Episode Description

In this episode, Julia Middleton is joined by her daughter Kate Middleton, CEO of the Wren Project, to explore what illness can teach us about leading. Kate shares her experience of leading with an auto-immune disease and how it has shaped her approach to resilience, decision-making, and building a strong team.

“When you lead with a chronic illness, you have to know when to listen to your body and when to push through. It’s about finding a balance between self-care and responsibility,” says Kate.

Kate discusses the importance of compartmentalising, the power of authenticity, and how embracing vulnerability can help create what she calls a ‘truthful’ team. She reflects on the challenges of managing energy, staying present, and ensuring that leadership remains sustainable despite personal struggles.

Listen to this episode to discover how navigating illness can offer profound lessons on adaptability, self-awareness, and leading with honesty.

About the Guests

About the Host

Julia Middleton

Julia Middleton is the host of the Women Emerging podcast and a best-selling author of “If that’s leading, I’m in” as well as two previous books: “Leading beyond Authority” and “Cultural Intelligence”. She is deeply committed to helping people from all backgrounds to find their own approach to leading.

In 2020, Julia launched Women Emerging and in 2022 she lead an expedition of 24 women to find ‘an approach to leading that resonates with women’. She now leads expeditions with women all over the world based on 4Es methodology, discovered in the first expedition.

Prior to that, Julia was founder and, for over thirty years, Chief Executive of Common Purpose, which grew to become one of the biggest leadership development organisations in the world.
Julia is also an Ambassador for the Aurora Prize based in Armenia, on the boards of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World and Equality Now, which operates globally, and on the Advisory Councils of Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil and Synapse in Pakistan.

Born in London and brought up in New York, Julia was educated at French Lycées and graduated from the London School of Economics. She is married, with five children and lots of grandchildren.

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