with Alec Pearson, Joseph McGuire

Joseph McGuire has spent a career learning to read people — three decades as a therapist before moving into executive communication, behavioural profiling and leadership development. Through his company, Clearsight Communications, he now helps leaders understand human behaviour, build trust, and hear what's really being said.

We tend to think communication is about how well we speak. Joseph thinks it's the other way round. The leaders who truly understand a room usually aren't the ones doing the talking — they're the ones who can hear what isn't being said.

In this episode, Alec Pearson sits down with Joseph to explore listening as a leadership skill almost nobody is actually taught. Not the "active listening" box-tick — but hearing tone, hesitation, the gaps, and everything a person's body says while their words say something else. As Joseph puts it, communication begins before a word is spoken. For senior leaders, and anyone building toward that seat, it may be the most underrated skill you own.

In this conversation:

• Why the higher you rise, the more your listening can quietly slip
• The one simple question that pulled a struggling company back from the brink
• What an ancient way of reading people reveals about the skill we keep getting wrong
• Why the sharpest leaders treat a hire almost like an interrogation — and the failure rate that proves the point
• How to catch the exact moment someone's words and their body stop agreeing
• The kind of presence that commands a room without ever raising a voice

If you've ever walked out of a conversation certain you missed something, this one's for you.

You can connect with Joseph McGuire and Clearsight Communications on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-mcguire-face-facts/

Follow Beyond Leading on LinkedIn for episode clips and updates: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-leading-podcast

Follow/subscribe to Beyond Leading for new episodes - wherever you listen.