Decision Making is arguably one of the most important business skills.
We have some great content to share with some great insights and resources which we don’t want you to miss so we’ve put everything in one place for you to easily access all the Decision Making downloads.
Take your pick from the content below.
Most professionals admit their CPD record is a work in progress. A spreadsheet that never quite gets finished. A pile of certificates with no explanation. Notes in a book that has gone missing. A plan to organise everything before the deadline that never quite happens.
CPD recording often feels like admin, and the lure of admin rarely wins against real work.
Why We Think CPD Recording Matters
Many people treat the record as something to complete after the learning. In practice, the record is part of the learning.
When you need to reviw it, or an external audit needs to see it, they want to see what you learned and how it shaped your practice. A certificate only covers the first part.
Common CPD Recording Mistakes
• Recording the activity but not the learning. A short line about attending a course does not show development. Be sure to include reflection and review.
• Trying to write everything at the end of the year. Reconstructing months of learning in one go is stressful and rarely accurate.
• Only logging formal courses. Reading, mentoring, research, peer conversations and work‑based learning all count when recorded properly.
• Keeping evidence in scattered places. A drawer of certificates, a folder on a laptop and notes somewhere make it harder than it needs to be.
• Ignoring competency frameworks. Activities should link to the standards set by your professional body.
How to Build a CPD Habit That Sticks
• Record straight after the activity. A few minutes of notes while the learning is fresh is enough.
• Keep everything in one place. A single platform or organised folder keeps your record coherent.
• Review monthly. A short check‑in keeps your record tidy and complete.
• Use your competency framework. Map each activity as you log it.
• Include informal learning. If you learned something relevant, it belongs in your record.
And that’s it. Use these tips to help you build a healthy habit that keeps your CPD up to date and ready when you need it.
Need help with a simple template? We got you. Download a copy below.
Unpopular Opinion. 🫤
Why Leaders Should Be Making Fewer Decisions.
It might sound counterintuitive, but let us explain. Our experiences have shown us that senior leaders don’t struggle because decisions are too hard.
They struggle because there are too many of them.😖
As leaders rise and grow their responsibility and accountability, they get further from the day‑to‑day activities, their visibility drops, the pressure rises, and the ‘decision‑load’ gets heavier and more constant. 🤯
The smartest leaders don’t respond by making more decisions. ❌
They build the discipline to make fewer, better, braver ones. ✅
We’ve pulled this together into a free downloadable paper showing how the Brave principles can help you make fewer decisions and ease the cognitive load.
Download your copy here:
THE BRAVE DECISION SUCCESS GRID ☑️
The final piece of the Decision Making Puzzle 🧩
When a decision is made there’s often a huge sense of relief that comes with it, and let’s be honest here, that’s usually followed by ‘right, onto the next one!’ 🤦
That leaves a ‘gap’ which can cause longer term issues in a business.
The step that’s being missed? 🤔 Actually reviewing the decision to see if it was the right one. ✅
That’s what we’re sharing with you today.
The BRAVE Decision Success Grid is a simple tool to help you evaluate the decisions you make individually, as a team, or even as a whole business. It’s really simple to use, easy to remember and super effective. 💥
It’s a 4×4 Grid (of course it is!) and anyone at any level can use it to reflect on a decision and how you got there. 🔲
It’s uses questions under 4 Brave headings. 👇
Download your copy here:
Leadership is a talent that always needs to be in constant development. ✅
We’ve compiled our very best Leadership Resources and placed them all on one page for easy access.
You’ll have access to Leadership Conversation Starters and a set of Leaders Lessons plus the super useful Leadership Styles Guide and much more.
Scroll down and take your pick of the free resources.
One thing that will always be on the leadership checklist is Trust. 🛡️
No leader can take a team on any journey without first developing trust. 👊🏼
How to Develop Trust as a Leader is the next free download and its available here:
In today’s environment, leadership can feel like a constant balancing act. Uncertainty isn’t something that comes and goes anymore, it’s just part of the job. Market pressures shift, operational challenges show up unannounced, and the “right” decision is rarely obvious straight away.
In those moments, it’s easy to lean towards caution. To keep things steady, minimise risk, and not push too hard. But that’s not what teams need from us. They don’t just need leaders who protect what’s already there, they need leaders who are willing to step forward, even when things aren’t fully clear.
Being brave at work isn’t about getting rid of fear altogether. It’s about recognising it, and choosing to act anyway, with purpose.
At its core, Brave leadership shows up through four behaviours: Think, Speak, Disagree, and Decide. Together, they make courage something we practise every day, not just something we reach for in a crisis.
As leaders navigate these times, we know that embracing your ‘Brave Era’ can help you lead with impact.
Courage starts with clarity. If we’re asking people to move into uncertainty, there needs to be a reason that feels bigger than the risk.
That means looking ahead properly, spotting challenges early, and choosing how we frame them. Not as threats to manage, but as opportunities to do something meaningful.
In practice, it can be as simple as shifting the question. It’s thinking about your thinking. Instead of reacting to a new competitor or changing expectations, we ask: What does this allow us to do differently?
When people understand the purpose behind the challenge, they approach it differently. Thinking well sets everything else up.
Preparation isn’t just about having a plan, it’s about talking things through.
Leaders who are open about risks, possibilities, and unknowns tend to build teams that are far more confident when those situations actually happen. It takes away some of the fear and replaces it with shared understanding.
That might look like walking through “what if” scenarios together:
When those conversations happen early, people don’t freeze under pressure, they move. Speaking up openly and speaking so that people want to listen to you builds both your readiness and their trust.
Brave cultures aren’t built on agreement, they’re built on honest challenge.
It’s easy to confuse alignment with silence. But just because nobody is pushing back doesn’t mean the best thinking has been done, it often just means people don’t feel comfortable saying what they really think. We call this corporate theatre.
Creating space for disagreement matters. It sharpens ideas, tests assumptions, and leads to better decisions overall. Remembering that disagreemtn does not mean dislke, often frees you from the reasons you might normsally avoid it.
That doesn’t mean encouraging conflict for the sake of it. It means deliberately asking for different perspectives, especially when things are complex or uncomfortable. And actually listening when you get them.
When people feel able to challenge constructively, courage becomes something shared, not something carried alone.
At some point, thinking, speaking, and debating have to turn into action.
Courage shows up in the decision itself, not because it’s guaranteed to work, but because it moves things forward.
And in most cases, brave decisions aren’t big dramatic moments. They’re smaller, deliberate steps. Trying something. Testing it. Learning quickly and adjusting as you go. It’s making well formed, well informed choices.
Momentum comes from movement. Waiting for perfect certainty usually just slows things down.
Decisive leaders understand that progress matters more than perfection.
One of the clearest signs of brave leadership is composure.
In high-pressure moments, teams take their cue from the leader. If we panic, that spreads fast. If we stay steady, it gives people space to think and stay focused.
That kind of steadiness doesn’t just happen, it’s built over time. Through small habits that help you reset and keep perspective, even when things get busy or challenging.
A brave leader doesn’t remove the pressure. But they make it a lot more manageable for everyone else.
Bravery at work isn’t about big gestures or standout moments. It’s about how we show up consistently, how we think, how we speak, how we handle disagreement, and how we make decisions.
And in doing that, we create an environment where others feel able to do the same.
Playing safe might protect things for a while, but it doesn’t move much forward.
Real progress comes from those willing to step into uncertainty and lead anyway.
And that’s what being brave looks like.
If you think we can help you develop your own, or your teams leadership skills, then get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
When it comes to leaders & communication skills, every step matters. 👣
The power of asking incredible questions reaps rewards. 🏆
We’ve created a simple Leadership Questions Cheat Sheet.
And it’s totally free to download. 💾
We’ve all sat through communication that was technically correct… and completely forgettable.
Clear, concise, accurate…and somehow still feels flat.
Then someone tells a story, shares a moment, describes a scene, makes you feel a feeling. And that’s when the whole room shifts. People lean in. They remember. They care.
That’s the power of storytelling.
Not as performance. Not as theatrics. But as meaning‑making. And it’s why storytelling is often seen as the greatest of all time skills.
When it comes to communication, in a world where attention is scarce and information is overwhelming, storytelling isn’t a “nice to have”. It could be the thing that makes your message land.
Storytelling Is Already Everywhere. You Just Don’t Notice It
You’re surrounded by storytelling every day. It’s how humans make sense of the world. Don’t believe us? Let us prove our point.
Healthcare: Doctors explain treatment plans through patient stories “I had someone last month with the same symptoms…” because stories build trust faster than data.
Politics: Leaders don’t just present policies; they tell stories of “the family I met in Manchester” because stories humanise complexity.
Sport: Coaches use stories of past comebacks to shift belief and energy in the team.
Parenting: Kids don’t respond to instructions; they respond to stories “Remember what happened last time you didn’t wear your coat…”
Work: The colleague who gets buy‑in isn’t the one with the best slide deck. It’s the one who says, “Let me tell you what happened when we tried this last year.”
Storytelling is not a creative superpower. It’s a human default. You most likely already use it. Now the trick is to start it’s using it on purpose.
The BRAVE 5‑Step Storytelling Process
This is a lightweight structure anyone can use and absolutely no drama school attendance required.
Start with the moment, not the message
Most people start with the point they want to make. Storytellers start with the moment that brings the point to life. Ask yourself some key questions about what you are trying to communicate.
What moment changed something for me? Was it a conversation, a mistake, a turning point or an ‘aha’ moment. That is your anchor.
Set the scene in one sentence
You don’t need a novel. You need context. One sentence is usually enough. Here’s a fe examples:
“Last year, during a project that was going off the rails…” “Five minutes before the meeting started…” When I first became a manager…”
What you do here is set the scene. Scene = relevance and importantly, relevance = attention.
Share the tension (the human bit)
Every good story has a “something was at stake” moment. It doesn’t need to be dramatic. It just needs to be human. Nine times out of ten you’ll need to be honest, and you might need to be more open than you are usually, but trust us, it works.
The kind of things you might share are “I didn’t know what to say” or “I realised I’d been avoiding the real issue” or “I could feel the team losing confidence”
This is real. This is tension we have all experienced. Tension is what makes people care.
Reveal the shift
This is the moment something changed, it could be your insight, your learning or even your realisation. It’s the emotional payoff.
This might sound like “That’s when I realised clarity wasn’t the problem, courage was” or “I understood that people weren’t resisting the idea; they were resisting the way I was communicating it” or “I saw that the story I was telling myself was holding the team back”
The shift here is what makes the story so meaningful.
Land the message in one clean line
This is where you connect the story to your point. Keep it super simple. One sentence.
Make sure it’s clear, direct, no fluff or filler. It could look like this:
“That’s why clarity matters more than confidence” or “That moment taught me that people follow honesty, not polish” or “It reminded me that communication is a shared act, not a solo performance.”
This is the line people will walk away and remember.
Why This Works
Because stories bypass resistance. They make your message relatable, memorable, and emotionally resonant. We live in a world crwoded with data right not. Data informs but it doesn’t move you. Stories do.
At We Are Brave we know that when people are overloaded, distracted, and sceptical, the storyteller who can tell a simple, honest, human story is the one who stands out. The good news? We can help you become that storyteller.
Get in touch today. We’d love to chat.
You can download the The BRAVE 5‑Step Storytelling Process Infographic here.
Communication used to be about clarity. Then it became about confidence. Then storytelling. Then “executive presence”.
In 2026, none of that is enough on its own.
We’re living in a world where attention is the new scarcity, nuance is the new fluency, and people can smell inauthenticity faster than ever. Communication that lands now requires something deeper: the ability to make people want to listen to you, not because you’re loud, polished, or persuasive, but because you’re real, relevant, and resonant.
For us this means ensuring that your communication really hits the spot, time after time, and always lands where you need it to.
Speaking Up Isn’t About Volume. It’s About Value.
In 2026, people aren’t listening for the loudest voice. They’re listening for the voice that helps them make sense of complexity. Speaking up now means:
• Naming the thing others are skirting around
• Bringing clarity to foggy conversations
• Offering a perspective that moves the room forward
It’s not about taking space. It’s about creating direction.
The question isn’t “How do I speak up more?”
It’s “How do I speak up in a way that matters?”
Clarity Is No Longer a Nice to Have. It’s a Leadership Skill
We’re overloaded with information, options, and noise. Clarity has become a competitive advantage. We think clear communication in 2026 looks like this:
• Short sentences
• Clean intent
• One message at a time
• No jargon unless it earns its keep
Clarity isn’t dumbing down. It’s lifting up and instead making ideas accessible, actionable, and human.
People follow your clarity because it feels safe. People trust your clarity because it feels honest.
Make People Want to Listen: The Pull, Not the Push
Traditional communication advice focuses on how to project your message. 2026 communication is about how to attract attention.
You make people want to listen when:
• You speak from lived experience, not performance
• You show your working, not just your conclusion
• You bring curiosity, not certainty
• You create space for others, not just airtime for yourself
People lean in when they feel invited, not instructed. This is the shift from broadcasting to belonging.
Storytelling Isn’t a Performance. It’s a Bridge
Storytelling has been trending for a decade, but in 2026 it’s evolving. The best. and most powerful stories are:
• Short
• Specific
• Emotionally honest
• Anchored in a moment that changed something
Not “Once upon a time”. More “Here’s the moment I realised something important”.
Stories land when they:
• Reveal something true
• Create connection
• Offer meaning, not moralising
In a world of AI-generated everything, human stories are becoming the new currency of trust.
The 2026 Edge: Communication as a Shared Act
The biggest shift we need to make? Communication is no longer a solo performance. It’s a co-created experience.
The leaders who communicate best now:
• Ask better questions than they give answers
• Treat conversations as collaborations
• Make others feel smarter, not smaller
• Use communication to build agency, not dependence
This is communication as a practice, not a skill. A way of being, not a technique.
So… What Does This Mean for You?
If you want your communication to land in 2026, we recommend you do these things, and we can help you get there.
• Speak up with purpose — say the thing that moves the room forward
• Be unmistakably clear — clarity is kindness and leadership
• Create pull, not push — make people want to listen
• Tell stories that reveal, not perform — authenticity beats polish
• Co-create the conversation — communication is a shared act
This is the We Are BRAVE way. Communication that builds agency, deepens trust, and makes people feel more human, not less.
If this communication landed with you, then drop us a line, we’d love to talk to you.
