The Relationships That Shape Our Lives and Success with Dr Neil Wilkie
About this episode:
What if one of the greatest determinants of our happiness, success and wellbeing is something we spend surprisingly little time learning how to do well?
Dr Neil Wilkie spent 25 years as a CEO, strategy consultant and business leader before reaching his 50s and realising that something significant was missing. He retrained as a psychotherapist and began working with successful but often unhappy business leaders. Again and again, he discovered that behind professional achievement lay challenges with the relationships that mattered most.
That discovery led Neil to devote the next chapter of his life to understanding human relationships. He has since completed a doctorate in the Phenomenology of Relationships, developed his Relationship Paradigm and Duo Coaching Frameworks, and written extensively about relationships in our personal lives and organisations. His Relationship Paradigm focuses on six essential elements: communication, connection, commitment, fun, growth and trust.
In this episode of The Business Elevation Show, Chris Cooper and Neil explore what makes relationships thrive — and what causes them to deteriorate. They discuss how ambitious people can succeed professionally without neglecting those closest to them, why relationships are fundamental to healthy organisational cultures, and what leaders can do when relationships at work become strained.
They also explore the importance of fun, growth and trust; why relationship education deserves a greater place in schools and society; and how increasing polarisation and technology are changing the way we connect with one another.
Neil also shares his thinking about AI and artificial intimacy, including the fascinating questions raised in his latest book, Real: Love, Longing and the Lure of Artificial Intimacy.
Join us for a thought-provoking and practical conversation about something that ultimately touches every part of our lives: the quality of our relationships.
More about Dr Neil Wilkie:
Dr Neil Wilkie is a relationship therapist, author, and Visiting Fellow at Middlesex University, where he completed his doctorate in the Phenomenology of Relationships. After 25 years as a CEO, Strategy Consultant and management buy-in specialist he made the unusual decision in his 50’s to retrain in psychotherapy. He has spent the years since then developing the Relationship Paradigm and Duo Coaching Frameworks, an intensive model of couple’s therapy. He also runs mentoring groups for Business leaders, focusing on relationships within business.
Neil is the author of more than thirty books, including the Routledge series Reinventing Relationship Therapy Through the Duo Coaching Framework, A Practitioner's Guide to the Duo Coaching Framework, and Demystifying Relationship Therapy. His latest, Real: Love, Longing and the Lure of Artificial Intimacy, explores what happens to human connection in an age of AI — and was, fittingly, co-written in conversation with an AI. He has published over 370 articles on relationships and is a passionate advocate for relationship education in schools
Neil lives in Lymington with his wife Gwen and spends extended seasons in France aboard their sailing yacht Moon River. He believes the quality of our relationships is the truest measure of a life well lived.