14: Lead Well Live Well with Dee Blick - Episode 14

14: Lead Well Live Well with Dee Blick - Episode 14

How do individuals turn their lives around after addiction? This conversation with global HR director and author Karl Wood offers a fresh angle: leadership grounded in grace, calmness and kindness rather than fear and bluster.

Hosted by marketing and leadership enthusiast Dee Blick, the episode centres on Karl’s compact book *If Bears Did Leadership* and his belief that, as he puts it, “leadership lives in the choices we make.” He explains that real leadership shows up in the tiny, everyday moments – how a question is answered, how clarity is given, how people are treated under pressure.

Karl shares his journey from dyslexic teenager stepping onto a restaurant floor in Sydney to global HR director for a 150‑hotel group. Hospitality, he says, became the perfect training ground: fast-paced, people-focused, and unforgiving of sloppy standards or uncaring behaviour. Along the way he met “the good, the bad, and the downright awful” leaders and decided to model himself on the calm, kind ones who set high standards without breeding fear.

Themes like authenticity and empathy come alive through short readings from his book. One passage notes, “Authenticity is the bedrock of trust. Without it, leadership becomes a performance and people can always sense when the script does not match reality.” Another section on habits leans on James Clear’s line: “You don’t rise to the level of your ambition, you fall to the level of your habits,” a reminder that daily behaviour counts more than lofty intentions.

The chat also touches on Karl’s Winkwire project, which offers jargon-free HR and workplace content in written, audio and video formats to suit different learning styles. If you’re rebuilding your life, reshaping how you lead at work, or just trying to be a steadier, kinder influence for those around you, this episode might nudge you to ask: what do your daily choices say about the leader you’re becoming?