What if the biggest leadership challenges aren’t about skills at all, but mindset?
In part one of our Leadership Spotlight, we speak with Dee Clayton, whose career spans corporate communications, executive coaching and award‑winning leadership development. Dee’s work centres on a powerful truth: many bright, capable leaders are held back not by a lack of knowledge, but by confidence barriers, limiting beliefs and unclear communication patterns.
Through tools such as NLP, Insights Discovery® and Motivational Maps®, Dee helps leaders uncover the unconscious blockers that drive behaviours like overworking, avoiding conflict or struggling to delegate. Her approach bridges deep mindset work with practical, everyday leadership tools, creating long‑lasting, meaningful change for individuals and teams.
Background and Career Journey
Dee, you have had an impressive career journey, from corporate communications to leadership coaching and training. What inspired that transition?
Working in marketing taught me a great deal about clarity, influence and how people think. After a serious car accident, I felt a pull towards work that had more personal meaning for me. I became curious about why some people communicate clearly and confidently while others don’t. That curiosity, along with a desire to help people shaped the next chapter of my career. I feel I didn’t leave communications altogether; I simply moved into helping people communicate more effectively with themselves and with others.
I realised that many bright and capable people were being held back by confidence, mindset or unclear communication rather than lack of ability. I became an expert in NLP and over the years added more amazing tools like Insights Discovery® and Motivational Maps®, which gives me the practical ways to support leaders and teams.
My superpower is bridging the gap between amazing training models and the practical everyday application of learnings on a personal, leadership and team basis.
Mindset and Coaching Approach
You say that changing mindsets is key to changing behaviours. How do you help leaders and teams do that effectively?
We begin by identifying the unconscious blockers what I sometimes call “mind monkeys”, but which are more formally recognised as cognitive biases or limiting belief. These lie beneath common leadership challenges. These may manifest as overworking, avoiding conflict, difficulty with delegation or feeling excessively responsible for everything. A skill gap is not knowing how to use a delegation framework; a mindset gap is knowing the framework but feeling you are the only one who can do the job right.
By uncovering the underlying drivers of these behaviours, we are able to address and replace them with more constructive beliefs and mindsets. With clearer thinking and greater mental space to make sound decisions, we then introduce straightforward frameworks and practical techniques that individuals can adapt to suit their personal leadership style. This approach makes the resulting behavioural change far more accessible, effective and long term.
It creates leaders who both feel able AND know what to do and then do it.
Impact and Leadership Outcomes
What are some of the most rewarding transformations you have seen through your coaching or leadership programmes?
I see many practical and meaningful shifts.
I worked with one leader who was asked to work with me because they received an “at risk” rating on their appraisal – after working together their next rating was “Excellent”. That individual learnt a few new things from me, but mostly we unlocked their dormant communication and leadership skills.
Typical differences I see are – increased motivation levels (measured by Motivational Maps scores), increased delegation and the ability to lead with more clarity and guide their teams with greater confidence. Team productivity improves because leadership becomes easier and more consistent.
I have also seen personal changes, such as people sleeping better, working sustainable hours, being better parents and feeling more balanced at home. One client even invited me to their wedding because the work we did had such a positive impact on their relationship too!
When people understand their mindset and lead themselves well, life becomes easier in many ways.
How can HR and business leaders tell if a team’s challenge is more mindset or skillset based?
If an individual or team knows what to do but is still not doing it consistently, it is usually a mindset gap rather than a skills issue. You may see avoidance, disengagement or repeated mistakes. These signs show something internal needs attention not just a repeated skills training! It is often a clue that the individual or team needs deeper support to look into the mindset issues or attitudes preventing them from reaching their potential.
You have worked with high potential teams and established executives. What helps them unlock potential?
High potential teams often benefit from clarity and improved trust – creating a safe space to discuss the real issues not just push them under the carpet. Experienced executives often need space to unpick long-standing habits that maybe used to save them, but as they climb the ladder are less helpful and often a hinderance. In both cases, the key is creating the right environment to explore what sits underneath the (unwanted) behaviour. When people understand their mindset and have the right tools, potential becomes much easier to unlock.
One piece of advice to help readers bring out their best.
Take a moment to notice what is going on in your own mind before you act. When you understand your reactions and patterns, you make clearer choices. Leading yourself well is the foundation for leading others well.
