A Human Perspective

In this episode of A Human Perspective podcast, host Lola Oguntokun welcomes Careen Redman, Co-founder & CEO of humaneer. Careen shares her extensive experience in HR, from starting as a recruiter to founding humaneer. Lola and Careen discuss the evolving role of HR, the difference between HR and People Ops, the purpose of HR, the challenges HR professionals face, and the importance of being s...

In this episode of A Human Perspective podcast, host Lola Oguntokun converses with Lauren Humphrey, co-founder and CEO of Tandem, about the critical role of feedback in the workplace. Discover Lauren's journey in the tech industry, the inspiration behind Tandem, and practical advice for giving and receiving constructive feedback. The discussion covers psychological aspects, challenges managers fac...

In this episode of A Human Perspective podcast, host Lola Oguntokun converses with Martin Pannier, Founder of Primo, about the evolving role of Product Management. They discuss Martin's journey from consulting to product roles at startups like Gusto and iziwork, and his current venture, Primo. The conversation delves into the significance of Product in startups, the challenges faced in product...

On this episode, I'm joined by a couple of close and long-time friends, Mala and Kemi. We chop it up as we normally would whenever we meet up... but maybe a little calmer! We discuss our thoughts on Imposter Syndrome. What it means to us. How it shows up in our professional lives. How we manage the related feelings. The factors that may create the feeling in the first place, and so on. This is...

This week, I speak to ⁠Richard Rosser⁠ , Co-Founder of ⁠Movemeon⁠ , a platform that helps consultants navigate their career within and beyond consulting firms. Rich and his Co-Founder met each other while at McKinsey and decided to take a leap into the world of HR Tech after an exhausting experience during their own job search when they had made the decision to leave consultancy. Rich and I discus...

Chichi Eruchalu is an Executive Leadership Coach, Speaker and a 2023 Top Voice on LinkedIn. When I reached out to Chichi, it was because of her very human perspective on leadership, and I was keen to explore this further with her. However, Chichi suggested getting more specific and discussing black female leadership. I was a little nervous about this conversation because it’s one normally had with...

We’re back from another short but needed hiatus, and our guest this episode is Kate Sotsenko . This episode is so apt for those coming back from the summer break, looking to redefine how they approach work. I came across Kate on LinkedIn where she was sharing some very useful productivity tips. Kate is a productivity educator and coach who has coined a concept called The Good Busy and shares fanta...

Meet Natalie Wood , VP Engineering at Hokodo. Natalie and I met during my time at Elsevier and I remember at the time admiring Natalie's approach working style. Methodical, great attention to detail, and just bloody smart, to be honest! 💡 A couple of months back, Natalie shared an informative post and slides for Autism Awareness on LinkedIn. What made it so impactful was Natalie’s vulnerabili...

This year has seen around a quarter of a million people being laid off in the Tech space alone. I’ve said this before, I don’t see this trend coming to an end any time soon. I talk more specifically about layoffs in a previous episode, ‘When the Bubble Bursts: The Layoffs of 2022’. You can find out more there about my opinion on these layoffs, what is happening, etc. In this particular episode, I...

On this week's episode, we have Jack Villiers . Jack is a Leadership Coach, Men's Guide and Public Speaker whose goal is to make healthy masculinity mainstream. With extensive experience in Talent Acquisition and People Operations and contributing to the successful growth of companies such as Monzo, Just Eat and incident.io, Jack set up his own consulting company in order to help even more...

Some people feel bias is unconscious or simply another term for decision-making. In this episode we discuss the concept of unconscious bias and my thoughts on the topic as a whole.

Off the back of Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK ending, In this episode, I share some musings on the link between mental health and social media.

On this week’s episode, we speak to Sam Flynn about Digital Wellbeing. Sam is a Digital Wellbeing and Social Media Coach, Trainer and Speaker. Since the pandemic, our feeling of isolation has increased alongside our use of social media and technology - both in our personal and professional lives. Sam and I discuss the concept of digital wellbeing and Sam also shares some brilliant tips to help you...

Meet Vasco Figueira , a Senior / Lead Software Engineer, I was lucky enough to work with at a previous company. Curious by nature, with the ability to balance pragmatism with the constant pursuit for excellence, Vasco is always a great person to have a conversation with. Vasco and I discuss how to build effective software engineering teams. The conversations kicks off what the definition of what a...

For the past couple of years I have been sharing my lessons from the previous year. Last year was a little different. I experienced a lot of drastic changes, I stood up for myself in ways I hadn’t for some time, I took chances and I remembered some truths I’ve always known but buried. But I didn’t get the chance to properly reflect until the end of the year… and to be completely honest, I’m still...

Join me as I talk to Tim Carter , a Partnerships Consultant and Ecosystems Coach. Tim's forté is helping companies assess their current position, identify opportunities and challenges and put in place a plan to enable progress and consequently, growth. On this episode, Tim talks about his career transition from law to mobile technology, and how he joined Google at a pivotal time after acquiring An...

I had a wonderful conversation with Stephanie Bowker , former VP of Marketing at Spendesk and now Co-Founder & CMO at Ourspace , a platform enabling tech leaders to make smarter org design decisions through complete context and peer alignment. Our chat covers Steph's experience of working and being a leader in a first growth start-up, and the lessons she is taking into her new venture, Ourspac...

In last week’s episode, I provided an insight into a Recruiter’s role, with a focus on some of the work Recruiters do with internal stakeholders. This week is the second instalment focussing on the work Recruiters do with candidates. After the initial interaction with the hiring manager and other key internal stakeholders, the Recruiter would normally have an understanding of the role, have the jo...

I started off my career as a Recruiter and still dabble in recruitment from time-to-time. If you’re to go by the many the negative comments on LinkedIn, Recruiters often get a bad wrap. Yes, there are some awful Recruiters out there but that doesn’t mean there aren’t amazing people too. This is the first of duo episodes. In this first portion, we will discuss the work Recruiters do with internal s...

I received a LinkedIn message from someone asking for advice a couple of weeks back, and I am yet to respond. I nearly responded, but not to answer the call for advice, but to give advice on how to approach people on LinkedIn. This episode is for that person, and anyone else who may need guidance on how to approach people on LinkedIn. If you’ve never approached someone on LinkedIn before it can be...

This episode is a follow-up to an episode released a few weeks back called, 'Saying No at Work: Workload Edition'. In this previous episode, we discussed the common occurrence of being overloaded at work, and how to push back or find ways around it. However, let's face it, saying “No” is easier said than done. In this episode, we dive into this a little further.

With more companies choosing remote working or at a minimum following a hybrid model than ever seen before, we are navigating uncharted waters en masse. Trying to understand what works and how to work in this new space, whilst considering the realities of juggling and prioritising personal lives and wellbeing. One of the more tricky and also most important parts of working remotely effectively is...

On this episode, Malvina EL-Sayegh and I discuss the concept of Sales Enablement, it's importance, and future. We also explore how enablement and onboarding crossover. As well as having extensive experience in the Enablement space, Malvina also has her own podcast, #stayhuman, and is also co-host of The Sales Enablement Brew. Go have a listen! 

You are just about managing to spin all your plates and stay on top of your workload. Your manager loves the work you’ve been doing and asks if you can take on an additional project. They know you get things done and your results are always good, so it has to be you. But you know you’re just about coping. You know you shouldn’t take it on, you simply don’t have the bandwidth… but you don’t want to...

We're seeing an increasing number of companies in the start-up / scale-up tech space making people redundant this year. LinkedIn is littered with posts of people announcing they have been made redundant. Even companies like Netflix, that had massive wins during the pandemic are letting people go. In this episode I touch on some reasons why this may be happening.... now.