Episode Overview

In this episode of Better Experiences by Design, Susan Quinn sits down with Greg Layton, founder of Chiefmaker, who has spent his career coaching senior executives and elite athletes into their strongest performance. Greg and Susan explore what separates leaders who merely arrive at the top from those who thrive once they get there, from managing overwhelm to building real executive presence.

Work out how to be valuable. What’s the problem you solve, and solve it better than anyone else?

Greg’s path started in the corporate world, where early promotions gave way to a senior IT leadership role he felt unprepared for. He spent a year immersed in nearly 100 books, then left his job to study high-performance psychology and neuro-linguistics around the world. That reinvention led him into coaching, first with elite athletes and executives, then into founding Chiefmaker, where he now works with C-suite leaders on five continents.

Greg’s approach is refreshingly practical. Rather than chasing titles or credentials, he pushes leaders to define their value with precision, and to protect that value against the number one threat he sees in senior roles: overwhelm.

His framework for executive presence, decades of coaching in boardrooms and locker rooms, and disarmingly simple tools like mind mapping give leaders something rarer than motivation: a way to actually reset.

Episode Insights

Learn why Greg considers overwhelm the single biggest killer of executive performance, and the daily habit he uses to defend against it.
Discover the I AM GREAT method Greg uses to diagnose exactly what’s holding a leader back from their next level.
Understand why executive presence comes down to “justifiable confidence” rather than posture or polish.
Hear why Greg believes the lowest performer on a team, not the highest, sets the real standard for its culture.
Find out why replacing the goal of success with the goal of value changes how leaders make decisions at every level.

About Greg Layton

Greg Layton is the founder of Chiefmaker, a coaching practice that helps senior managers move into C-suite roles and supports CEOs and executives at major companies around the world. His career spans both elite sport and business, where he has spent years coaching individuals on their performance in the boardroom and on the field. Greg is the author of Chief Maker and works with clients across five continents from his base in Australia.

Visit Greg’s Website: Chiefmaker

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn