Turas Consulting & Coaching

What if leadership development has been focusing on only half the equation?
We’ve spent years developing the individual.
But what about the conditions around them?

This week’s True North Inner Circle brought that question to life. Joy led the conversation and asked:

What is your greatest gift - not simply the one you know you have, but one you’ve been hiding that is now ready to emerge?

It took us into a fascinating conversation about identity evolution - who we’re becoming, what we’ve outgrown and what parts of ourselves are now ready to emerge.

But when I looked back at this photograph, something else struck me.
Different people speaking.
Different people leading.
Different perspectives shaping what emerged.

That’s not accidental. It’s architected.

Leadership Architecture starts with identity as the anchor.
Because when people stay connected to who they are, everything else can begin to line up behind it:
where they’re going, how they lead and the extraordinary impact they’re here to create.

Then the question becomes:
Do the conditions around them support that alignment - or pull them away from it?

The aim isn’t to create people who all lead the same way.
It’s to create the conditions for more people to lead as themselves and expand what’s possible for everyone else. That’s the new face of leadership.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE CREATE THE CONDITIONS FOR PEOPLE TO LEAD FROM WHO THEY ARE?
This week, Joy led our True North Inner Circle and opened with a brilliant question:

What is your greatest gift - not simply the one you know you have, but the one you may have been hiding that is now ready to emerge?

It led us into a rich conversation about identity evolution.

Who are we becoming as we enter different chapters of our lives?

What parts of ourselves served an earlier chapter but no longer fit?

And what gifts, strengths or voices are now asking to emerge?

👉One thought stayed with us:
Our identity evolves as we do. But it still needs to be the anchor.

As our lives change and the environments we're leading in become more complex, the answer isn't to become whoever the environment demands.

It's to stay connected to who we are becoming - and align how we live and lead behind it.

👉But the photographs from the session tell another part of the story.

Different people leading.
Different people contributing.
Different experiences and perspectives shaping the conversation.
No single voice dominating the room.
That's intentional.

The True North Inner Circle isn't built around one expert having all the answers.

It's designed to create the conditions where people can remain anchored in who they are, bring what is uniquely theirs and expand what's possible for everyone else.

A few weeks ago, Sarah led.
This week, Joy.
Next week, Kate takes the lead.

👉This is Leadership Architecture in practice.
Identity is the anchor. The conditions around people matter.

And when the two align, extraordinary doesn't just emerge in one person. It strengthens what becomes possible for the whole.

That's what we're building through True North.

YOUR TRUE NORTH
I talk about this a lot, but I want to slow down and share what it actually means to me.

My own True North - the thing I orient every decision by - is helping leaders hold under pressure, expand what's possible and endure in a volatile world. Anchoring in your identity is the cornerstone, and everything else aligns behind it.

I didn't arrive at that from a whiteboard exercise. I arrived at it because I lost myself in leadership before I understood what was happening. I burnt out. I drifted so far from who I was that finding my way back to the line took years, not weeks.

That experience became the heartbeat of Turas including the methodology I eventually named the True North Leadership Architecture™. It's the thing underneath the thing. It's why I do any of this at all.

So here's what I want to offer you, gently: 👉 do you know your own True North? Not your niche. Not your offer. The actual reason underneath why you do what you do.

Because once you know it, you start to notice people whose orientation sits alongside yours - not identical, but aligned.

That's what's happening for me right now with PRINZ, one of my strategic partners. Like me, their Chief Executive has walked alongside people in this exact transition. Different starting points, same direction which is why partnering with them was never a marketing decision. It's just where our paths met.

Together, we've built From Specialist to Strategic Leader because of that meeting point, not the other way around.

If you're building something right now — ask what you actually orient by, and look for the people whose direction runs alongside yours. That's where the real momentum comes from.

If you're a comms practitioner who's ready to strengthen how you lead - not just what you deliver - this is for you.

📅 1st & 8th September 2026 · Online
🔗 https://prinz.org.nz/event/from-specialist-to-strategic-leader/

I’ve been facing some health challenges recently, which has meant slowing down and spending more time resting - and watching movies - than I normally would.

It prompted an interesting identity question:
What movie best describes who you are—and why?

For me, it is Braveheart.
Yes, it connects deeply with my Scottish roots. But it also reflects the courage, resilience and freedom that have shaped both my life and my leadership.

I’ve learnt that pressure can change our circumstances. It can disrupt our plans and force us to move at a different pace.

But it does not have to define our identity or determine who we become.

That is at the heart of True North: knowing who you are so deeply that even when life changes around you, you are still able to lead yourself forward.

My Braveheart-inspired message would be:
Pressure may challenge who we are BUT it does not get to decide who we become.

🎥 What movie best reflects your identity?

I think I've found a word for something I've been seeing more and more.

Drift.

Last week it showed up again.
Not because something had gone wrong.
But because something had quietly changed.

One of our True North Inner Circle members, Sarah, designed and led the entire session herself.

She didn't try to lead like anyone else.
She simply led in a way that was unmistakably her own - her own version of extraordinary.

Watching her reminded me how quietly the opposite can happen too.

1. Leaders stop trusting their own judgement.

2. Teams lose connection.

3. Businesses no longer feel like the reason they were started.

4. Organisations keep moving, but something feels increasingly off.

I've started calling that pattern drift.
Not because something suddenly breaks.
It happens quietly.
Until one day, something simply doesn't feel like you anymore.

👉When you hear the word drift, what comes to mind?

I'd love to know...

I changed my job title without changing my identity.

Turas means journey in Scottish Gaelic. I named the business that three years ago, before I had any real idea how much of one it would turn out to be. It's been a helluva journey.

Next week I'll be talking about it live at Dean Graziosi's Build It Bootcamp - from where I started to what I'm building now.

Because here's what actually happened. I left a 26 year corporate career completely depleted, made the leap to entrepreneur, and then discovered I'd changed the title on the door without changing anything underneath it. I had the craft. I didn't have the identity yet.

Coaching provider, then leadership architect, and now building something considerably bigger than either. Every stage came back to the same thing. Get clear on who you are and everything else can align behind it. Lose sight of it and it won't matter how good the strategy is.

That's the belief the whole business rests on. Everyone has their own version of extraordinary to give, and it's grounded in who you are but the noise and the pressure can make you drift from it.

If you're building something and it doesn't quite feel like yours anymore, that isn't a personal failing. It's drift. And it's recoverable. I'm living proof...

More soon.

This made me smile today…but on a more serious note, sometimes we let stress become the cloak we wear. It’s heavy, uncomfortable, distracting.

Yes, our world is faster, noisier, more pressured, more uncertain. And yes, it’s easy to react to every aspect of that swirl, become stressed, overwhelmed and drift.

Drift away from who you are and the impact you want to create as a leader, as an organisation, as a business. Drift away from the one thing you’re certain about.

Pause. Ask yourself ‘am I drifting away from who I am and diluting the impact I want? If it’s a yes, take a moment to recognise that, don’t reprimand yourself but focus more on anchoring yourself back into what really matter.

Who you are. The impact you want to create. Your version of extraordinary.

Today, decide that stress doesn’t go with your outfit. Time to throw off the cloak…