The Power to Choose - How leaders stop reacting & Start deciding, with Robbie Swale

I spoke with author and coach Robbie Swale about how leaders, coaches and experts can feel less overwhelmed and make clearer choices in complex times. His new book, The Power to Choose: Finding Calm and Connexion in a Complex World, is the backbone of our conversation.

It shows simple ways to shift perspective, use curiosity when you’re stuck, and choose what actually deserves your time. If you’re juggling difficult conversations, packed calendars and competing priorities, the ideas Robbie shares will help you decide and act with less friction.

Three key areas we cover

🔍 How perspective shapes everything

Most of us see the world through a default lens. Robbie uses the old woman / young woman optical illusion to show how the same situation can feel true in different ways. Try on another perspective and you’ll often find conflict softens and options appear.

🧭 Curiosity as the practical tool for stress and emotion

When you feel contraction or a strong emotion, curiosity is the move. Ask - what’s really going on here? That small pause creates space, slows reactivity and gives you room to choose.

⏱ Meaningful productivity - choosing what matters

Robbie’s Meaningful Productivity Blueprint reframes productivity for complex roles. Two concrete ideas we discuss - separate urgent from important, and use Warren Buffett’s 25 → circle 5 exercise to protect focus.

Three simple actions you can take today (Robbie’s amplifiers)\

🔁 Try the mental model - for one day, assume people are doing their best. Test it in two interactions and note the difference.

📥 Download the Meaningful Productivity Blueprint at robbieswale.com and complete one worksheet this week.

📝 Do Buffett’s 25 → list 25 goals/tasks, circle your top five, then treat the remaining 20 as your avoid-at-all-costs list for three months.

Where to follow Robbie

Everything starts at robbieswale.com

Apple Podcasts chapter markers

00:00:00 Intro - Why this episode matters

00:00:07 Robbie Swale - Guest intro and quick background

00:01:46 Who Robbie is - Leadership coaching and work focus

00:03:04 The Power to Choose - Why Robbie wrote the book

00:05:00 Perspectives - How our default lens shapes reality

00:08:02 The three-part framework - Choose, assume, be curious

00:10:01 Practical tools in the book - Questions and exercises

00:12:26 Tube story - Perspective in daily life

00:14:28 Manager inbox - Assume competence, not malice

00:16:26 Emotions vs perspective - Noticing the inner weather

00:19:39 Optical illusion - Seeing multiple truths at once

00:23:13 Polarisation - Complexity at scale and leadership impacts

00:29:58 Productivity reframed - Urgent vs important for leaders

00:32:54 Meaningful Productivity Blueprint - What it covers

00:36:55 Three amplifiers - Quick actions listeners can use

00:37:28 Amplifier 1 - Assume people are doing their best

00:38:49 Amplifier 2 - Download the Meaningful Productivity Blueprint

00:41:12 Amplifier 3 - Buffett 25 → circle 5 exercise explained

00:43:44 Saying no - Protecting your top five priorities

00:46:22 Where to find Robbie - robbieswale.com and podcasts

00:47:35 Outro - Final remarks and episode close

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