Leading Between the Lines

This week on Leading Between the Lines Rosanna Machado speaks to the Head of People at Rise at Seven, Daniella Dacey. Rise at Seven is an award-winning digital, social, content, and SEO specialist in the UK that was founded in 2019 by Carrie Rose and Stephen Kenwright. Carrie and Stephen have received many personal accolades for their achievements, and the organisation now has 100 staff across their offices in Sheffield, London, and Manchester, whilst the company is also expanding into New York. Danni explains the fantastic balance the team has struck between working hard and enjoying life, adding that the leadership at Rise at Seven really take a serious interest in the wellbeing of their people. Danni was inspired by her CEO Carrie Rose as a female leader and she really felt an affinity with her philosophy and the agency itself. She outlines how the organisation has prioritised diversity and inclusion, telling us about some of the initiatives they are developing to create a culture where people feel like they belong. She adds that “Culture” is not just a buzzword at Rise at Seven, and that it's something that really holds value. Daniella talks about the impact that the right culture can have on a company and explains the role HR plays in bringing that culture to life. Like any scale-up, change is inevitably happening very fast. Although she embraces change, Danni also addresses that this can be difficult and explains how she coaches her teams through any type of change, offering a nice insight into her leadership skills. And as always with Rosanna's episodes, we find out what Danni would change about her job if she could wave that magic wand!

It’s that time of the week again as we return with another episode of our Leading Between the Lines podcast! This week’s guest is Marie Krebs, the People Experience lead at Learnerbly. Founded in 2016 by Rajeeb Dey MBE, Learnerbly is a Performance Enablement Marketplace that puts learners in the driving seat for their own development so they get to upskill in what they need to perform. Marie moved country to start work at Learnerbly, and she discusses how the organisation is perceived as a disrupter in the L&D market. Marie delves into the ‘bottom up’ culture at the business and offers some insightful thoughts about what she believes Learnerbly’s true power is. According to Marie, Learnerbly provides an opportunity for people to take ownership of their growth and performance, and she knows that a learning culture paves the way for high-performance. She also encourages clear guidance from leaders within the organisation. Learnerbly recently revised their company values and Marie outlines exactly why this was necessary, speaking about the refreshing approach to constructive feedback they are cultivating. Aside from her role within Learnerbly, Marie has also co-founded an ever-growing online slack community called ’People Stories’. She tells us how this came about, where it is now, and what it means to her. To round off this fantastic episode, Marie talks to us about her values and provides her top takeaways, which we think are just fantastic!

It’s that time of the week again, and we’re back with a brand new episode of Leading Between the Lines. This week our executive coach at AIG, Rosanna Machado is chatting to Irma Dambrauskė, the Director of People at TransferGo. TransferGo is an international money transfer company that allows you to send money at high speeds, low costs and with no hassle. The company was founded by Daumantas Dvilinskas, Justinas Lasevicius, Edvinas Sersniovas, and Arnas Lukosius in 2012, and they now have over 300 employees in five main locations across Europe, with a number of people working remotely. When Irma joined TransferGo three years ago the people team only had 4 members. However, that team, and Irma’s role, have expanded and she now drives change and improves and builds the company culture. Irma talks about how she thrives within a fast growth organisation, explaining why these types of business are attractive to her as an individual and a leader. Speaking about her role, Irma explains how the organisation prioritises their people, enabling them to innovate and grow sustainably. The company’s reliance on trust, and its general people-first attitude, resonates strongly with Irma, as these values are extremely important to her as a leader. Irma outlines how these aspects of a company’s culture can unlock engagement and creativity in people, but she also warns us of the possible negative outcomes of this when not guided on an individual basis. Irma also touches on the importance of a strong learning culture, the future of hybrid businesses, and gives us her magic wand wish and her number one top tip for people directors.

Are you ready for another new episode of Leading Between the Lines? This week we chatted to Thomas Forstner, the People Director at contract automation platform Juro. Juro are an award-winning client of ours, and we're honoured to have worked with Thomas and their leadership team including their founders Richard and Pavel. Thomas was previously a guest on Series 2, and we wanted to catch up and see how the company has progressed in the last 12 months. We were delighted to hear that since he was last on the show, Juro has been named the best London start-up to work for by Tempo and they have since received £23 million in investment. Thomas has been promoted to People Director, and he offers up some truly fantastic insights into why Juro received such an accolade, so it's no surprise why investors are keen to jump on board. Thomas discusses the challenges of being promoted to the board from within, and also outlines the company’s core values - energy, clarity, and results. He goes on to explain what work needs to be done to execute these values, specifically with senior leaders. Thomas goes on to talk about dealing with conflict within teams and discusses the importance of "being more human".  We finished up the interview by asking Thomas about his top three takeaways. And when you consider he's the People Director for London's no.1 company to work for, we were as excited as you were to hear what he had to say.

We’re back with another brand new episode of our Leading Between the Lines podcast! And this week we’re talking to Lily Fisher, the Senior People Partner at Omnipresent. Founded in 2019 by Matthew Wilson and Guenther Eisinger, Omnipresent is a B2B SaaS platform that makes it quick, simple, and easy to hire and manage remote teams anywhere in the world. Omnipresent is a global company that employs around 300 people in over 50 countries. Finding her passion in HR, Lily is driven by supporting and helping people within the organisation. Having previously worked in start up and scale up businesses, Lily is right at home at Omnipresent, where she loves the responsibilities that come with working for a fast paced, rapidly growing company. Despite only being with Omnipresent for a few months, Lily is already dealing with management training, revamping the onboarding process, and working on the team’s health and wellbeing. She is very passionate about mental health in the workplace and in this episode she outlines the importance of talking to others if things get tough. Drawing on her own personal experiences, Lily believes that having a coach or a therapist is vital to mental health and she would love to see mental health first aiders operating within organisations.