What if the most lasting leadership isn't about the monuments you build but about the quiet spaces you create for others to thrive? Many senior leaders wrestle with this tension: how do we create impact that endures beyond our tenure without becoming the very "founder effect" that stifles the organisation's future? We know intellectually that leadership is about developing others, yet our systems still reward personal visibility over collective growth, heroic intervention over sustainable culture.

This conversation with Professor David Murdoch offers a different lens. We explore what happens when leadership becomes less about being essential and more about making yourself unnecessary. Through his experience moving from technical expert to Vice Chancellor, from academic to industry leader, and through his two years running a remote hospital in Nepal, David reveals how unconventional detours often become our most formative experiences. His practice of building guitars (30 of them, all given away to friends around the world) isn't a hobby separate from his leadership, it's the creative renewal that sustains it. What's possible when we stop treating our "opposite world" as optional?

Professor David Murdoch is an infectious disease expert, former Vice Chancellor of Otago University, and currently works with PHF Science leading organisational transformation. His father's quiet championing of women in education shaped David's approach to what I'm calling "covert mentoring," lifting others into opportunities without fanfare or expectation of recognition. In this conversation, you'll discover:

1. How creative practice serves as a barometer for your work-life integration (when your mind wanders to the workshop during boring meetings, you're in a good spot)
2. Why taking opportunities that "wreck your career" often become the best decisions you'll make
3. How to build high trust, high accountability cultures through deliberate delegation and learning to let go
4. Why working with young people isn't just about developing them, it's about their fresh questions keeping your thinking alive
5. How succession planning is the ultimate success metric (things continuing well when you're not there)
6. Why you can't assume you have a legacy, and how that humility actually creates enduring impact
7. How experiences in radically different environments (like running a remote hospital in Nepal for two years) shape your leadership in ways conventional career paths never could
8. Why the "founder effect" happens and what warning signs to watch for in your own leadership

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Introduction

(03:02) - The Creative Outlet: Guitar Building and Leadership

(09:13) - The Journey from Expert to Leader

(23:59) - Trusting Young Talent in Leadership Roles

(32:54) - Creating Lasting Impact in Leadership

(38:20) - Building a Culture of Trust

(42:02) - Lessons from Nepal: A Unique Leadership Experience

Other References

1. Nick Petrie

What if the most important measure of your leadership isn't what you achieve while you're in the role, but what continues after you've moved on? It's a question most senior leaders avoid because the answer is often uncomfortable. You've built the strategy, delivered the results, transformed the culture. But if you left tomorrow, how much of it would actually last?

In this special Year in Review episode, Digby reflects on five interconnected themes that emerged from a year of deep conversations with remarkable leaders, change-makers, and systems thinkers. These aren't isolated insights, they're facets of the same question: how do we create change that endures? From understanding complex systems and shifting from hero to host leadership, to embracing unhurried productivity and living with deliberate authenticity, each theme builds toward a powerful framework for leading lasting impact.

This episode is Digby's invitation to step back and see the bigger picture. Drawing on insights from over 50 conversations, personal experiences of burnout and breakthrough, and years of working with leaders across sectors, he maps a journey from crisis-driven leadership through to creating change so embedded that people don't want to go back. You'll discover:

1. How to assess where you sit on the spectrum from crisis-driven to lasting impact leadership (and why most leaders get stuck at stage two)
2. Why systems thinking is essential for addressing root causes rather than just treating symptoms, and how the dragonfly metaphor reframes our understanding of generational impact
3. How shifting from hero to host leadership transforms dependency into capability, and why your job isn't to be the answer but to create conditions where answers emerge
4. Why unhurried productivity isn't about slowing down but about creating spaciousness within the work itself, and how this becomes the foundation for everything else
5. How living deliberately means making daily choices that align with who you truly are, not who you think you should be
6. Why these five themes aren't separate ideas but interconnected pieces that, when working together, create leaders whose impact outlasts their tenure
7. How to measure leadership success differently, focusing on what continues after you're gone rather than what you achieve while you're there

Leading Lasting Impact self-assessment

Other References:

1. James McCulloch Podcast Episode
2. Dr. Richard Hodge Podcast Episode
3. Adam Cooper Podcast Episode

How much of what matters most are you missing while you're listening? Not the words themselves (you're good at capturing those) but what's underneath them, between them, beyond them.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most of us believe we're better listeners than we actually are. We're busy preparing our response, managing the future, or distracted by the ping of the next urgent thing. Meanwhile, the people in front of us (the ones we're meant to be leading) are telling us everything we need to know. If only we knew how to truly hear it.

In this conversation with Oscar Trimboli, we explore something deeper than communication skills. We venture into the territory of how we show up, what we say no to, and why the foundations we've already built might matter more than the future we're chasing. This is about the shift from hero to host, from infinite ambition to the surprising lightness of a ‘tour of duty’, and from listing ingredients to sharing the story of the meal.

Oscar Trimboli is on a quest to create 100 million deep listeners in the workplace. He's spent decades discovering that the gap between speaking and listening isn't just about paying attention. It's about understanding that how we frame something can change what happens next. His work helps leaders see what they're missing when they focus only on the words.

In this conversation, you'll discover:

• Why the legacy you're creating might already exist in ways you can't yet see, and how acknowledging your past builds the foundation for what's next

• How setting boundaries isn't about limitation but about the strategic clarity of knowing what you choose not to do

• Why corporate funerals (literally burning what no longer serves) can create the trust that moves organisations forward when change initiatives get stuck

• How the "tour of duty" mindset releases the weight of infinite responsibility and brings unexpected lightness to leadership

• Why effective leaders operate as hosts rather than heroes, facilitating learning instead of performing expertise

• How metaphors become mental shortcuts that help people understand the unfamiliar through the familiar, and why food and music work better than sport

• Why distraction isn't just about devices but about the stories we tell ourselves when our attention wanders, and what choices we have in those moment

• How "getting over yourself" enables you to serve the work rather than protect your ego, and why this shift makes everything else easier

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Introduction

(06:39) - The Importance of Boundaries

(10:32) - Navigating Change and Acknowledging the Past

(19:11) - Corporate Funerals: Letting Go to Move Forward

(24:41) - The Power of Rituals in Leadership

(32:46) - Navigating Distractions in Conversations

(42:59) - The Impact of Metaphors in Communication

Other references:

• Animal Liberation Orchestra
• Deep Listening: Impact Beyond Words by Oscar Trimboli
• Deep Listening Quiz

You can find Oscar at:

Website: oscartrimboli.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oscartrimboli

Take the Deep Listening Quiz: listeningquiz.com

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