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What happens when a professional executive coach looks at the leadership development gap and decides to do something about it at scale?

In this episode, Ewan is joined by Kirsty Bathgate, founder of Gearing for Growth and co-founder of Bravyn, an AI-powered coaching platform designed to bring meaningful leadership development to the people who need it most — early and mid-stage leaders who rarely get access to coaching at all.

Kirsty makes a compelling case: 80% of new leaders receive no formal leadership training. 70% of people who leave jobs leave their manager, not their company. And disengaged teams are costing the global economy close to a trillion dollars a year. Bravyn was built to tackle that problem head on.

But this isn't a story about replacing coaches with chatbots. Kirsty is an accredited executive coach of 15 years, and she's built Bravyn to coach — properly coach — using accredited competencies, rigorous ethics standards, and technology that asks the questions rather than hands out the answers.

In this conversation, Ewan and Kirsty cover:

• Why AI coaching done badly is making people worse at thinking for themselves
• How Bravyn personalises every coaching conversation to the individual's goals, role, and employer
• The trust and data privacy considerations that matter to HR leaders
• How organisations can measure real ROI from coaching at scale
• Kirsty's three must-ask questions before adopting any AI coaching tool
• If you're in HR, lead a growing team, or just want to understand where AI fits in the future of leadership — this one is well worth your time.

Connect with Kirsty on LinkedIn or visit bravyn.ai to find out more.

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Eden Scott LinkedIn
Beyond HR LinkedIn

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In this conversation, Ewan and Daniel get practical about mental health at work: the real drivers of stress and burnout, the hybrid balance, and why visibility beats the classic “open door policy”.

You’ll hear how to use the Wellness Action Plan, build manager confidence, and measure impact beyond absence, plus ideas for smaller teams without big budgets.

You’ll learn:
• Visibility vs accessibility (and why it matters)
• Simple early‑warning check‑ins that feel safe
• Practical tools: Wellness Action Plan, HSE stress toolkit, peer networks
• What leadership can do tomorrow to set the tone

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and leave a review, it really helps others find the show.

Resources

• https://www.samh.org.uk/get-involved/workplace/workplace-wellness-action-plans
• https://www.samh.org.uk/about-mental-health/samh-publications/publications-workplace

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Eden Scott LinkedIn
Beyond HR LinkedIn

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Wellness at work continues to dominate conversations in HR and leadership, but many organisations are still missing the point.

In this episode of Recruitment and Beyond, Fiona McKee, founder of The HR Practice, joins us to discuss why wellbeing at work remains a challenge in 2025 and why surface-level solutions often fail. Fiona shares insight into the real drivers of stress and burnout, including job design, workload pressure, management capability, and organisational culture.

We explore common misconceptions around mental health at work, the limits of wellbeing perks, and what it truly means to create a human-centred workplace. Fiona also explains the commercial impact of getting wellbeing wrong and why leaders and managers must take ownership, rather than passing responsibility to HR alone.

This episode is packed with practical insight for leaders, managers, and HR professionals looking to build healthier, more sustainable workplaces where people feel supported and able to perform at their best.

Fiona McKee

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-mckee-5312508/

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Eden Scott LinkedIn
Beyond HR LinkedIn