#14 - Kasia Lukaszewska-Kehoe: Silencing the inner critic to lead with confidence

Kasia is the Global Communications Director at Reckitt, and a leader who knows what it means to step boldly into new seasons of your career. After 14 years at Unilever, she embraced a new challenge, showing us what it looks like to stop waiting to be ready and just start doing.

In this episode, Kasia shares her honest reflections on the invisible glass ceilings we often build for ourselves: the doubts, the internalised messages, and the fears that can hold us back from taking our seat at the table. She also opens up about how techniques she learned from Sarah’s Women on a Mission programme helped her embody confidence, own the room, and navigate leadership with authenticity.

We explore the power of sharing the mental load, her simple but transformative mantra for silencing the inner critic “Just do it”and even a cinematic moment in a London lift where she reconnected with the risk-taking version of herself she thought she’d lost. This is a conversation for anyone who’s been listening to the noise in their head instead of the fire in their heart.

In this episode, we talk about:

00:00 – Welcome and the Women on a Mission backstory

00:49 – Feeling stuck after having children and joining the programme

04:07 – A slow-burn transformation and growing self-awareness

05:33 – From young risk-taker to a new season of life

11:47 – Stepping up to director and challenging the sacrifice myth

16:56 – “Just do it”: strategies for self-doubt and imposter syndrome

26:46 – Values-driven leadership and making someone’s day better

28:30 – The invisible mental load at home and at work

33:35 – Advice to her younger self: be kind and honour your season

35:26 – Final call to action: if it’s niggling you, just do it

If you’re ready to step into your next career chapter, silence the inner critic, and trust yourself to take action, Kasia’s story is an inspiring listen for courage, confidence, and authentic leadership.

About the host

Sarah Perugia is an expert women-in-leadership coach and whole-person leadership transformation specialist, dedicated to empowering female leaders to thrive. With over 20 years of experience, she partners with organisations across the globe to develop and retain top female talent, strengthen the female leadership pipeline, and promote gender equality in senior roles.

Drawing on her background in acting, neuro-linguistic programming, and Positive Psychology, Sarah empowers leaders to advance their careers, build confidence, enhance performance, and ultimately flourish and thrive. Her offering combines tailored leadership development programmes with one-to-one executive leadership coaching to unlock their full potential.

If you’d like to learn more about Sarah and her work with women in leadership, you can find out more here: https://www.sarahperugia.com/women-in-leadership/

In this show, we cover

Women on a Mission, Career progression, Self-awareness, Risk-taking, Mental

Load, Leadership, Self-doubt, Mindfulness, Self-compassion, Career Transition, Personal Growth, Inner Critic

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more!

Contact and Connect

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-perugia-leadership-coaching/

Connect with Kasia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kasia-lukaszewska-kehoe-89188219/