Success Is Never Accidental

Le’Siran Edwards — Grit, Belonging, and Leadership with Purpose

My guest today,

Le’Siran Edwards, is an internationally recognised and award-winning safeguarding speaker, coach, and author. She founded the UK's only national Black and Diverse Safeguarding Professionals Conference and hosts two global podcasts.

With more than 25 years’ experience in children’s care and social work, Le’Siran delivers powerful talks on wellbeing, anti-racism, leadership, personal growth, and business — because all our endeavours need to be grounded in a business perspective. Whether invited by corporate clients, the public sector, or grassroots organisations, her authentic approach creates lasting impact.

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In today’s episode, we hear how she encourages, motivates, supports, and empowers professionals to grow and lead with purpose.

Key Takeaways

• Grit is the requirement for success. Le’Siran’s National Black and Diverse Safeguarding Professionals Conference has gone from strength to strength in just two years because of her vision, strategy, faith, and hard work — all underpinned by grit, persistence, and action.
• Leadership through belonging. While everyone in safeguarding faces challenges of volume, overwhelm, and isolation, the most disempowering experiences for Black and other minority professionals often come through relationships and microaggressions. Le’Siran’s work builds awareness of these challenges and empowers leaders to address them.
• The power of community. By creating spaces for connection and shared experience, Le’Siran fosters belonging — a vital ingredient for wellbeing and professional growth.
• Know yourself. Her advice for new professionals is simple yet profound: Learn who you are. Understand what works for you, how you respond under pressure, what you need, and who you need around you.

Today’s Challenge

Reflect on Le’Siran’s advice and work on yourself this week. Ask:

• Who am I at my best?
• How do I respond in difficult situations?
• What do I need to thrive?
• Who do I need to support me?

You can find out more about Le’Siran Edwards and her inspiring work on LinkedIn —do connect with and support her online.

And remember, success is never accidental.

If you’re a high-performing manager who just needs some space to think, reflect, or refocus, book a 25-Minute Leadership Consult:

For more information on CORE leadership skills please visit my website at www.lynnepeyton.com/core

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In this week’s Success Is Never Accidental episode, I’m joined by Nadine McCarthy, a high-performance coach and leadership strategist with over 20 years’ experience working with corporate and elite sports teams.

We explored collective leadership, the discipline of recognising strengths (not just problems), and why sustainable performance depends as much on recovery as it does on growth. Nadine also shared two simple daily practices to support active recovery and self-regulation.

If this conversation resonated, reply to this email and let me know where you would value support — individually or within your organisation. I am always happy to explore how I can help.

In this week’s episode of Success Is Never Accidental, I am joined by Craig T. Ingram, a trusted advisor to VC-backed start-ups and SMEs with extensive experience across med tech, health tech, digital health, biopharma and AI.

Craig has led three successful business exits and is known for helping organisations cut through ineffective strategy, strengthen customer adoption, and achieve sustainable growth. In our conversation, we explored what genuinely drives success — disciplined thinking, decisive action, and integrity.

We discuss:

• Why mindset and execution matter more than ideas alone
• Customer adoption as the true test of innovation
• The value of coachable leadership
• Using AI wisely without surrendering judgement

Craig offers a timely reminder: “Wisdom is the proper use of intelligence.”

This week’s reflection:
What is one thing you could do differently to achieve better results?

If you would value space to think, reflect, or refocus, you are welcome to book a 25-Minute Leadership Consult.