!!"

You don't need to hear the rest of the story
It was filled with expletives and disbelief

So here we have a 10/10 case of 'cultural hypocrisy'
A completely public, lack of modelling from the top
 
Culture doesn’t cascade. It mirrors.
So I was asked the rhetoric question by the Head of Ops...

"Why the hell is it so important that I have to do all this ...
When the C-team doesn't give a sh*t about it"

Good question
How yould you answer that?

In 2026 'hero' leadership is just plain dumb

Here's why:

I used to:
1 Know all the answers [at least I thought I did] 
2 Lead the 'discussion' [I was just filling dead air... not much discussing]
3 Have all the best ideas [that's what I told myself]
4 Never listened to feedback [why would I - nothing to 'fix']

It took me a while, but it eventually clicked

Now I:
1 Encourage others to provide their answers
2 Ensure that everyone speaks up - it ensures an even share of voice
3 Get everyone else's ideas first - mine are well superseded by then 
4 Share the feedback I've received and where I'm working for improvement - the team will model that

The best leaders now understand that vulnerability is a superpower - not a weakness 
It only comes with self confidence and a healthy ego
Only then, are you comfortable to leave both at the door.

Hero leadership complex, will cost you time, cred and money
Waste it or fix it - you decide

You may think you're 10ft tall and bulletproof 
That's just CEO bullsh*t you tell yourself 
[said with love]
 
No raised voices in sight, just calm resolve
 
The people around you stopped pushing back months ago 
Polite agreement instead of debate

Not because you're right 
Because it stopped being worth it
 
That silence isn't respect 
It's the gap between you and your team — getting wider

I can help narrow the gap.

You cannot run on fumes forever
You've got to 'box' at some point 
not when you've come to a stop on the hairpin!

So what's your strategy - to remain strong?
Walking, running, swimming, meditating... ?

If CEOs treated their wellbeing like a capital raise,  they’d manage it better
Energy 𝗜𝗦 strategic capital

 When's your next scheduled  pit stop?

.

DATE: June 30, 2030 - Five years ago, we were asking

"Will AI replace leaders?"
  
Turns out that was the wrong question.
The right question was: "Will leaders learn to ask better questions?"
  
Because here's what I've seen working with executive teams over the last five years:

The leaders who thrived didn't resist AI. They didn't blindly adopt it either. They did something harder — they got curious about what it revealed about their own leadership.
  
AI didn't replace decision-making
It exposed how poor most decision-making already was.
  
When your team can generate a strategy paper in 90 seconds, 
the leader who just curated information lost their value overnight. 

But the leader who could look at that paper and ask
"What's missing? Who haven't we spoken to? What are we afraid to say out loud?"
That person became indispensable.
  
Here's what changed:
•  Execution speed stopped being the differentiator. Everyone got fast. The edge moved to judgement, context, and courage.

• The leaders who hoarded knowledge became irrelevant. AI democratised information. Influence shifted to those who could build trust, navigate ambiguity, and hold the room when there was no clear answer.

• Coaching became the leadership skill, not a nice-to-have. When AI handles the "what," leaders had to get much better at the "why" and the "who." The best ones became coaches — not because it was trendy, but because it was the only way to unlock the human capability that AI couldn't replicate.

• Self-awareness went from soft skill to survival skill. AI held up a mirror. Leaders who couldn't sit with what they saw didn't last.
  
The irony? 
The technology that everyone feared would make leadership obsolete 
actually raised the bar on what great leadership looks like.
  
Less telling - more asking
Less controlling - more trusting
Less knowing - more learning.
  
Five years on, the leaders I work with aren't competing with AI.
They're competing with the version of themselves that refuses to grow.
  
That was always the real competition.

What will your history written from the future, look like?

How is Elon going to earn his $1tn bonus?

Not on his own that's for sure!!

Business is a team sport - that relies on team players not 'rockstars'
But you get what you pay for

And when you incentives someone with $1tn 
It's pretty bloody obvious where all the focus is!

It takes a special type of individual not to sacrifice the team on the 'bonus altar'
You get what you pay for - follow the money and you'll find out what that is

Robyn Denholm said there is  no “Elon Mark 2” 
If the board is forced to try to replace him...
So they are happy with the revolving door for top talent?

Telling, n'est-ce pas?

What is your board incentivising?

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The Battle

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