Blueprint for Building Great Teams

Something breaks in your business. How long before someone writes a job spec? For most teams, about three weeks. Michael Ruiter, interim CEO and transformation consultant, thinks that's the wrong move almost every time. In this episode he breaks down how to hire for the need, not the gap: The questions to ask before you write a single job description Why your current need and your future need are...

When you inherit a team you did not build, where do you actually start? Jenny Jarvis (COO, Energy Saving Trust and author of Lead With Confidence) shares how she walks into established teams and reshapes them through transformation: diagnosing the organisation before judging the people, and starting with the work rather than the org chart. You’ll learn: • How to prepare before day one and test you...

How do you build a recruitment process that genuinely tests for values, in a 50-person organisation operating in 120 countries? Sarah Mukherjee MBE (CEO, IEMA, former BBC Environment Correspondent) shares the practical operating model behind a small, global, values-driven team: human-read applications, peer interviewers, a welcome letter at the front of every job description, and why ‘soft skills’...

What if scrapping probationary periods was the most powerful trust signal you could send a new hire? Ken Mackness (CEO, membership, charity, private and local authority sectors) makes the case for hiring on values, trusting from day one, and building boards that challenge rather than echo. Plus, why most recruitment failures are the company’s fault, not the candidate’s. You’ll learn: Why values an...

Why do so many employers say they want young talent, then build processes that quietly filter young people out? John Yarham (CEO, The Careers & Enterprise Company) shares 25+ years of practical insight into what genuinely works: essential skills over soft skills, reimagined work experience, the apprenticeship opportunity most employers miss, and the three Cs that decide whether early talent su...

If you hire the right person, you're 70% of the way there. The rest is process. Frances Ingham (Head of Sales Development EMEA, Vimeo) breaks down why "will to succeed" matters more than skill, why most modern SDR teams are over-reliant on automation, and where to find SDR talent that nobody else is looking at. You'll learn: How to spot the will to succeed in an interview Why graduate academies an...

Caroline Oxley (Chief People Officer, Evolve) walked into a business spending £208,000 a year on agencies and reduced it to £38,000 in 12 months, whilst the team grew by almost 50% and Evolve was ranked #15 in the Best Companies Technology Sector list. You'll learn: How to build an internal recruitment function hiring managers actually want to use Why managers unconsciously recruit in their own im...

How do you hire when you don't trust job specs and don't believe in CVs? Mike Winnett (Co-Founder, G&G Studios) built and sold a business for £8 million and admits he sold it too soon because he'd never built the team that should have been running it. He's hired differently ever since. In this episode, Mike shares the character-archetype hiring framework he uses now, why he finds his best hire...

Why does adding more salespeople rarely deliver more revenue? Toby Phelps (Interim CRO, Fulfilmentcrowd, scaled SaaS businesses from £5M to £50M+ ARR) shares the two-pillar framework he uses to assess any commercial team, the metrics that actually predict sales performance, and why demand generation must scale before headcount. You'll learn: The two-pillar model for assessing capability and traits...

Your best salesperson doesn't want to be a manager. Now what? Evie Emanuel (Commercial Director, Events Concept | Co-Founder, Elevate New Gen) has led commercial teams through growth, mergers and redundancies in an industry where the margin for error is zero. In this episode, she shares: Why the "grittiness" you need is never on the CV — and how to pull it out in conversation How to create progres...

Over the past 19 episodes, we've been building something. A practical encyclopedia for helping companies recruit better. Along the way, we've sat down with some of the most brilliant HR and People leaders in the UK. And in almost every conversation, there's been a moment where something gets said that every founder, every hiring manager, every HR team in the country needs to hear. So this week we...

In this episode, Barry Cochrane discusses innovative recruitment strategies that challenge traditional CV reliance. Barry recounts his experience at Sage, where he scrapped formal CV screening and used a LEGO-based exercise to evaluate candidates' problem-solving and communication skills. This unconventional approach allowed him to identify candidates with the right behaviours and long-term fit, r...

In this episode of the Blueprint for Building Great Teams, Helen Rose Whitehead, a business leader with extensive experience in recruitment and commercial leadership, discusses effective strategies for building high-performing teams. She emphasises the importance of planning ahead and recruiting for skills and capabilities rather than merely job titles. Helen also highlights the benefits of using...

In this engaging podcast episode, Marc O'Driscoll, Head of Sales at Help the Move, shares his extensive experience in building high-performing sales teams. He emphasises the importance of understanding the business’s needs, identifying the right sales approach, and hiring individuals based on traits like coachability and resilience. Marc provides insights into getting senior buy-in and creating a...

In this engaging podcast episode, John Elworthy, a seasoned commercial leader, shares his approach to recruitment and team building. Emphasising the importance of fitting roles to people rather than the other way around, John advocates for evaluating candidates based on their potential contribution and cultural fit. He highlights the significance of open-ended conversations during interviews and c...

In this episode of the Blueprint for Building Great Teams, Andrea Place explores the intricacies of effective organisational design and development. With experience at companies such as Barclays, Andrea emphasises the importance of understanding the unique contributions individuals can make within a team context. By shifting focus from transactional recruitment to values-driven processes, organisa...

In this podcast episode, Sophie, an experienced people leader, shares her insights into building effective teams in high growth startups and scale-ups. She emphasises the importance of scoping roles accurately, aligning leadership, and understanding the organisation's needs before starting the recruitment process. Sophie also discusses the value of psychologically informed practices and how they c...

In this podcast episode, Wendy McDougall, CEO and founder of Firefish Software, shares insights into building high-performance teams and fostering a vibrant company culture. Drawing on her background in recruitment and sports, she emphasises the importance of values over rigid cultural structures and highlights the need for adaptability and passion in early hires. McDougall discusses her hiring ap...

In this episode of the Building Great Teams podcast, Ian Parslow discusses his extensive experience in leading sales teams and transforming sales strategies over the years. Ian shares how the approach to recruitment and management has evolved, where empathy and understanding individual motivations have become key. He emphasises the importance of building teams that work well together rather than f...

In this podcast episode, Jo Major, a specialist in recruitment talent and inclusion, discusses her two-decade journey in the industry and her transition from traditional recruitment to focusing on diversity and inclusion. Jo highlights the flawed nature of contemporary recruitment practices, often characterised by transactional processes and a lack of genuine candidate-employer connection. She emp...

In this enlightening podcast episode, Rob, a seasoned HR expert, shares his expansive knowledge on crafting high-performing teams across global enterprises. Delving into competency-based frameworks, Rob emphasises the pivotal role of aligning behaviours with organisational values while challenging managers to welcome team diversity. From navigating cultural nuances to promoting effective workforce...

Rebecca McShane, an HR expert, shares insights on building high-performing teams without stress on this podcast episode. As the founder of SureHR, she's been pivotal in guiding startups through the intricacies of hiring and culture creation. Rebecca emphasizes the significance of planning recruitment ahead of scaling and understanding long-term team needs, not just immediate fixes. She warns again...

In this podcast episode, Jonathan Edwards shares his extensive experience in building effective teams across local government. He emphasises the importance of diversity not just for compliance, but as a strategic asset that enriches team culture. Edwards advocates for creative recruitment techniques, casting a wide net to find the right people. By focusing on shared values and purpose, he has succ...

Felix, a marketing manager at Pure Storage, shares his extensive experience in building successful marketing teams in this podcast episode. He discusses the importance of having a clear mission statement and how culture plays a vital role in recruitment and team dynamics. Felix emphasizes the balance between technical expertise and soft skills, highlighting the significance of curiosity and emotio...

In this episode, John sits down with Richard Wilson, an experienced business leader, to discuss effective strategies for building high-performing teams. Richard shares his vast experience in recruitment and outlines the importance of having a clear job specification and getting senior leaders involved in the process. He emphasises the role of a well-defined target operating model (TOM) as the corn...