Joanna Howes

The Change Creators 

At The Change Creators, we provide transformational services to help leaders grow and become the leader they know they can be. We focus on the mindset, skills and behaviours leaders need to step into their courageous zone, create a positive impact and deliver results.

Our services include:
 
✅Cultural shifts and transformations  

✅Leadership and team coaching and training

✅Operational excellence consultancy 

✅EDISC and Meta Dynamics profiling to increase self-awareness and self-leadership 

✅Executive 1-2-1 coaching 

If you would like to take your leadership to the next level and invest in your growth, get in contact with us today and watch your influence and performance sky rocket.

CEO and Founder of The Change Creators - Leadership Coach and Trainer 

Clemenger BBDO

- Re-invented the company ways of working to drive agility, efficiencies, and flexibility to meet all client requirements
- Built a new production offering to achieve fast effective content delivery, resulting in a new stream of revenue  
- Supported the win of large pitches by selling operations excellence

Operations Director - Executive team 

McCann London

Operations Director

-  Introduced project management into the agency which doubled the agencies productivity 
- Transformed the commercial effectiveness with systems, data, technology, and accurate tracking resulting in increased profit margin
- Lead the process with the leadership team to evolve the culture to be bold and brave to increase the quality of work

Head of Project Management

Arthur London

Operations and New Business Director

Creative Services Director / Operations Director

VCCP

Helping leaders step into their courageous zone and create positive impact, through transformative coaching & training | CEO of The Change Creators Ltd | Campaign 40 over 40 | International Coach of the Year 2020 🏆

We specialise in creating courageous leadership teams who win together.

Whether you're a newly formed team, a merged company establishing a new board, or feeling the need for a reset, we can help you create a strong aligned cohesive team. 

Courageous leaders are open, vulnerable, and committed to continuous learning, driving exceptional results for their teams and the organisation.

We help by:

• Moving from operating in silos to a collective mindset 

• Avoiding feedback to leaning into compassionate candor 

• From going around in circles to make decisions to a bias for action 

• From working as job titles to truly understanding each other as human beings 

• From all talk and no action to peer-to-peer accountability 


Our approach centers on increasing individual and team awareness, fostering a unified leadership team culture grounded in aligned principles, and promoting effective communication and accountability.

"When the business isn't performing, the first place to look is the leadership team."

👉 For coaching and training inquiries, please email: joanna.howes@thechangecreators.com

👉 For podcast and speaking engagements, please email: anna@thechangecreators.com

Let's connect and explore how we can elevate your leadership team to achieve extraordinary outcomes.


Trusted by: 
Monzo, Amazon, BBC, Troy Asset Management, Ada Ventures, Iris Worldwide, Uncommon Creative Studios, 6 Nations Rugby, ITB, PrettyGreen PR, Hue & Cry, McCann Worldwide.

What our clients have to say: 

“She's 'Life Changing'. Jo has an ability to enable a fearless focus on creating a personal and professional roadmap to success”. - Director Of Client Services at SYZYGY London

“As a coach Jo has been fantastic- full of insights, always there to listen and most of all provide practical solutions. As a team we have come out more confident and ready with practical tools to help us develop further in different areas.” - Head Of Project Management at BBC Creative


🌐  Visit: www.thechangecreators.com

I lost my dad 29 years ago
and last week I was given a photo of him I’d never seen before.

It took me a moment (and my breath away) to take it in.
He was only 50 when he died, an age I'm only 3 years away from. 

This photo captures him in his element, surrounded by food doing the work he loved.

Grief doesn’t vanish.
You don’t 'move on.'
You move with it.

Some days it sits quietly. 
Some days it taps you on the shoulder.
And then there are moments like this, when it brings someone straight back into your heart.

But this photo did something else too.
It reminded me exactly where my own fire comes from.

My dad was all graft, pride and heart.
He cared deeply about his craft.
And he cared about people.

I started working for him when I was 12.
By 15, I was running the restaurant at weekends
Leading people twice my age, learning fast, getting things wrong, figuring out how to hold a team together.

At the time it just felt like 'helping Dad.'
Now I see it for what it was: my first leadership training ground.
So much of who I am today started in that restaurant.

Courage.
Ownership.
Showing up even when you don’t feel ready.
Taking pride in your work.

Seeing this photo now, almost three decades later, has pushed me even further into my own path.

His passion was food.
Mine is helping leaders find their courage to do the work that matters.
Different passions, same spirit.
Although my second choice would have been a food critic 😀

For anyone who’s lost someone, you’ll know this:

The grief softens, but the love doesn’t.
And moments like this make you stop and ask:

👉 Are we using the time we have well?
👉  Are we doing the work that feels true to us?
👉  Are we leading with pride in our craft… or just getting through the week?

I feel incredibly grateful for the years I had with him, for what he taught me, and for the reminder this photo brought.

If you’ve had a moment like this recently, I’d love to hear what it brought up for you.

♻️Repost to remember how important the time we have left is
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Strengthening Leadership Teams to Connect, Perform & Grow Together | Courageous Leaders Podcast| Speaker | International Coach of the Year 2020 🏆 | Follow for posts about self-mastery, leadership & culture

For my birthday last week, I went to a restaurant with NO menu.
And it felt so good to let go of control.

7 courses and no idea what's coming next. 

Even when they put butter that had marmite in it!! (I'm a hater)
It was amazing and I would have never ordered it had I been given the choice.

But here's the genius bit:

Every table eating the same thing.
Only 2 sittings at 7.30pm and 8pm.
The kitchen wasn't chaos... it was calm precision.
No decisions to stress about.
Just pure focus on quality and experience.

And they were all having the BEST time, singing to the music and having the time to have banter with us and make us feel SO special. 

There is so much to learn from this in corporate business. 

What could be possible is leaders stopped trying to control every outcome.
Empowered their teams to be creative.

Stopped offering endless options.
Just do fewer things... really, really well.

What if you applied this to your next project?

Your team?

Your life?

I already have and it's amazing how you can strip things back and simplify to create a better experience.

The old saying 'less is more' is so true.

Where is one area you can apply this to?

♻️ Repost to inspire new thinking 
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The power of glitter.

A room full of women sharing.
Listening.
Supporting.
And encouraging each other to take those 'F*ck It' moments to live our potential. 

Nishma Patel Robb 🪩⚡️ created a night I’ll remember.
Not because it was shiny (even though it was), but because it felt safe.
Safe to be honest.
Safe to be seen.
Safe to let someone else hold a bit of your story.

I’m so grateful she followed her dream. 
It’s not the easy road, but it’s one that’s helping so many women back themselves.

If you’re not already following her, go step into her world of glitter. It’s genuinely uplifting.

Amazing to get to spend the evening with incredible women including Kerry Collinge Amanda Baker Catherine Peacock Anna Cairns Justine Hendry

This wasn’t just the most special morning.
It reminded me why I started the podcast in the first place.

I never imagined how much the guests would teach me, inspire me, and shape how I see leadership today.

Here’s just a small glimpse of the impact being created by the people around this table:

🔥 Mollie Kmita & Rosie Kmita – driving transformational change in women’s football, even when faced with misogyny and resistance.

🔥 Sedge Beswick – lifting founders to believe in themselves again and drive business success.

🔥 Lee Chambers - Driving research to raise the alarm on the impact AI is having on young boys and pushing for guardrails at government level.

🔥 Ali Hanan – showing brands how inclusive marketing isn’t just the right thing to do…it delivers stronger commercial performance when you truly listen.

What was truly wonderful is how different all their worlds are and yet the thread between them is the same:

Courage.
Curiosity.
A deep desire to make things better.
And genuinely lovely kind people. 

And it made me reflect on a simple leadership question:
What change are we each quietly trying to make…
and what would happen if we backed ourselves a little more?

I honestly feel incredibly lucky to learn from these remarkable humans.
And if you’re not following them yet, I’d really recommend it.

If you want more content like this then do give me a follow Joanna Howes

It didn't go to plan and I didn't fall apart. 

Halfway through day one of PrettyGreen | The Global Fame Makers’ overnight offsite to plan 2026, I realised my afternoon content wasn't going to work.

The morning had taken us to an unexpected outcome. 

Old Jo would have panicked.
She would have ploughed ahead with her planned agenda anyway, convinced that sticking to the script was safer than admitting she didn't think it was going to work.

Instead, I stopped the room and shared that I didn't think the direction for the afternoon was going to work.

I brought the leaders into the thinking and we scrapped the original plan. 

That moment showed me how far I've come.

The hardest part of becoming a facilitator is learning to let go of the outcome. 

To trust that the right thing will emerge when you follow where the group needs to go.

For someone who likes control (guilty), this is terrifying.

But the magic happens when you're willing to not know. 
When you bring people into the uncertainty with you. 
When you trust yourself enough to say, "let's figure this out together."

So many of you have become rigid in your leadership. 
Clinging to how things are always done and your plans.

The best breakthrough moments happen when we let go of what we thought should happen and lean into what wants to happen.

In 2026, you need to become okay with not knowing exactly where you're headed.

That's where the real leadership lives.

Has this happened to you? 

♻️ Repost to help leaders let go
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If 'doing the right thing' could cost you EVERYTHING...

Would you do it?!

Zelda Perkins did.

She spoke out and fought to break her NDA with Harvey Weinstein after being silenced for years.

Her courage exposed how NDAs were being used to hide abuse and protect power.

That single act sparked Can't Buy My Silence, a global movement to end NDAs that cover up wrongdoing.

Speaking to Zelda about her story is one of the most powerful conversations I have had to date and one not to miss.

Especially if you feel currently strongly about something but are unsure or afraid of acting on it.

We went deep on:

- What happens when you speak out against power
- Why we need to go to government for support
- Recognising self-bullying
- Why speaking up needs to stop being seen as 'brave'
- The ability to keep going despite setbacks

This episode will make you question so much and start to see things in a completely different way.

Zelda had the courage to change what she saw was wrong and to keep going despite the emotional toll this took. 

She is a true inspiration. And I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the episode.

Watch it on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/eHGVyFSE

Or Listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ezYgJpEY

Check out Zelda's work here: https://lnkd.in/eZgJQJGp

Support the campaign here: https://lnkd.in/e83YkGpq


♻️ Repost to stop systems protecting the wrong people 

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What a brilliant night.

It's not often you see a room full of Marketeers sing the Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 miles). 😂

The most special part is knowing the event is supporting 2 incredible causes.

⭐️ The amazing The Marketing Academy Foundation creating opportunities in our industry for people from challenging backgrounds

⭐️ Under One Sky, who are working to end homelessness 

The goal is to raise £250,000 and it's not too late to take part in the auction to contribute. Check it out on this link https://lnkd.in/eKJZW7AF

And all organised by the amazing Joel Barnett and his team at Fortune Hill. 

Thanks to my brilliant quiz team including Sophie Devonshire⚡️and The event queen herself Mays Elansari

This episode will stay with me for a long time.

The energy Mollie Kmita and Rosie Kmita walk into a room with is infectious, but the authentic leadership story behind that energy is where the real power sits.

At 14, they lost their home.

At 17, they lost their dad

At 19, they started their own women’s football club

At 23, they became professional footballers

And today, they are Forbes 30 Under 30 and founders of The Powerhouse Project 

Two incredible women who openly spoke about the chaos, the fear, the grief and the courage it took to build a life that looks nothing like where they started.

They’re proof that your beginning doesn’t get to decide your future.

And for leaders, their story is a reminder that resilience isn’t built in comfort.

It’s built in the moments you think might break you… but don’t.

If you want a dose of inspiration going into the weekend, I can’t recommend this episode enough.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ejGUyEhm 

Or listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp 

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eZwwYhS7

Check out their amazing work with The Powerhouse Project: https://lnkd.in/exAJ4v6K 

♻️ Repost to inspire leaders who want to be inspired and build their resilience

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#Leadership #WomenInFootball #ThePowerhouseProject

Resilience isn’t built in comfort - Mollie & Rosie Kmita

I don’t often listen to The CEO Diaries anymore,

but this episode has helped me a lot. 

I’m in a stage of really questioning what matters
how I spend my time,
what genuinely lights me up,
and what I’ve been saying yes to out of habit.

Listening to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor brought me right back to what it means to be human.

She lost eight years of her life after a stroke.

Her story is extraordinary, not only because of what she overcame, but because of how she chose to live after.

She said something that I've found myself repeating all week:

 “Your life is worth 30 seconds.”

Thirty seconds to pause before reacting.
Before saying yes.
Before letting stress spill into the next moment.

Those 30 seconds hold the power to change how we live and lead.

Think about the impact of NOT taking them:
🔥 Being exhausted and not able to think straight
🔥 Losing the love for what you do 
🔥 Poor decisions and feeling stuck 
🔥 Your stressed energy costing your health and infecting those around you

We’ve all become so quick to react, especially under pressure.

So when everything feels urgent, take 30 seconds to remember what actually matters.

I can't explain enough how this has changed the way I'm approaching my week. I have such a clear head and lighter heart.

Your life and those you lead is worth 30 seconds.

How can you take this into your leadership?

Episode link in the comment. 

♻️ Repost to focus on what really matters
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12 leaders.
2 days
1 company with big ambitions.
1 beautiful venue.
And a table full of brilliant human beings. 

Year two of running PrettyGreen | The Global Fame Makers’s leadership two-day planning days reminded me why this work matters so much.

When a team is willing to pause the 'busy' button and look at themselves and the business, really look, opportunities open up.

We went deep into:

 • Innovation – what it really means
 • Curiosity – how to stay open, especially under pressure
 • Values – how they evolve as you grow
 • Culture – the behaviours that build trust (and the ones that quietly break it)
 • Emotional fitness – leading with steadiness even when things feel messy
 • Feedback – the conversations that change everything 

These are the muscles every leadership team needs right now.
Especially in a market where certainty is a luxury.

A special shout-out to Jessica Hargreaves Paczek, one of the most caring and courageous CEO's I’ve met (and I’ve interviewed over 150 on the podcast).

And to 🌳 Mark Stringer, for meeting change head-on, taking feedback with grace, and having an endless energy resource.

If you’re a leadership team reading this, here’s my question for you:

When was the last time you stopped long enough to look at the way you work together… not just the work you deliver?

A huge thanks to the full team for giving everything to the 2 days, even when the wine started to show up in plastic cups!! Sarah Henderson Lucy Mart Adam Shoemark Joe Stratton Hannah Macleod Emma Carson Lucy Porter Darren Greene Samantha Hooper Gill Sereena Abbassi FRSA

And Anna Maria Brezsa Timar  and Nicholas Barnard for the organisation and support. 

♻️ Repost to inspire great leadership
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The courage to be YOU!

That was the title of my talk at the Women in PR Christmas drinks

Because it was also the title of the event I walked into 7 years ago, that completely changed my life.

Back then, I was operating from proving, pleasing and not feeling good enough.
 
Today, I get to stand on the other side and pass on what I’ve learnt. 
That’s something I don’t take lightly.

Key things I shared:

🔥 Your 3 intelligence centres - head, heart and gut, and why alignment gives you more energy than any productivity hack ever will.

😀 Your future self - yes, it’s powerful to be present… but who are you becoming? And are your daily actions actually taking you there?

🦁 Courage before confidence - we have to stop waiting to feel “ready.” Courage and certainty come first. Confidence is just the receipt.

It was real honoured to be invited to speak, thank you Laura Perry and Jo Carr.

If you  want a dose of courage for your team to lift them up, then drop me a  DM. 

♻️ Repost to inspire more courage
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How often do you go to the other side?

Last week, the right side of my brain finally got a turn.

My whole career, I've been told I'm too left-brained.

Interesting considering I spent my whole time in the creative industry, but it was in operations : )

So I decided to give it some exercise and went to a painting class. 

I had to work quite hard at trying to let go of it being right or overthinking what to do. 

Right now, I'm seeing too many leaders rigid in their thinking, so this is my shout-out to go and do something you don't normally do.

Give your dominant brain a rest and explore the other side. 

Have fun. 

I'd love to hear from anyone who consciously exercises both sides of their brains and what they do in the comments. 

♻️ Repost for more quick bites of inspiration 
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What if your resilience is actually survival mode?

That was the question running through my mind as I spoke with Mollie Kmita and Rosie Kmita – former pro footballers, now founders of The Powerhouse Project.

They have achieved so much:

🔥 Forbes 30 Under 30

🔥 Nike and Google partnerships

🔥 Creating real pathways for women in football

But what we talked about wasn’t the glossy stuff.

They vulnerably shared:

• The impact of losing their dad at 17 to alcoholism
• How hyper-achievement helped to hide grief 
• The guilt you feel if your not ‘busy’
• How people pleasing impacted two businesses not working
• 16 years of pushing so hard, in case it all disappeared

It is so important to recognise the difference between resilience and survival mode. 

Resilience is steady.
It helps you adapt, recover, and lead with clarity.
You can pause. You can choose. You can breathe.

Survival mode is frantic.
It’s fuelled by fear, guilt, and the belief that if you stop, everything will fall apart.

One keeps you grounded.
The other keeps you running.

The Kmita twins are now operating from resilience and realising you calm down without losing ambition.

If you lead a team, here’s the real challenge from this episode:

Don’t just ask, “How do we build resilience?”
Ask, “What are we silently rewarding – survival mode or sustainable leadership?”

Because your people are watching what you live, not what you say.

Are you in survival mode? Let me know in the comments.

🔗 If you want to hear the full story – from loss, identity crisis and burnout to building The Powerhouse Project – the episode with Mollie and Rosie is live now on the Courageous Leaders Podcast.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ejGUyEhm 

Or listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp 

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eZwwYhS7 

Check out their amazing work with The Powerhouse Project: https://lnkd.in/exAJ4v6K 

♻️ Repost to inspire leaders who feel they are in survival mode

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Very excited for Nishma Patel Robb 🪩⚡️to be putting the Glittersphere spotlight on me at 5pm today. 

I'm going to share when I first rebelled, how I found courage and so much more.

Be great to see you there - link in the events page below. 

Jo x

Putting the brilliant Joanna Howes under the spotlight and discovering more about this brilliant leader, podcaster and leadership expert. 
Join me for this exclusive sparkly conversation.

Nishma Patel Robb 🪩⚡️, Nimmi Shah and 4 other attendees

Shhhh….

Have you ever stayed quiet when you knew you should speak up?

Maybe out of fear… or because you didn’t think your voice would make a difference?

When the Harvey Weinstein ‘story’ was about to break, Zelda Perkins broke her NDA to do the right thing. 

She told the journalist everything, hoping other women with NDAs would come forward too.

But no one did.

So, she went first.

Her story isn’t just about taking on one man… it’s about taking on a system that silenced victims.

It took passion, resilience, courage - and 7 long years of pushing for change.

If you’ve ever felt pressure to stay silent, or you’re trying to create a culture where people can speak freely, this episode will really resonate.

Zelda shares her journey, her mission to make workplaces safer and more transparent.

And why speaking up should be seen as normal - not ‘brave.’

It’s one of those conversations that will stay with me - and I hope it does with you too. 

I’d love to know what you thought of the episode.

Watch it on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/eHGVyFSE

Or Listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ezYgJpEY

Check out Zelda's work here: https://lnkd.in/eZgJQJGp

Support the campaign here: https://lnkd.in/e83YkGpq

 
♻️ Repost to stop systems protecting the wrong people 

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Most leaders say they care about allyship.
Very few actually practice it.

I’ve just recorded a conversation with Lee Chambers that I can’t stop thinking about, and I’m sharing this early because it’s one every leader needs on their radar.

We unpacked the everyday behaviours that decide whether people feel safe, valued, and able to be themselves at work, and the shocking data from his research with young boys and AI.

Lee has a way of holding up a mirror without making you defensive.
He names the hard truths, but he does it with compassion and clarity.

We dug into:
• What genuine allyship actually looks like
• The pressure men feel to fit outdated stereotypes
• Why culture change stalls (and how to unlock it)
• How leaders can create environments where everyone grows
• What boys are turning to when the world feels confusing or lonely — including AI companionship

Some of Lee’s research is hopeful.
Some of it is genuinely worrying.
But it’s important we don’t look away.

This episode lands on Thursday, and it’s one to make time for.

In the meantime…
What does real allyship mean to you?

Make sure you don’t miss the episode

Subscribe on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/eHGVyFSE

Or on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eJatPjke

♻️ Repost to get allyship on the map
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#CourageousLeadershipPodcast #CultureStereotypes #Allyship

Too many of us are self-bullying!

And we need to stop it.

In my latest episode on Courageous Leaders , Zelda, who for years has campaigned to stop bad behaviour, shared the moment when she realised how badly she’d been treating herself.

It made me stop and think.

As leaders, we talk about the importance of compassion.

But how often do we give it to ourselves?

It’s a tough role, and there’s not much thanks that comes with it.

So it’s easy to notice what we’re not doing instead of what we are.

So maybe today, just check in:  
How are you speaking to yourself?

And what would it sound like if that voice came from compassion instead?    

If this resonates, this conversation with Zelda is a powerful reminder that courage starts with how we treat ourselves.

Watch it on YouTube here: https://lnkd.in/eHGVyFSE

Or Listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ezYgJpEY

Check out Zelda's work here: https://lnkd.in/eZgJQJGp

Support the campaign here: https://lnkd.in/e83YkGpq

♻️ Repost if to bring more compassion to leaders 

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Why am I making life harder for myself?

The question Mollie Kmita and Rosie Kmita are trying to answer.

And one I think we all are!

Rosie shared how the voices in her head kept saying:

“You’re not good enough.”

“You’re boring.”

“No one’s listening.”

It’s like having a toxic boss in our own heads that keeps us working hard.

We know that we perform better with encouragement, yet we are stuck in a cycle of criticism. 

My theory is that many leaders believe that if they talk nicely to themselves they won’t achieve as much?

What are your theories on this?

Let us know in the comments and hope you enjoy this great episode!

Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ejGUyEhm 

Or listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp 

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eZwwYhS7

♻️ Repost to a leader you think needs to talk more nicely to themselves 

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#leadership #selftalk #podcast

🔥 Courage in Bitesize 

How to let someone challenge you, without getting defensive 

Most of us say we want honesty.
Until someone offers it and we suddenly launch into our Greatest Hits of Justification. 

I tried this and it does make a difference. 

1. Pause - Just one beat.

2. Relax your face - Your eyebrows don’t need to panic.

3. Say - “Thanks — tell me more.”

4. Listen, don’t load your comeback.

5. Focus on the outcome you want to achieve to manage emotions 

That’s it.
Tiny moves.
Big courage. 

It’s amazing how quickly people stop tiptoeing when they realise you’re not gearing up for battle.

Any further tips please add to the comments. 

♻️ Repost to help busy leaders access tips
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Lauren Spearman

How much is guilt driving your leadership? 

That feeling of “I should be working… I should be doing more” — and before you know it, you’re saying yes to too many things and juggling work that doesn’t actually move you forward. 

On our latest Courageous Leaders episode, Mollie Kmita and Rosie Kmita share how ten years of saying 'yes' to everything finally caught up with them.

There’s a season early in your career where saying yes makes sense — you’re learning, building, getting curious.

But there’s also a moment of becoming a leader where you have to be strategic. 

Maybe the most courageous move isn’t adding more.
Maybe it’s stripping back so you can think clearly again.

What’s one thing you could say “no” to this week? 

I recommend watching the full episode. It's one of our most inspiring yet. 

Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/ejGUyEhm 

Or listen on Apple: https://lnkd.in/edeq-Wvp 

Or on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eZwwYhS7

♻️ Repost to inspire leaders to focus 

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hedgehog lab

As the co-founder and CEO of hedgehog lab, I grew the company from 3 people in a small corner of the North East of England in 2011 to around a 100+ people globally with major presence in the UK & US.

I'm responsible for 4 key things in my role,

- Culture. I believe that culture eats strategy for breakfast and I see myself as the custodian of culture ensuring we always have a north star in everything we do based on our culture framework of purpose, vision, mission & values. 

Key achievements include driving our employee experience programme that has resulted in a rating of 4.9 on Glassdoor and 100% CEO approval rating for me. I'm also a champion of DEI and wellbeing, starting and running key initiatives like our mental health support programs, flexible working and wellbeing support.

- Strategy. Having a great culture by and itself does not drive business performance, so I spend a significant amount of time defining and executing strategy in collaboration with my brilliant management team.

Key achievements include pivoting to mobile specialism to capture the demand & establishing,  growing a US presence now accounting for 40% of our revenue, and raising £2m+ in funding from Private Equity Investors.

- Growth. I have led the commercial and growth teams at hedgehog lab since inception including directly owning the Head of Sales role ensuring hedgehog lab posted CAGR of nearly 60% in our scale up journey. I've also been the de facto CMO of the company setting and driving the marketing vision. Currently lead the Growth teams consisting of Sales, Marketing & Client Engagement.

Key achievements include achieving a #1 global ranking for mobile app development with analysts Clutch, being named in the Financial Times Top 1000 Fastest Growing European companies 2 years in a row and raising Private Equity funding to drive scale up growth.

- Governance. As the CEO and the majority individual shareholder on the Board of Directors, I work with other Directors and investors.

Chief Executive Officer

Subject Matter Expert for Financial Services at hedgehog lab due to my expertise advising and supporting banks, insurance, wealth management and fintech customers like Aviva, AJ Bell, Atom Bank, Coventry Building Society, Cynergy Bank, Davidson Kempner, Tesco Bank, and many others.

My expertise in helping craft and work through critical digital transformation, CX initiatives and technology programmes helps me be the "voice" of FS in the business.

I believe that the biggest problem facing transformation in FS isn't a technological but a human one of culture change, mindset, skills and building high-performance teams.

I'm also one of those people that is excited at reading the FCA's annual priorities on a weekend than a magazine

Financial Services Lead

Co-founded hedgehog lab to create a place that empowers talented people to do the best work of their lives. Constantly working hard to live up to our purpose as a culture custodian.

Co-Founder

equiwatt

Supporting this exciting start-up with strategic advice on go to market strategy, marketing approach and growth plans. A great chance to combine by passion of the sustainability/EV market with digital product.

Advisor

PNE is a North East based business support organisation that enables positive social and economic change by supporting businesses to start, grow and thrive in an ethical and sustainable way. I am delighted to join the Board as a Non-exec bringing my experience of sales, marketing and scaling high growth business to help PNE set ambitious growth targets and facilitate a wider impact for businesses in the region.

Non Executive Director

BIMA (British Interactive Media Association)

Providing mentorship and advice to agency leaders & CEOs who are going through their scale-up journey using my experience and battle-tested frameworks.

Mentor

Netsells

Acquired Netsells to accelerate our Phase 2 journey to become the most respected tech consultancy in the world, backed by UK’s best growth investors, BGF.

New College Durham

New College Durham is one of the largest FE and HE colleges in the North East named by OFSTED as an Outstanding performer and with a reputation for being financially well managed and putting students first. I am a Governor on the Board of Governors helping guide the College in strategy, digital-first focus, employability for students and overseeing general governance. It's great to bring my diverse background and experience to help support the talent of tomorrow.

Governor

Mentor on the BT Ethnically Diverse Mentorship Programme helping mentor the next generation of leaders from minority backgrounds, while giving mentees a unique opportunity to develop their personal brand and receive support in furthering their careers. A chance for me to drive the DEI agenda and develop future diverse leaders.

Cheer.One

Advising a HR SaaS product start-up on Product Strategy, Culture & Growth.

Strategic Advisor

TH_NK

Experienced in leading projects and delivering enterprise solutions in the financial services sector with a focus on Microsoft based solutions.

Role on projects:
- Defining overall system architecture and design
- Defining development standards and naming conventions
- Working with Project Leads and Project Managers to plan and create specifications.
- Define interfaces
- Define system integration points
- Work with team on requirements analysis and early systems analysis and design stages.

Technical Consultant

Was responsible for overseeing the internal planning, detailed design and delivery of quality code. This included working collaboratively with key project stakeholders within the company, third-party suppliers and the client. 

Responsibilities

Worked with key stakeholders to define internal schedule, technical deliverables and resource requirements.
Lead the team to develop quality design and code for the project.
Participated in hands-on development as part of the team effort.
Contributed to the ongoing architectural evolution in an architectural role.
Took ownership of all technical deliverables.
Optimised workload by assigning tasks to developers based on strengths and interests.
Worked with Project Management and Account Director to ensure project delivery is of high quality.
Worked with third party suppliers and manage technical channels of communication.
Attended technical reviews and meetings with client and third party suppliers.

Lead Analyst / Developer

Spark Response

Involved in building internal web-based apps for the logistics and operational departments of the company.

Web Consultant

I am a passionate and experienced entrepreneur in the digital and software industry, with over 16 years of leading and growing hedgehog lab, a human-centred global tech consultancy. I co-founded hedgehog lab in 2007 and transformed it from a small web development agency to a multi-million-pound company with over 100 employees and offices in the UK, US, and Bulgaria. As the CEO, I am responsible for setting the company’s vision, strategy, and culture and overseeing operations, finances, and business development.

In April 2023, I acquired Netsells, another UK-based tech consultancy, to accelerate our mission to become the most respected tech consultancy in the world. Together, we offer custom app development and digital transformation services to our partners, including AJ Bell, Deliveroo, Kodak Alaris, and Tesco Bank. We leverage our UXR, UI/UX, engineering, AI, cloud, and data science expertise to deliver human-centred solutions that drive real business impact.

I am also an active advisor, mentor, and non-executive director for several organisations, where I share my insights and knowledge on digital innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

Important : Views shared on my LinkedIn are personal and do not reflect the views of hedgehog lab.

Sarat Pediredla 🦔

I have been saying for a while that AI is closer to an industrial revolution for knowledge work than a new software rollout. This new BCG piece, “As AI Changes Work, CEOs Must Change How Work Happens”, finally puts some structure and data around that intuition.
 
What really jumps out at me is the gap between tool use and work design. BCG’s AI at Work 2025 survey suggests that nearly three in four employees are already using AI regularly, yet only around a third feel they have had proper training, and only about 36 percent are satisfied with it. We have quietly pushed AI into the flow of work, but we have not done the harder thinking about what jobs are actually for in this new context.
 
Most corporate AI programmes are framed as “implementation”. Stand up a few copilots, run some training sessions, publish a policy, tick the board paper. The uncomfortable truth is that if AI takes on a meaningful chunk of the task load, the real work is to rethink roles, skills, org design and performance. Our current job architecture was not written for a world where every employee has a capable machine partner sitting beside them.
 
You can see this clearly in software teams. If AI can write large parts of the code, what is the human developer now optimising for? Things like quality control, judgment, problem framing, system design, cross functional collaboration and coaching models. That is a very different job description to “produce X lines of code” and it demands different hiring, training and performance conversations.
 
BCG also talks about the talent pyramid starting to bend. Fewer pure entry level roles. More specialists at the top. A middle layer that shifts from traditional people management to coaching and integrating AI into the work. At the same time, digital skills are spreading across sales, marketing and operations, while the supply of experienced people still lags. That forces a very practical question for CEOs: where in your organisation do you want scarce human expertise, and what do you want it doing alongside AI, hour by hour.
 
If we take the industrial revolution analogy seriously, the big prize is not “using AI in every function”. It is redesigning the factory floor of knowledge work itself. For each critical role, leaders will need to keep asking:
 
❓ What can safely move to AI, and under what guardrails?
❓ What higher value work do we expect humans to do with the time that is freed?
❓ How will we recruit, train and reward people for that new shape of work, not the old one?
 
I am convinced we will look back on this period as the biggest shift in how work happens since computers first arrived on desks. The organisations that move first will not be the ones with the most AI tools. They will be the ones that treat AI as a reason to redesign work from first principles, with their people, not just their tech stack, at the centre.
 
 More:

Sarat Pediredla 

CEO & Founder w/ PE experience | NED & Chair | Scaling digital companies through culture, growth, turnarounds & transformation | 🏆 AI 100 UK | 🏆 BIMA 100

Open article: As AI Changes Work, CEOs Must Change How Work Happens by bcg.com

As AI Changes Work, CEOs Must Change How Work Happens

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