What is a Good Life? #133
Navigating Complexity in Leadership with Dr. Richard Claydon
On the 133rd episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I’m delighted to welcome our guest, Dr. Richard Claydon. Richard is a leadership strategist and creator of the Praxis Q framework, which integrates self-awareness, systemic thinking, and role fluency. Known for his work at the intersection of complexity, culture, and adaptive performance, he helps leaders navigate ambiguity, build resilient systems, and lead with integrity in rapidly changing environments. His work draws from behavioural science, organisational theory, and real-world practice to challenge conventional leadership narratives and build capability for the long game. A former academic with a Ph.D. in Organisational Studies, Richard now partners with executive teams, coaches, and educators to equip leaders for a world on the brink.
In this conversation, Richard discusses the complexities of leadership, emphasising the need for a more human, honest, and reflective approach. He explores how traditional leadership models often lead to burnout and disconnection, advocating for a focus on dialogue, trust, and interdependence within systems. Richard also addresses the evolution of trust in modern society, emphasising the need for transparency and adaptability in complex systems.
Ultimately, he defines a good life as one where individuals can navigate their systems effectively and make meaningful contributions to their environments.
The weekly clip from the podcast (2 mins), my weekly reflection (3 mins), the full podcast (63 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip from the Podcast
2. My weekly reflection
I often notice that when we talk of our interdependence or ideas on community, we turn them into big gestures or projects, intellectualise them, and make strategic plans.
More discussions. More debates. More complicated language is required to even participate.
All in the name of unity.
Yet it feels deeply ungrounded to me—another overcomplication of what could be a much simpler life.
Over the course of these 300 interviews I’ve conducted around this question, and in group conversations and courses I am running, the word simplicity keeps becoming more and more apparent to me.
When recently discussing with a group what small changes in their lives made much bigger and longer-lasting benefits than expected, the responses included midday naps, taking deliberate photos with a camera, striking up conversations with strangers.
Hardly groundbreaking—yet they made profound differences to the people who shared them.
This most recent weekend, a few things stood out to me in my own life.
A shared smile with a delivery guy on a bike.
We saw each other coming from a ways away, maintained eye contact, and shared a beaming smile that I can still see now. It still lives with me.
While catching several trains to nowhere with my daughter, a lady offered to help as I had my daughter in one arm and the buggy under the other while walking up the steps.
It was easier to keep going than to rearrange on the steps, but the gesture alone accompanied me for most of the day.
In a shopping mall, I witnessed a girl, around six years old, standing at the top of the escalator, beginning to cry. Her father had gone ahead of her with a baby, buggy and several bags and couldn’t go back for her.
As the moment seemed to get more tense for them both, a stranger waiting patiently behind simply offered his hand, which she took with some relief and shuffled down the few steps to her father.
There was something so telling—or relieving—in witnessing these moments.
How simple they all were. How meaningful. How instantly impactful.
The lament could be, how easy—and yet rare—they seem to be.
And yet, when we reach out our hands or extend an inner smile, how utterly different this world feels.
Towards the end of this week’s interview, Richard said:
“Complex systems respond to simple rules; they don't respond to complex rules. And that's one of the challenges that we have, is we put in more and more complicated and complex rules in order to try and control this complex system. And the more we do it, the less the system responds.”
My approach to life isn’t a naive pursuit of beauty and positivity. It’s more that, no matter how much horror I see in the world, I won’t stop noticing the beauty too.
The more I do this, the more ease I find in how I relate to myself, the people in my life, and the world around me.
You might be surprised just how much beauty and connection there is that you’ve simply stopped noticing. That you have stopped contributing towards.
Perhaps, instead of creating more complex ideas on how to care and connect with others, we’d be better off simply noticing each other in the moment once more—and acting from there.
It need not be a big gesture to leave a lasting moment.
Thanks for reading What is a Good Life?
3. Full Episode - Navigating Complexity in Leadership with Dr. Richard Claydon - What is a Good Life? #133
4. This week’s Questions
Can you recall any small gestures this last week that noticeably altered your mood in the moment?
Can you think of a way you describe yourself that greatly reduces the nuance and complexity of who you are?
About Me
I am a coach, podcast host, and writer, based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I started this project in 2021, for which I’ve now interviewed nearly 300 people. I’m not looking to prescribe universal answers, more that the guests’ lines of inquiry, musings, experiences, and curiosities spark your own inquiry into what the question means to you. I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience and more meaningful conversations.
If you’re interested in exploring your own self-inquiry through one-on-one coaching, my 5-week group courses, or fostering greater trust, communication, and connection within your leadership teams, feel free to contact me via email or LinkedIn.