Collabbway

Collabbway Brooke, behind collabbWAY, coaches leaders grow the confidence, connection and capability needed to lead well.

Here’s something my younger self wishes she’d known.You don’t feel ready and then do the thing. You do the thing, maybe ...
03/09/2026

Here’s something my younger self wishes she’d known.

You don’t feel ready and then do the thing. You do the thing, maybe no so great the first time….. but if you stick at it, the readiness catches up later.

For years I had that backwards. I waited to feel confident before I’d start, and called it being realistic and waiting my turn. I now get it. It was fear turning up, before the skill had a chance to arrive.

So if you’re sitting on the edge of something right now, telling yourself you can’t do it, I’d gently say the same thing to you. That’s not your truth. That’s just fear talking before the skill catches up.

Start before you feel ready. That’s one of the best kept secrets in life.

Do it anyway.

This week I’ve been sitting with how brutal the corporate world can be right now. Restructures, redundancies, whole team...
02/09/2026

This week I’ve been sitting with how brutal the corporate world can be right now. Restructures, redundancies, whole teams reshaped in a single announcement.
But the decision is rarely the brutal part. It’s what happens after...... The person who becomes invisible overnight. The calendars that clear. The people who go quiet because they don’t know what to say.
And the ones still standing..... well they’re watching how it’s all handled, quietly learning what they’d be worth if it were them.
How you treat people when there’s nothing left to offer them is the whole thing. That’s leadership when it actually counts.
📌 Want my playbook on 30 of the hardest workplace moments and how to think through each one? 🙋‍♀️ Comment CORPORATE and I’ll send it your way.

01/09/2026

It’s not the redundancies breaking people. It’s what comes after.

A whole team gets cut. A few left standing, then nothing.
No call or acknowledgement from their manager. Just weeks of silence while everyone still there works out whether they’re next.

Here’s what they keep missing.
The decision might be out of your hands, but how you carry people forward... sits with you!

In 12 months, nobody remembers the restructure. They’ll remember whether you stayed.

If this is your world, share it with a colleague. Or even better, share how you’ve been left hanging in these moments.
Sharing helps others feel less alone.

27/08/2026

If the real part of middle leadership made the PD, you might think twice…… here’s a few things that might be sitting with you:
- The conversations you rehearse alone at 11pm that nobody ever sees. The words you tried, the versions you scrapped, all so it lands with care when it matters.
- The emotion you absorb in a one on one that you carry quietly for the rest of the day because it wasn’t yours to share.
- The problems you solved before they reached your team. They’ll never know what didn’t happen because you were paying attention.
- The energy it takes to stay regulated when the room is anything but. Your steadiness is doing more work than anyone realises.
- The weight of caring deeply about people you also have to hold accountable. That tension doesn’t go away. You just learn to hold both.

Save this for the times you feel alone and questioning the messy middle.

26/08/2026

3 things I wish someone told me before I managed my first team.

Nobody hands you these when you step into leading people. You work them out the hard way, usually after they’ve already cost you.

Your team becomes what you tolerate. The hard conversation you’re avoiding protects you, not them. And being liked is not the same as being respected.

I learnt all three the long way round.

Which one do you wish you’d known earlier?

Want my playbook on 30 of the hardest workplace moments and how to think through each one? Comment MANAGER and I’ll send it your way.

When you have to deliver a decision to your team you didn’t make, and the decision sucks.I used to struggle with this. F...
26/08/2026

When you have to deliver a decision to your team you didn’t make, and the decision sucks.

I used to struggle with this. Fronting up to my team, delivering something I knew wasn’t great, but I had to. It’s hard.

You’re the one standing there holding a call you didn’t get a say in.

Interestingly, what social work taught me is that how you deliver the change matters more than the change itself. A considered conversation now saves you tenfold in acceptance later.

You don’t have to agree with a decision to deliver it with integrity…. you just have to be honest about the tension and clear about the direction.

Save this one for the next time it speaks to you.

I’ve put my thinking on 30 of the hardest workplace moments into one playbook. Comment CHANGE and I’ll send it your way.

25/08/2026

The leaders most sure they’re self-aware are usually the ones who aren’t.

Tasha Eurich found in nearly 5,000 leaders, 95% thought of themselves as self-aware. Yet, only 10 to 15% actually are. It also suggested that the higher up you go, the worse it gets, because fewer people are willing to tell you the truth.

The absence of negative feedback isn’t proof people are aligned and engaged. It’s often the sign nobody’s holding up the mirror anymore.

If you want to know how your team experiences you, stop trusting your own read as the only signal. Ask the people around you and make it safe enough that they’ll be honest.

Have a think….. Who on your team would tell you the truth, and when did you last make it safe for them to do so?

17/08/2026

12 sentences that separate the managers people respect from the ones they just tolerate.

Save this. You’ll need at least one of these this week.

1. “I’m going to stop us here.”
→ Resets the room before it gets worse.
2. “That’s not what we’re here to solve today.”
→ Keeps the meeting on purpose
3. “We’ve drifted. Let’s get back to what matters.”
→ Names it without blame.
4. “What are we actually trying to decide right now?”
→ Cuts through the noise.
5. “We can have that conversation. Just not in this meeting.”
→ Firm but not dismissive.
6. “I hear the frustration. What’s the one thing that would fix it?”
→ Moves emotion toward solution.
7. “Let’s agree on what we’re solving before we solve it.”
→ Stops the spiral before it starts.
8. “What decision do we need to walk out of here with?”
→ Creates a clear finish line
9. “We’ve been going in circles. Who’s going to own the next step?”
→ Breaks the loop with accountability.
10. “Let’s separate the emotion from the problem for a second.”
→ Creates space to think clearly.
11. “We’re not going to solve everything in this room. What’s the one thing we can?”
→ Makes progress feel possible.
12. “I’m going to call it. We need to reset and come back focused.”
→ Takes charge when no one else will.

The managers people respect aren’t the loudest in the room. They’re the ones who know when and how to redirect it.

That’s a skill. Not a personality trait.

Comment SMALL and I’ll send you my Leadership Is
The Small Moments Guide:
The conversation techniques for 30 hard moments
every manager face.

16/08/2026

1. Pause before you respond.
Not to seem composed but because what you say next shapes the relationship.
2. Name what you’re noticing, not what you’re assuming.
Instead of “you seem disengaged”….. try “I’ve noticed you’ve not been yourself recently, possibly a little quieter lately. What’s going on for you?”
3. Drop the apologetic opener.
Instead of “Sorry to bother you”…….. try “I want to talk about something important.”
4. Ask the question underneath the question.
Not “why didn’t you meet the deadline”……. Try “what got in the way of you meeting this deadline?”
5. Say the thing once. Then stop.
Over-explaining is self-protection. Trust the relationship to hold the truth.

These are the things that matter. They sound simple but they speak volumes at work.

📌

13/08/2026

I don’t need to reference a research study to prove this. Nobody remembers the manager who made everything comfortable.
They remember the one who made them better.

It’s never the nicest manager in the building.
It’s the one who told them the truth when it was uncomfortable.
Held the standard when it would have been easier not to.
Gave feedback that actually meant something.

Nice feels good. Honest builds careers.

Follow along. This is the work.

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