We Are Power Podcast
The We Are PoWEr podcast spotlights voices and perspectives that need to be heard. Our weekly podcast, with listeners in over 60 countries, delivers PoWErful conversations that inspire, challenge, and empower... from personal life stories to business insights and leadership lessons.
We share diverse experiences, bold discussions, and real solutions. Whether you're looking for career advice, topical themes, or stories of resilience and success - this is where voices spark change.
We Are Power Podcast
Not Every Table Feeds You: What Leadership Has Taught Steph Edusei
The brilliant Steph Edusei returns to the We Are PoWEr Podcast - this time as a PoWEr Lister, published author, and still dancing her way through leadership, life, and impact.
In this episode, Steph shares the leadership lessons that shaped her writing, the moments that tested her optimism, and the poWEr of creating collaborative spaces where people flourish - not just follow. She opens up about why not every table feeds you, the importance of saying no, and how her book was written with 10-minute loo breaks in mind (yes, really).
From practical wisdom to purposeful reflection, Steph reminds us that poWErful leadership isn’t about status - it’s about showing up, listening deeply, and knowing you are enough.
In this episode:
Life as a CEO, dance teacher, and author
Why her book is written in loo-length chapters
Building inclusive leadership by listening to every voice
The mindset shift: not every opportunity is the right one
Using optimism as a super PoWEr and knowing when to pause
Creating the Black All Year platform
Reimagining what modern leadership really looks like
Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫
Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. If this is your first time here, the we Are Power podcast is the podcast for you, your career and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide, where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As we Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything MPW Awards and we Are Power Well, hello, hello, welcome to the podcast. This week, I am delighted to be joined by a repeat guest, steph Adusi, winner of the Transformational Leader Award back in 2022 and Northern Power Women Awards Game Changer, power Lister from this year. Welcome back, welcome to our new Deseret's.
Speaker 2:Hot Couch. I know, I think last time it was all kind of online, wasn't it? It was always, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:So what's happening? What's been? Oh, author, now I understand. Yes, yes, nothing stands still with you, does?
Speaker 2:it. Well, you know, people have said to me for quite a long time oh, you really should write a book. It'd be really interesting to hear.
Speaker 1:So then you got it right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I did, if I'm honest. I tried a while ago and kind of just didn't, it gave up. And then was listening to Sophie Millican's podcast Actually Beyond the Bio and she had a guest who said their first book was a little book of and I went oh, I could write a little book. So that's what I've done. I've done a little book of leadership lessons. It's coming out very soon and it's basically just drawing on my decades now in leadership and giving stories from my life and saying and this is what I've learned and it might be useful for other people as well.
Speaker 1:So it's passing on that skills and knowledge, isn't it so, before we dive into the book? But you are, I remember when you must go back, if you haven't go back and listen to the pod that we recorded in 2022, because we talked a lot about imposter syndrome. We talked a lot about just how sort of you and you're still driving on the Black All Year podcast, which is amazing and is growing, and everything that there is around that, which is brilliant. But one of the things I love was we talked about your bio. You know, chief exec, non-exec director, dance teacher, wannabe ballerina. Yeah, how's the ballerina bit going? Well, I'm still teaching.
Speaker 2:Oh, well, there we go and I'm still dancing. But, um, I'm a few years older and the knees aren't quite as good as they used to be and I've put on a little bit of weight, so you know when you're on point and you feel the weight. But, yeah, still love ballet. Um, still love teaching the kids. It's just, it's an absolute joy. I just love it. I get so much back from from doing that and from them and um just have such a laugh with my colleagues as well. It's really nice, when you've got a responsible role, to have something where I go in. I don't need to worry about the insurance and I don't need to worry about the building upkeep. I just need to think about those kids and how I can get the best out of them and then join myself, and it's a really nice change from what I do the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're the chief exec of the wonderful St Oswald's Hospice, which are 20 plus. Is it 20 plus?
Speaker 2:shops. We have 25 shops and counting. We're hoping maybe to have a couple more by the end of the financial year. So yeah, and a really good, thriving online business as well. So it's that combination of running a hospice and then having this. I kind of joke that I'm probably one of the northeast, or certainly Tynanware's, biggest retailers, beaten maybe by Gregg's I think they're probably the only one that has more stores than we do. So, yeah, I'm coming after Gregg's, but Greg isn't on eBay is he?
Speaker 1:You are right, no, no.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's just, it's an absolute joy. I mean, st Oswald's is my, you know, when you go somewhere and it's like I've come home. That's what it feels like being at St Oswald's?
Speaker 1:Tell us about it.
Speaker 2:Tell about the work that St in oswald. So in oswald hospice is a large children's and adult hospice, um, we this year have got a budget of about 17 million um and we have inpatient beds. We have a busy bustling day services. We provide a lymphedema service across the region, um, and then we've got children's and children's fortunately, is mainly respite care rather than end of life and we have, we say, children's, children's and young adults. It goes 0 to 25. But it's been around for nearly 40 years, our 40th anniversary next year.
Speaker 2:I've just celebrated my fifth anniversary there and the time's just flown by. So I started in the middle of the first lockdown just flown by. So I started in the middle of the first lockdown and it's just been, I'd say, an absolute joy to be a part of such a brilliant organization that cares so much about people, and not just the people that come to us for support, we care about each other and it's really creative and innovative and just fun. I laugh so much in that job which, for a hospice, people think, oh, it must be really sad. You get kind of like people go say you work in a hospice and they go oh that must be so hard and I feel really bad saying, well, no, actually it's just amazing.
Speaker 2:It's an amazing place to be.
Speaker 1:What are you most proud of? Of the work that you do and drive and the teams you lead?
Speaker 2:I think I'm not going to claim credit for this, because it was there before I started but the fact that we've been able to maintain that absolute focus on our patients and service users everything we do is for them and having worked in the NHS in the past, where unfortunately that's not always the case, but being able to maintain that through all of the last five years and the ups and downs and everything that's gone on, I think is probably pretty key.
Speaker 2:But we've got a really exciting new strategy which is about us moving more into communities, reaching more people than we've ever done before, and making sure that everybody gets more and better access to palliative and end-of-life care, because we know a lot of people don't and there's so many barriers in the way. So really having for me, my personal achievement is being able to get that strategy out there and seeing it land with people from within the hospice and the wider health and care community and people are going. Yeah, absolutely that's what we need. So that's kind of been a real kind of oh right, I was, I was right, this was the right thing to do and we're really we're into year two now and really start to see things powering and moving and people are starting to come to us and say can you do this, can you do that? So we're now in the right. We just need to take one step at a time now, but it's exciting.
Speaker 1:So this is after winning transformational leader in 2022. You are, you continue to transform. Yeah, and this is what makes leaders great leaders is. You don't just lead for a period of time or in sections. It's it's innovation, isn't it it's innovation? How would you describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2:I try to be really collaborative and that's challenging, it's sometimes a lot. You just sit there and you just kind of go. I want to tell you the answer because I know and you can't do that and you also sometimes want to say, just do it. But that doesn't work and it can take longer. Doing things collaboratively actually, I know we'll get to a better outcome if we do that. So we may not get to a vastly different place, but it'll be a place that everybody wants to go to and therefore the way in which it's delivered will be a lot better.
Speaker 2:Um, I like to kind of be a very trusting leader. I'm not a micromanager and that's partly because of my own personal thing that I'm not an attention to detail person but I actually trust people. Yeah, I work with some amazing individuals and they know far more about their subject area than I do. So me micromanaging them doesn't make sense. It's about agreeing what's the outcomes that we want and then trusting them to get on with it and saying what do you need from me and the organisation to help you to get there? What kind of environment do you need?
Speaker 2:And for me, that's what leadership is. Leadership is all about creating that environment so that people can just go right here. I go and and really go for it and and excel um, because if you're in, if you're in the wrong environment, it's that thing of you know you put a plant in the wrong environment and it wither and die. I want all of our people to be in absolutely the right soil and have the right nutrients so that they can just flourish and, and when you see that happening, it's, it's great and it makes my life easy and who do you go to for guidance?
Speaker 1:because when you're at the top and I talked at the start about your, your other roles and other side hustles, uh, but you know, being a chair being non-exec, you know it's leadership, leadership, leadership. But who do? Who do you go to for guidance?
Speaker 2:I've got a really lovely family for a start.
Speaker 2:My mom especially I mean my mom northern power mom, yeah she's just amazing, um, and, and I can, I can really talk to her. My other half, rob Rob, he's in leadership himself. So we do have a kind of we kind of finish the day and we do a kind of half hour of and then it's and and and help each other out with any challenges that we've got. But I have coaches, um, I go to other chief execs so across the hospices in our region we've got a really good network of the chief execs and we gather together regularly and it's part kind of planning and sharing and part therapy session. So I think it's about having people that you trust around you, that you can kind of have those conversations with. But also my leadership team we're a really good, solid team Very, very different individuals in the team and that's to be really celebrated, that we do have that difference and that we will challenge each other.
Speaker 2:But we're also really supportive of each other as well, and we'll kind of I'll get people say, oh, you know, so-and-so's just a bit low at the minute. You might want to keep an eye on them, and it's it, it's.
Speaker 1:it's really nice that we've got that as well so at what point did you think why you were listening to Sophie Millican's fabulous uh by um podcast that she does and you went I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna all in. Would you start even by writing a book? Go on, one of Sophie's retreats is probably what Sophie would say well for me.
Speaker 2:I once I decided to do it. It was relatively easy for me to write because it had kind of written itself in my head over the past 10 years and I kind of went, okay. So if I was going to do a little book, what would the little book be of? And I thought, well, it's got to be leadership lessons, because one of the things that I've realized, particularly over the last decade, is that I have learned a lot and I've been through a lot and experienced some some real highs, but some real lows in my career, and I've been able to look back and reflect. I'm a real refle and I've been able to look back and reflect. I'm a real reflector and I've been able to reflect on them and go, okay, so what was that actually about and what have I learned from that? Sometimes I've had to make the same mistake a number of times and then I've gone oh right, okay, yeah, remember you, you learned that the first time and then forgot it. So it was really, really it was almost.
Speaker 2:The hardest thing was me deciding what I was going to leave out because I wanted it to be a little book. It is 10 lessons that I've learned and really thinking well, these are the ones that are applicable to new leaders and to established leaders. These are the ones where I think actually the the story of my experience is relevant and interesting. Um, but I also wanted it to be a little book in lots of ways. I don't want it to be a book that's a real burden to read. I've mentioned to some people about you get a book and it's a great big, thick tome and instantly it puts me off.
Speaker 2:It's overwhelming, yeah it is, and I haven't got time to be reading that. I haven't got time to be watching tv series with 24 episodes in each series. That's too much commitment. So I wanted a little book and I wanted something where you could read a chapter sorry about this on the loo it's. You know what I mean. It's that if any of us that have had kids, it's that if you manage to grab the time, that's what I used to do all the time. I used to have a, a health service journal, which was a trade magazine, when I was in the health service and I used to have that next to the toilet and I used to read it every week. Was it your safe space? It was. It was kind of like right, I've got time to, so the loo is for you, but it's that type that I wanted a like a 10 minute chapter that people yeah and actually you don't even have to read it front to back.
Speaker 2:You can kind of go right oh there's a, there's a chapter there on imposter phenomena. I want to read that, yeah, and be able to just dip in and read it and for it to be self-contained. So, um, yeah, no, no stress, no additional burdens for people, just something that will help, hopefully and be interesting and it's interesting when you talk about them.
Speaker 1:You know often the lead, the learning, is about the mistakes that you make along the way. What is the if you can share the biggest, maybe leadership mistake you've made on the way? Oh sometimes it's also not just the mistake, it's how you get back from it, how you get back on track.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's, there's probably a couple, but the one that, um, this is one that I have made at least twice and that's about excluding voices. So when I was quite a junior manager, I did it twice, and it was normally me being heavily influenced by other people and their opinions of people, and or that person was just difficult to work with, or whatever, and I kind of I didn't exclude them completely, but I sidelined them and what we did was we ended up getting to the right place, but it was probably not as good as it could have been.
Speaker 2:Or we had to do a lot of remedial actions to get there and actually, in one of those cases, the person that I sidelined was a lovely person, a really genuinely lovely person, and it still sits with me a little bit that I might have hurt them because they weren't as included as they should have been in the work that we were doing.
Speaker 2:So I do regret that. Um, so now I say, even though it can be really really torturous sometimes and you can be it can be really personally and professionally challenging to get different voices in there. I, I know the value of of doing that and that sometimes people can really stop you from going completely the wrong way because you've had them in the room and they've said that really difficult thing to hear, but you've needed to hear it. So that's that's probably the biggest one that I would say is it's really tempting and really easy to go. I will just leave, just not bother, including that because they're going to say something or behave in a way that I don't want to behave. So we'll just get all of the kind of happy, supportive, cheerleader-y people. Absolutely the wrong thing to do, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And what's the bit of advice that you find you always pass on? You know when you get asked. You know what advice would you give to your younger self, your boisterous self? I think I heard you talk about it on another podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, there's two, but they're connected. So the first one is that you are enough, yeah, and it doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. You could be, you know, you could be chief exec of Microsoft or you could be somebody who is homeless you are still enough. And you, as you are, are absolutely enough. And I wish more people believed that, particularly more women believed that.
Speaker 2:Connected to that, and particularly for professionals, is you need to be really careful about the table that you sit at, and it is actually a chapter. You know, not every table feeds you, and I've had experiences where I've been asked to sit at a table and I've been really flattered but I'm just like, wow, they want me to be involved. This is great, and actually it has been personally very damaging and the reasons that I've been asked to sit there have maybe not been what I thought they were or not what I heard they were, because that's the other thing when somebody asks you, you kind of go oh, and you don't hear necessarily what people are saying. But also I think that people aren't necessarily prepared for what you bring to that table.
Speaker 2:so really be careful about where you choose to sit and the tables you choose to sit at, and don't believe this thing of oh well, there's not many places at tables. That's what people want you to believe. They want particularly, again, women, people of colour to believe that there are very few places at the table. Absolutely not. Don't be grateful yeah Well, it's that you need to be and here and people become very protective when they think that there's a limited number of places at the table. Your job, once you're sitting there, is to think that there's a limited number of places at the table. Your job, once you're sitting there, is to make sure there's plenty of space for other people to join and and that that. So don't believe that scarcity, but be really picky about the tables you choose to sit at.
Speaker 1:I love that and I have seen, as at the start, you know, since we first met at the awards and various power circles, various events we've been at. We were both. We're not grateful we are enabled to be part of the Northern Leaders list, which we're going to an event later on tonight, aren't we? I know this will come out after this is aired but it's, all good. What did that feel like? To get that recognition, because you are very accomplished and I see you getting lots of recognition. Does that sit comfortably with you?
Speaker 2:It's always a surprise. It probably sits better now than it used to, because I used to really struggle with accepting praise. I still do with certain types of praise, but that's not because I don't believe it's true. I don't want people to think I'm better than them, because I'm not. I'm the same as everybody else. I just do things in a certain way that lands well with certain people. So I don't want to get praised because people are doing themselves down. But it used to be really, really difficult for me and I used to dismiss it. I used to do.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a mistake or it's because they don't know about. So now, when something like the Northern Leaders, which did come as a complete surprise, kind of out of the blue, was really, really lovely, I do have moments still amongst business communities where I go, oh am I supposed to be here? And then I remind myself I run a large, multi-million pound organization with 25 shops and, um, you know everything that's. That's a heck of a business to be running. So, yeah, I absolutely do deserve to be in those rooms, but that's taken a lot of work for me to get to the place where I'm comfortable with it. But always recognise that that's because I've got a profile that I've got and that there'll be other people who don't have that profile and are doing absolutely fantastic work and are deserving of fantastic work and are deserving of similar accolades.
Speaker 1:And you drive. You're very much someone who likes to give back, whether it's through your dance teaching and making a difference to the next gen or just giving back, but by setting up. I think when we first chatted you were right at the start of setting up Black All Year. What have you learnt most from that and tell us about it, and what have you learnt most?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Black All Year has been. It's been a little bit I'm going to use the term journey has been a little bit of a journey In that originally it was all about having live events that people could join online. So we'd do an hour, normally over a lunchtime, have a guest talking about topics that were relevant, about the black experience and it. It was kind of a bit of a mixed audience and I kind of oh, I need to think who my audience is, and then I grew really comfortable with having that mixed audience. So what, what I have is a, an audience of people from the black and ethnically minoritized community who are learning stuff but who are also saying, yes, that's me, that's my experience and I'm really grateful to have their experiences aired as value.
Speaker 2:If not more valuable, are people from kind of the white community and organisations who have said to me this has been really useful. I bumped into a chief exec of a hospice at a conference last year and he came over and he said you're Steph, aren't you? And I went yeah, and he said my team and I listened to the Black All Year podcast and we have learned so much. Thank you so much for producing it. And that makes it all worthwhile. Knowing that, even if just one person has learned something and will change their practice and their behavior because of it, that's all I ever wanted was for people to go all right. I didn't know that and I understand more now and as a result of knowing, knowing that I'm going to do something differently and what would you say is your superpower?
Speaker 2:oh, my superpower, optimism, I think, especially in today's climate, I think it has to be.
Speaker 2:You know, I I could have said energy, but actually I get tired just like everybody else and I am very mindful of when I need to rest and things like that. Um, but yeah, I think optimism because, no matter how bleak it gets, there's something in me goes. But I can do something about this, it can get better, we can change this. Um. So, yeah, I have had, especially, like I say, recently I've had quite a few moments where I've gone. Why am I bothering? Why am I doing?
Speaker 1:this. I was at an event last week, a female founders event, and there was the question is who feels optimistic? And I always, like yourself, optimistic. Um, I couldn't put my hand up and, and I think it was, and I actually said I'm caveating this. This is a small wobble and probably the first wobble I've had in 10 years, but it's a wobble and and. But normally I'm like the one at the first in, first in class hands straight up. How do you up? How do you get yourself back on track? I was fuelled by a room full of female founders that you know I could caveat to go.
Speaker 2:It's not going to last, this will pass, but it is tough out there it is, and I think for me there's something about so during the whole Black All Year kind of pushback in kind of 2020-21, last summer, with the riots in the UK in particular, that was really personally very challenging and terrifying.
Speaker 2:The riots last year were perhaps the most scared I've been. That I can remember. And I think there's something for me about knowing that when that optimism drops for me, it's not that it's gone, I just need a break. And there's something about knowing that I can step back and the others will step in to fill the void. I don't have to be the one that fights every battle and every cause. So I know that there are a lot of people who are activists who will step forward, and I've said it to other women. I've said look, take a break, sister, it's all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just take a break. It's okay, we're here, we've got this, and when you're ready, come back, and I trust that I can do that as well. And then I take you know, normally it's about three hours actually I'll go okay, I don't need to do this anymore. And then I go all right, I'm ready again. Because I have the optimism when I know I don't have to, and and kind of get over myself as well. The weight of the world is not, it's kind of sitting in my hand to change. So once I've done that and said it's okay, I don't have to, I can let other people do this, that kind of weight is lifted and I find that the optimism then comes back. Or if not the optimism, the fight comes back, the power yeah, steph.
Speaker 1:Adusi, stepha, do see. Power woman, northern power woman. Northern leader. Author, very excited about coming on the book tour. There's going to be one right, there has to be one, steph. Thank you so much, uh, for coming across and chat with you today. It's been, it's been too long and I look forward to seeing you a few hours in newcastle lovely. Thank you, step. Subscribe on YouTube, apple, amazon Music, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or follow us on socials. We are power underscore net on insta, tiktok and twitter, or we are power on linkedin, facebook and we are underscore power on youtube.
