My working life did not start anywhere near an HR department. In the mid-80’s, I was managing bookshops, stores of varying sizes, up to thirty people in the biggest of them, and it was a secondment into the personnel department, of all things, that first properly hooked me on this world of people and leadership, long before I had a name for what I was feeling.

There’s one question I ask almost every senior leader I coach.

Not in the first session. That comes later, once we’ve built enough trust for the conversation to move beyond performance reviews, organisational change and career ambitions. It’s the point where people stop giving the answers they think they ought to give and start giving the honest ones.

The question itself is deceptively simple.

Is the ladder you’ve spent your career climbing actually leaning against the right wall?