Jonny Cobbold, Director of Development at Change Mental Health: lived experience, consistent leadership and finding your place in the sector

In this episode, Adam is joined by Jonny Cobbold, Director of Development at Change Mental Health, a Scottish charity supporting around 12,000 people a year, for a warm, honest and thought-provoking conversation about career pivots, mental health, and what sustainable leadership really looks like.

Jonny shares his early career in recruitment, a world that left him in tears and led him to quit, and how that moment of misalignment set him firmly on the path into the charity sector. He charts his journey through education charities to his current role at Change Mental Health, a place he describes as an incredibly personal fit, both culturally and because of his own lived experience with anxiety.

The conversation covers the fine line between being open about mental health and oversharing as a leader, how to build team culture across a dispersed organisation, and why energy and enthusiasm will only take you so far without the consistency and reliability that teams actually need. Jonny also reflects on 14 years of executive coaching, the value of truly knowing yourself as a leader, and his passion for workplace mental health training and prevention.

A grounded and generous conversation for anyone navigating senior leadership, working through their own relationship with mental health at work, or looking for a reminder that sustainable leadership starts with knowing yourself.

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and quickfire questions
• 08:00 How Jonny got into the charity sector
• 14:00 Lived experience of mental health and leading with empathy
• 18:00 Work-life balance and working remotely across borders
• 23:00 Building and maintaining team culture across distance
• 30:00 The role of executive coaching over 14 years
• 34:00 Change Mental Health: who they are and what they do
• 39:00 Mental health in the workplace and what comes next
• 41:00 Where to turn if you're struggling with your mental health
• 42:00 One leadership lesson learned the hard way