One Conversation a Week — The Coaching a Manager Can Run in Twenty Minutes

Weekly Coaching Conversations for Managers: what to ask, how long it takes, and where it usually breaks down

Russell Harvey has coached leaders to board level for more than 6,000 hours, and he can usually tell within a month whether a manager is holding one honest conversation a week with their team or none at all. Managers get promoted for having answers, so when a problem arrives they solve it, the person leaves relieved, and nothing in the team gets any stronger. Drawing on over 10,000 hours of facilitation across organisations including the NHS, Novartis and Kerry Group, he sets out what that twenty-minute conversation contains, what order to ask it in, and the point at which most managers quietly drop it. He is blunt about the limit: it does nothing if the manager has already decided the answer and is only asking to be polite. Listeners leave with a conversation they can run before their next team meeting, and a way to tell whether it changed anything.

About Russell Harvey

Russell Harvey, podcast guest

The Resilience Coach | Resilient Leadership Expert

100,000+ People positively affected6,000+ Executive coaching hours£12M+ ROI delivered by RWE npower leadership programme20+ years Learning, leadership and organisational development

Russell Harvey is The Resilience Coach - a resilient leadership expert, executive coach, facilitator and keynote speaker who helps leaders and organisations perform at their best when the world refuses to stand still.

With more than 20 years in Learning, Leadership and Organisational Development, 6,000+ hours of executive coaching and over 70 published podcast appearances, Russell is an experienced and engaging voice on resilience, leadership and navigating persistent change. He has worked with leaders across organisations including Novartis, the NHS, AB World Foods, Kerry Group and The Co-operative Group.

Russell’s work goes beyond helping people simply cope with pressure. He believes true resilience isn’t about “bouncing back”, being tougher or pretending everything is fine - it’s about springing forward with learning and becoming better equipped to lead because of the challenges you’ve faced.

His approach connects the human side of leadership directly to what matters to organisations: engaged people, stronger cultures, better decisions and improved performance. His work has delivered measurable results, including a leadership programme that returned £12 million to the business and a Resilient Leader Programme that achieved more than 1,100% ROI.

In August 2025, Russell achieved his long-held purpose of positively affecting 100,000 people.

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