What’s Killing Creative Leadership Today?

The Courageous Leaders Podcast

The Courageous Leaders Podcast
What’s Killing Creative Leadership Today?
Oct 23, 2025
Joanna Howes

What happens when you put three top creatives in Leadership Room 101?

In this special Creatives edition of The Courageous Leaders Podcast, I sat down with Dave Buonaguidi (Co-founder of St. Luke’s, 4Creative, and Karmarama), Trevor Robinson OBE (Founder and ECD of Quiet Storm), and Kevin Howes (Freelance Creative Director, Porsche, Sony, Hotels.com) for a sharp, honest, and funny deep dive into the biggest frustrations in creative leadership and what they’d like to banish forever.

From corruption to open-plan offices to phones in meetings, nothing was off the table. The conversation turned into an unfiltered look at what’s broken in modern leadership and how we can make work better.


We Cover:

00:00 – Introduction
01:28 – Dave Buonaguidi on corruption in business and creative leadership
07:28 – Trevor Robinson on sexism, bullying, and why integrity matters
14:53 – HR under fire: protecting culture or protecting bad behaviour?
20:30 – Trevor on open-plan offices and how they stifle creativity
24:30 – The tension between collaboration and individual space for ideas
29:34 – Why toxic competition still damages creative teams today
33:26 – Kevin Howes on phones in meetings and respect for attention
37:22 – How technology addiction is undermining focus and connection
41:14 – Which frustration deserves to be banished into Room 101?
46:20 – Final reflections

Don’t miss out on this powerful and entertaining episode.


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