Falling Into Leadership: Our Book

A powerful exploration of how leaders grow, often without a plan, sometimes by accident, and always through reflection and intent.

Written by Steve Riddle, with his Mum, Kath, Falling Into Leadership blends experience, empathy, and evidence to help readers lead with authenticity and purpose.

Explore the story, reflections, and practical insights inside Falling Into Leadership?

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If You Have Fallen Into Leadership, Our Book Is For You

Most leaders don’t get a roadmap. They fall into the role and are left to figure it out on the job.

Falling Into Leadership is a practical guide for new and emerging leaders who want to lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose, not just cope with the chaos. Through reading Falling Into Leadership, you will:

  • Understand how leadership really develops over time, and why “falling into” it is so common.
  • See the patterns, habits, and blind spots that quietly shape your leadership impact every day.
  • Build the confidence and capability to handle real conversations about performance, behaviour, and expectations.
  • Navigate the emotional weight of leadership without burning out, checking out, or becoming someone you don’t recognise.
  • Turn everyday moments at work into practical opportunities to grow yourself and the people you lead.
  • Use the Falling Into Leadership Companion Hub to reflect, apply the ideas, and keep yourself accountable between conversations.

Many leaders do not plan to lead. They are promoted for competence, technical skill, or reliability, then suddenly face the realities of leadership transition, influencing others, decision pressure, and self-doubt. This book speaks directly to those moments, when confidence wavers, expectations rise, and leaders question whether they are doing it right.

At the heart of the book is Sally, a fictional leader shaped from the real experiences, conversations, and patterns Steve Riddle has seen while coaching hundreds of leaders across Australia. Through Sally’s journey, readers recognise the common challenges of first-time leadership, stepping up into responsibility, and navigating the messy realities of modern organisations.

Co-written with Steve’s mother, Kath Riddle, and structured across eight chapters that mirror eight real coaching sessions. Falling Into Leadership follows Sally as she develops self-awareness, builds leadership capability, strengthens influence, and learns how to lead with clarity and purpose in complex environments.

Readers will find:

  • A relatable story that mirrors the challenges faced by new and emerging leaders.
  • Practical leadership tools and reflection models used in real coaching sessions.
  • Insights drawn from Steve’s leadership coaching work with hundreds of leaders.
  • Access to additional CoachStation resources and tools, supporting readers beyond the pages.
  • A reminder that leadership is not about perfection; it is about awareness, purpose, and practice.

Falling Into Leadership is for anyone who has stepped into leadership without a guide, questioned their leadership capability, or wants to develop confidence, clarity, and purpose as a leader. The story begins with recognition. Your story continues as you step forward with greater clarity, confidence, and intent, turning insight into deliberate leadership practice.

Leadership is rarely planned. Most of us fall into it. This book shows what to do next.

Purchase Falling Into Leadership

Choose your preferred format below. Signed editions are fulfilled directly by CoachStation.

The paperback format ordered through Amazon will generally arrive around 1 week after ordering.
The Kindle edition is available immediately.

Paperback: FIL
(Amazon)

AUD $27.50*

Printed and fulfilled by Amazon - postage extra.
Unsigned edition.

Buy on Amazon

Kindle Edition: FIL
(Amazon)

AUD $11.99

Instant digital download via Amazon Kindle Store.

Buy on Amazon

Signed Paperback: FIL
(CoachStation)

AUD $34.99

Signed by Steve and dispatched directly from CoachStation, postage included.

Purchase Signed Paperback

Signed Hardcover: FIL
(CoachStation)

AUD $49.99

Premium signed hardcover, dispatched directly from CoachStation, postage included.

Purchase Signed Hardcover


Digital Edition and Gifting

The Falling Into Leadership digital edition is available exclusively through Amazon Kindle, using the link above.

Kindle allows you to read on any device and also provides a simple gifting option, enabling you to send a copy to a colleague, friend, or family member directly through Amazon.

If the Kindle edition appears unavailable, this is usually related to your Amazon account region settings rather than the book itself.

Please note that Amazon paperback and hardcover orders may also include postage costs, which can vary depending on your location and account type.

How Falling Into Leadership Fits Into CoachStation

Falling Into Leadership is more than a book. It is an extension of the real coaching conversations Steve has had with hundreds of leaders across Australia, and it reflects the same principles that underpin the CoachStation approach to leadership, culture, and development.

At the heart of CoachStation is the belief that leadership growth is personal, relational, and shaped by clarity, self awareness, accountability, and emotional intelligence. These same ideas come to life in the book through Sally’s journey, echoing the real challenges and breakthroughs leaders experience in coaching sessions and development programs.

Readers gain the benefit of both lived coaching experience and practical tools designed to support sustainable, meaningful change.

Whether you are exploring leadership for the first time or strengthening years of experience, Falling Into Leadership provides a relatable pathway into the same ideas, principles, and approaches used throughout CoachStation’s coaching, CSLDP, workshops, and programs. It reflects what real leadership development looks like when clarity, purpose, and humanity sit at the centre.

Falling Into Leadership: Concept & Background

Falling Into Leadership is a journey through real stories, reflective practice, and the moments that shape how leaders grow. Written by Steve and Kath Riddle, it blends lived experience, empathy, and evidence to support authentic, intentional leadership.

8 Chapters, Coaching Conversations

Structured around eight coaching-style sessions, each chapter reflects a distinct stage of leadership development.

The journey mirrors the real questions leaders face as responsibility increases, confidence wavers, and expectations shift.

Rather than presenting theory, each chapter follows the lived tension between knowing what to do and learning how to do it well.

Reflect & Act Framework

Each chapter concludes with a Reflect & Act guide that turns insight into deliberate action.

These prompts encourage leaders to pause, challenge assumptions, and apply learning in their own context.

Reflection is linked directly to behaviour, helping ideas move from awareness into everyday leadership practice.

Where Human Meets Practical

The book sits at the intersection of emotional intelligence and everyday leadership reality.

It acknowledges the human experience of leadership, doubt, pressure, uncertainty, and growth.

Practical tools are grounded in real moments, supporting leaders to act with clarity rather than striving for perfection.

About the Authors

Written by mother and son, Kath and Steve Riddle, the book blends lived experience with decades of professional insight.

Their combined perspectives bring both personal reflection and structured leadership understanding.

This dual lens reinforces the belief that leadership development is relational, learned, and shaped over time.

The Essence of Falling Into Leadership

Structured around eight leadership sessions, each chapter in Falling Into Leadership mirrors a real coaching journey, revealing the insights, challenges, and growth that emerge through lived experience. Each chapter represents a stage of Sally’s development, allowing you to experience coaching, reflection, and leadership growth through her story.

1. Coaching the Coachee - the Gravity of Leadership

Explores the gravity of leadership and the moment Sally realises it is not a title, but a mindset. This first session grounds her in purpose, accountability, and the awareness that leadership begins with self-understanding.

2. Quiet Authority – Power Without Position

Explores how true leadership emerges before a title is given. Sally learns that authority is not granted but developed, through trust, clarity, and the confidence to influence without control. She discovers that quiet strength often speaks louder than rank.

3. Holding the Mirror, Owning the Reflection

Invites leaders to look inward with honesty and curiosity. This chapter explores how genuine growth begins with self-awareness, seeing ourselves clearly and owning the influence our words, choices, and behaviours have on others and the culture we help shape.

4. The Shadow and the Spark - How Emotional Intelligence Lights the Way

Explores how emotional intelligence brings light to leadership. Sally learns to recognise her patterns and to balance confidence with vulnerability, turning awareness into authentic connection.

5. Speak Less, Lead More - When Questions Reveal More Than Answers

Explores how influence often emerges through curiosity and silence. This chapter highlights the discipline of listening deeply, asking powerful questions, and creating space for others to think, contribute, and grow..

6. The Power of Connections - Wired to Lead, Called to Influence

Focuses on relationships as the foundation of leadership. This chapter explores the shift from managing people to truly leading them, building trust, empathy, and influence through genuine connection that strengthens both individuals and teams.

7. The Edge of Certainty - Anchored Leadership

Explores resilience and composure amid change. Sally learns to lead through uncertainty with clarity and steadiness, finding confidence not in control, but in purpose and adaptability.

8. The Outcome Is Not the End - The Legacy You Leave Behind

Concludes with reflection on legacy and intention. This chapter explores how leadership continues through others, shaped by our values, impact, and the example we set long after our direct influence fades.

Meet Sally, the Heart of Falling Into Leadership

At the centre of the story is Sally, a composite of hundreds of real leaders Steve has coached and mentored, many who found themselves leading almost by accident. If you have worked with Steve before, you may even see a little of yourself in Sally!
Through her journey, readers see their own challenges mirrored: the tension between confidence and doubt, clarity and chaos, purpose and pressure.

Sally is not a real person, but she is very real in the way that matters most. She is shaped from the collective stories, questions, doubts, frustrations, and breakthroughs shared by hundreds of leaders Steve has coached over the years. Sally represents the human side of leadership, where people often step into responsibility before they feel ready and must learn, adapt, and grow while others look to them for clarity and confidence.

Through Sally, readers recognise parts of themselves, their teams, and their own leadership journey. Her experiences mirror the real challenges modern leaders face: balancing confidence with doubt, navigating ambiguity, managing relationships, and discovering who they need to become in order to lead with authenticity and purpose.

Structured across coaching-style conversations, Sally’s story brings leadership to life in an honest and relatable way. Her journey helps translate reflection into insight, and insight into intentional action, grounding each chapter in both humanity and practical growth.

Explore the Falling Into Leadership Companion Hub

The Companion Hub is a practical extension of Falling Into Leadership, it lets you revisit each session, reflect on key ideas, and turn insight from the book into real leadership conversations and action.

Use it at your own pace, return to it between chapters, or come back when you need to reset clarity and direction.

Visit the Companion Hub Contact CoachStation