Stefan - An introduction
I’ve often wondered how best to introduce myself to those who reach out via LinkedIn - or to those I feel compelled to connect with. What follows feels like a decent human starting point.
Being a father, stewardship, coaching, and transformation
Hello - I’m Stefan.
You’ve been wonderful in accepting or initiating a connection with me and so I thought I’d introduce myself.
I’m a father, son, brother, and lifelong student of what it means to go beyond leading well into stewardship - especially when the work becomes complex, personal, or bigger than the person holding it.
My work sits at the intersection of identity, systems, and stewardship.
And the way I understand those things has been shaped as much by lived experience as by theory.
I spent my formative years in financial services, culminating in overseeing roughly a third of the UK for Santander across business and personal banking. Much of that work was high stakes, scale, pressure, responsibility - and it taught me a great deal about decision making, risk, pace, and what happens to people inside large systems when clarity, care, or pacing is lost.
Later, I chose to step out of that world and build something very different - an award-winning coffee house. A place that became a gathering point for conversation, creativity, and care. Alongside that, I’ve been a musician, I’m a former art gallery and shared-workspace founder, and a lifelong student of form; shaped as much by Jeff Buckley and Radiohead as by Saul Leiter’s way of seeing, or the quiet honesty of brutalist architecture.
Those influences matter to me because they all ask the same thing:
Can you hold complexity without losing soul?
Alongside that, and increasingly over the past two decades, I’ve worked with leaders, teams, and organisations across the public, private, and charity sectors - supporting transformation, change, and delivery in environments where complexity is real and certainty is rare. Think GDS, DEFRA and Public Digital, via Business Disability Forum and Mountbatten Hospices into Ipsos and Food Drink Europe.
Most weeks, I’m in conversation with people who care deeply about what they do - their work, their people, their purpose - and who are navigating moments where pressure, responsibility, and impact start to collide.
That often shows up as:
holding responsibility without losing steadiness or self
leading across difference, disagreement, or low trust
translating intent into action in systems that resist change
staying human while the stakes rise
I’ve learned that most challenges aren’t technical at their core.
They’re human.
They’re systemic.
And they’re often identity-shaping.
I now live on the Isle of Wight, having grown up in Wolverhampton - two very different places that have both shaped how I think about class, access, community, and what it means to belong.
Outside work, endurance cycling, creative practice, and community life continue to shape how I think - about pacing, resilience, honesty, and what it takes to sustain effort over time.If you’re working in spaces where:
responsibility is rising
complexity is unavoidable
impact matters beyond the next quarter
…then I look forward to reading and hearing more about your work.
And if at any point you’d value a conversation - not a pitch, just a thoughtful exchange - about the space you’re operating in, feel free to reach out.
No hidden agenda.
No surprise obligation.
Just two humans comparing notes on work that matters - and how to do it well.
If you’ve made it to the end I thank you. You are already one of my kind of people.
Enjoyed reading this? Consider doing one of these:
Get in touch - If any of this topic resonated with you and you have something you’d like to share with me or if you’d like to discuss working with me on this topic - stefan@stefanpowell.co.uk works really well for me.
Read more about how I help individuals, teams and organisations here
Book an inquisitive session with me to find out more about what I do and how I do it or run a challenge or thought you have passed me.
Connect with me on linked in and read my long form posts on the rotating topics of Work, Rest. Play, Sustenance and Love every Thursday
Sign up to my newsletter ‘Be The Waves” here - which collates each weeks long form post on a monthly basis and you’ll get to read it later in the month
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