Matthew Taylor

Group Head of Skills & Development at QinetiQ (8k+ employees)

Matt Taylor is a leadership development practitioner, coach, and former Group Head of Skills & Development for a global defence and technology organisation, where he spent over a decade designing and delivering large-scale leadership and culture transformation programmes. He has led global leadership initiatives spanning senior executives to frontline leaders, built enterprise-wide leadership frameworks, and partnered with organisations to shift leadership from control and compliance to trust, accountability, and performance. Matt is particularly known for challenging traditional, theory-heavy leadership development in favour of practical, experience-led approaches that leaders can actually use when it matters. Today, Matt works with organisations and leaders who want to move beyond box-ticking development and create environments where people think, speak up, and perform at their best. He brings a refreshingly honest, real-world perspective shaped by what he’s seen work and fail inside complex, high-pressure organisations.

12:00 - 12:30 pm

Tuesday 16 June 2026

Experimental Leadership: From Insight to Impact

In The Leadership Shift, Matt Taylor takes aim at the uncomfortable truth most organisations avoid: leadership doesn’t fail because people don’t know enough — it fails because the conditions around them make good leadership almost impossible. Drawing on years of hands-on experience designing global leadership programmes, The Leadership Shift is a no-nonsense guide to what really drives leadership behaviour at work. It explores why capable, well-intentioned leaders become cautious, compliant, and risk-averse and how cultures quietly train people to stop thinking, stop challenging, and stop caring. Rather than offering another list of competencies or abstract models, the book focuses on practical shifts leaders and organisations must make to unlock trust, accountability, and performance. It looks at power, permission, psychological safety, decision-making, and the everyday signals leaders send often without realising that shape how people show up. Written for leaders, L&D professionals, and anyone frustrated by performative leadership development, The Leadership Shift is an invitation to rethink how leadership is grown and to create environments where leadership isn’t taught, but lived.