Name: How Pressure Reveals Identity
Start: 2026-02-24T09:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-24T10:00:00+00:00

How Pressure Reveals Identity

Pressure doesn’t just test leaders – it exposes what’s underneath.

When expectations rise, roles shift, or plans don’t land, leaders are forced inward. How you think. What you believe. What you hold onto. What you let go.

This live coaching session offers a rare window into that internal work, in real time.

This session reveals the personal and psychological forces that shape leadership under pressure. In a live coaching conversation, Mark Bateman and Nick Knight explore how identity is formed, challenged, and rebuilt through both success and setback. Nick shares openly about his internal journey, which was triggered by a pivotal career moment, how early experiences informed long-standing patterns, and how a year of deep coaching helped him find clarity, energy, and alignment in his leadership.

Participants gain an unfiltered view of the thinking, emotional work, and practical shifts that enable leaders to manage pressure, make tough calls, and lead people through complex organizational change. This is not performance — it is presence. A deeply human conversation that speaks directly to how senior leaders show up, respond, and reset when the stakes are high.

You will leave with a sharper understanding of your own leadership identity and the internal adjustments that unlock cleaner, more grounded impact.

Nick Knight — Managing Director, UK Lines of Business, CBRE

Nick brings an exceptionally candid view into the identity shifts that occur at senior levels. His openness about ambition, disappointment, pressure, and renewal, offers leaders a rare mirror into their own internal world. As a key figure in transforming CBRE UK’s business, with global influence, he speaks from the lived reality of leading through complexity while reshaping the internal drivers that determine external performance.

Mark Bateman — CEO and Executive Coach, WeQual

For the past year, Mark has offered deep coaching insight that has played a key role in Nick’s growth. His approach blends psychological precision with grounded challenge, enabling a conversation that exposes the real mechanisms behind behavioral change. His presence creates the safety and depth needed for this to be a genuinely transformative, non-performative experience.

Takeaways

Identity patterns when under pressure
Understand what no longer serves you
Reframe pressure as information
Make cleaner, braver leadership decisions
Align internal clarity with external impact

Nick Knight

CBRE

Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer

Nick Knight is an accomplished leader in the commercial real estate market in the UK, bringing over 30 years of experience. As Managing Director, Lines of Business and COO at CBRE London, Nick holds responsibility for the strategic oversight and daily operations of a team comprising 2,750 professionals throughout the UK and Ireland.

His extensive career highlights include providing expert valuation advice to diverse sectors, and a prestigious client base that spans UK REITs, fund managers, private equity, sovereign wealth funds, and major financial lenders. Some notable assignments under Nick’s direction include valuations for significant portfolios such as Landsec (£10 billion), Derwent London (£5 billion), Global Switch (£6 billion), Tritax Big Box (£5 billion), and Get Living (£3 billion).

Nick’s educational background includes an Upper Second-Class Honors BA in Politics from Durham University, followed by a Diploma in Surveying, with distinction, from the College of Estate Management, where he also received the Hammerson Prize. Committed to continual professional development, Nick recently completed the Cambridge Sustainable Real Estate program at Cambridge University.
Throughout his tenure at CBRE, Nick has held several key leadership roles. He was appointed Chief Operating Officer (2025), Managing Director, Lines of Business (2024); UK Executive Board member (2020); Head of UK & Ireland Valuation Advisory (2018); UK Management Board member (2007); and Executive Director (2006).

Nick actively contributes to industry standards, and practices as a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), RICS Registered Valuer, and a participant in multiple RICS forums, including the Commercial Property Forum and Valuation Leaders Forum. Additionally, he regularly participates in the Bank of England’s Commercial Property Forum and is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Nick is dedicated to maintaining the highest ethical standards and advancing technical excellence, firmly believing that precise valuation practices are fundamental to attracting investment, promoting economic growth, and reinforcing the UK’s reputation in the global real estate market.

Mark Bateman

WeQual

CEO & Author

Mark Bateman is the CEO of WeQual, a global leader in inclusive leadership development, working with over 350 of the world’s largest companies to drive inclusion at the top. Under his leadership, WeQual has helped identify and develop C-suite-ready talent, with 36% of award winners now sitting on executive committees.

With extensive experience coaching senior executives and advising Fortune Global 1000 companies, Mark is a recognized authority on building high-performing, diverse leadership cultures. His work has shaped global DEI strategies, helping organizations navigate leadership transitions and embed sustainable, impactful change.