Maureen Adams MBA, ACC

Leadership can look confident from the outside — while feeling heavy on the inside.

If you’re an emerging manager or an established leader, you may be carrying a lot: new expectations, bigger visibility, tricky people dynamics, competing priorities, and the pressure to “get it right.” And when your mindset is running on overthinking, multi-tasking or constant proving, leadership quickly becomes exhausting, even when you’re capable.

I work with managers and leaders who want to lead with more clarity, confidence and calm. Not by adding more to your to-do list, but by strengthening the mindset beneath your leadership: how you think under pressure, how you hold boundaries, how you communicate, and how you make decisions when the stakes are high.

For organisations and leadership teams, I help create the conditions where people do their best work: stronger alignment, clearer communication, better collaboration, and cultures that retain good people because they feel seen, challenged and supported.

My coaching is rooted in a simple belief: when people understand what matters to them, play to their strengths, and feel equipped to handle the hard conversations, they don’t just perform better — they lead better. That’s when you see real shifts: less reactivity, more trust, and teams that move forward together.

Alongside my coaching credentials (ICF accreditation and a Professional Certificate in Executive Coaching), I bring lived leadership experience — over 20 years building and leading teams at senior level, shaping strategy, and implementing operational playbooks. I also remain close to leadership realities as a non-executive board member. I understand the pressure points because I’ve been there — and I know what it takes to lead through them with integrity.

If you’re ready to strengthen your leadership mindset, navigate change with more confidence, and create a more aligned way of working, let’s talk. I work with individuals and/or teams.

✅ Book in and let’s talk about what you’re navigating — and what you want to create next for you and/or your team. I’ll be the coach in your corner.
https://go.oncehub.com/MaureenAdams30min

CEO and Founder of Cumulus Coaching Ltd

An executive coaching company whose purpose is to enable individuals, teams, and organisations to transform how they work to create more value through working collaboratively and with a clearly defined purpose. 

I help people at the managerial level to get the best from their teams and to recognise the value of motivation for themselves and others through aligning with their strengths and values

Why it’s so hard to “be strategic” when you’re a manager (and why senior leaders don’t always want you to).

If you’ve ever been told, “You need to be more strategic,”  your first thought might have been, “Sure… but when exactly?”

I work with capable, committed managers and leaders who make decisions all day.  They hold teams together, manage competing priorities, address conflict, deliver results, and set the emotional tone of the room. But they’re often running out of bandwidth.

In theory, strategic thinking is about the bigger picture: direction, priorities, trade-offs, and long-term impact.

In practice, managers often hear “be strategic” as:
📌Take more initiative.
📌Fix the problems before they reach me.
📌Think like a leader… but still deliver everything you’re delivering now.
📌Bring me solutions, not problems.

So they try to squeeze “thinking time” into the gaps between meetings. They keep a notebook of ideas and set intentions.
But then their day unfolds...A resignation, a customer escalation and another “quick question” that isn’t quick.

Strategic thinking isn’t a single moment of brilliance. It’s a mental mode.
It needs space for activities such as connecting patterns and questioning assumptions. (Two factors we explore in coaching)

It includes imagining alternatives and weighing trade-offs, and even 
saying “no” to good ideas so you can say “yes” to the right options.

Most managers I coach are stuck in a double bind:
It’s not that they don’t want to be strategic, but that the cost can feel high.
And when you’ve built your reputation on being dependable, it can feel risky to change how you work.

So, how do you become more strategic without dropping the ball?

Strategic thinking can start small, with behaviours that create leverage.
Here are a few practical shifts that work well in the real world:

Create a protected 30-minute “strategy appointment” each week for yourself as a protected slot. 

Use it to answer three questions:
✅​What is the most important outcome right now?
✅​What am I doing that doesn’t actually support it?
✅​What decision, if made now, would make the next month easier?

This is exactly where coaching helps, not by giving you a generic “be strategic” checklist, but by working with your context, such as where your time leaks are, which decisions you’re carrying unnecessarily and what you might actually stop doing.

So let’s make strategic thinking possible in the reality you’re operating in.

If you’d like support with this, you can book a short session with me.

Maureen Adams ICF ACC

Executive Leadership Coach | Leadership Development for Individuals and Teams | NED and Chair| Business Owner of Cumulus Coaching

It can seem impossible to climb the corporate ladder.

But it represents the pinnacle of leadership and decision-making. 

Why shouldn't this be your ambition if you could make a difference?

The barriers I hear as a coach are:
''I'm not sure I fit in at the leadership level.''
''I am not really that strategic.''

You may not have felt a great fit in the past, but leadership roles and senior teams are shaped differently now. 

What was considered an established C-Suite leadership style is changing.

The traditional capabilities of financial, strategic, and operational resource focus remain highly relevant. But when companies today search for top leaders, they also prioritise strong social skills and digital literacy.

To get that into shape, here are three questions you can ask yourself to think yourself into the role:

1. What Sets Me Apart as a Leader?

Reflect on your unique strengths, skills, and values that distinguish you as a leader. Understanding your leadership differentiators is crucial for crafting a compelling personal brand and positioning yourself effectively. 

2. Am I Actively Building Strategic Relationships? 

Evaluate the depth and breadth of your professional network. Ask yourself if you're proactively building connections with mentors, influential leaders, and peers within and outside your organisation. 

3. How Am I Continuously Developing My Leadership Skills? 

Reflect on your commitment to ongoing learning and self-improvement.  Assess whether you're staying abreast of industry trends, updating your skill set, and embracing new knowledge. 

4. Am I strategic?

If you feel unfamiliar with the concept of being strategic, you are not alone. I often find that people who do not recognise themselves as strategic frequently use strategic thinking in their day-to-day work. It is simply a way to understand the reason for the destination or the problem you are trying to solve and to identify a direction of travel. 

The details are in the implementation. The strategy is the focus. If you want to work on this aspect of leadership, I recommend Richard Rumelt's book 'Good Strategy, Bad Strategy.

He maintains that the kernel of a good strategy has 3 elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. Add strong social skills to those elements, and you will not only have a strategic plan, but a team willing to work with you to deliver it.

If you can develop a personal narrative that underscores your skills and abilities, you will find that ladder of success not so difficult to climb.

Yes, there will be challenges and hurdles; otherwise, it wouldn't be the defining role that it is. Having those softer emotional intelligence skills and the ability to relate to people at all levels will also help you achieve success.

Many successful people partner with an executive coach to help them unpack their answers to these questions, address their blindspots, and find their focus.

Why not you?

Leadership turnover is rising.

Not because leaders can’t cope, but because they’re thinking more carefully about what comes next.

Recently, I have been quietly helping a number of people move from manager to leader and director level to the C-Suite.

They are all very experienced, and their confidence is high, despite the challenging job market.

The issues they have been dealing with are:

📌Finding the space to think strategically about the next role when delivering day to day

📌Recognising and feeling comfortable talking about their skills and talents naturally.

📌Ensuring the CV and the executive summary showcase their deliverables also reflect their personality, not just what they've delivered, but who they are.

📌Carving out time to do the research on the role and the company while keeping focused on their performance; that's a whole new post in itself!

So we slow down just a little, not do less, but to think more strategically and feel more aligned in our mind, body and emotions so we can optimise the opportunity.

We look at which roles genuinely fit them, where their strengths will land well, and where they have the greatest chance of thriving and not just getting through another interview cycle. There's breadth and a depth to this work rather than a dash to the finishing line

It's work I love because it's forward-looking and energising. I have seen people really successfully lean into their personality rather than an AI version of their technical abilities. But always by understanding the importance of the relationship they are building with the new opportunity.

When you think about it, we invest in support for almost every area of our lives — our health, our homes, our families. Yet careers, which shape so much of how we live and feel, are often left to chance.

This kind of work isn’t just about progress. It’s about why.

Values. Purpose. Self-belief and Self-Awareness of how you may have changed.

The parts of leadership that make you feel human again, not just productive.

And honestly, that’s usually where the real shift begins.

I’m always happy to offer a quiet, thoughtful conversation to help you make sense of what’s next.

Allyson Zimmermann is the CEO of LEAD Network, in which she focuses on gender equity & inclusion in the retail and consumer goods sector.

Allyson is a recognized authority on equity and inclusion, and is a frequent speaker on topics, such as gender parity, inclusive leadership, the power of allyship, unconscious bias, conscious recruitment, intersectionality, sponsorship and culture change. She has also delivered workshops, master classes and worked closely with CEOs, Boards, and emerging leaders about challenges they may be facing in order to create authentic meaningful change. 

Prior to joining the LEAD Network, Allyson was the Executive Director of Catalyst’s operations in Europe, Middle East & Africa, and was responsible for overseeing the EMEA operations and shaping the strategy for Catalyst’s continued growth and supporter engagement. 

In 2020, Allyson was named by Diversity Journal as one of the Women Worth Watching®️ and was shortlisted by the European Diversity Awards for the Diversity Champion of the Year Award in 2022.

Allyson Zimmermann

Love this: “Trust is the currency of leadership” and “Leadership is a practice not a position.”

CEO, LEAD Network / Equity & Inclusion Advocate in Retail and Consumer Goods Industry

Optimist, New York Times bestselling author of "Start with Why" and "The Infinite Game", and founder of The Optimism Company

One of Simon’s most-read articles this year isn’t about visibility or recognition. It’s about what leadership looks like when no one is watching.

This timeless piece asks a simple but challenging question:
Would you still lead if no one ever knew your name?

It’s a reminder that real leadership is measured by impact, not applause.

Revisit one of the year’s most powerful reads:

Open article: The Power of Leading Without Recognition by getinspired.cc

Progress for women is progress for all. Women are not one thing, nor are men; identity is deeply personal. 

There is no zero sum here - men benefit too from a more equal society….gender is the tide lifting all ships. 

Despite last year being tough for many of us in this space, we stay committed to a more equitable and inclusive workplace. Let’s make it happen!

103 countries have never had a woman Head of State.

And at today’s rate, it will take 130 years to reach gender parity in leadership.

We are done waiting.

True change means ending stigma, and reshaping what power looks like.

As we enter 2026, see the 15 actions UN Women is calling for to push forward on #GenderEquality: https://lnkd.in/e2Y6gKs7

#ForAllWomenAndGirls

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