Starts at the Top Podcast

How emerging tech can supercharge your digital transformation (Digital Leaders Week - Special Episode) We chat with Wales Air Ambulance Charity and Arvato CRM Solutions about their partnership   Can emerging technologies help your organisation’s digital transformation go further and faster? We attempted to answer this question as part of our live podcast recording at Digital Leaders Week, featurin...

How to build your brand during a cost-of-living crisis We talk to Donna White, Senior Head of Digital and Youth Marketing at The Prince’s Trust    When times get tough the first thing that gets cut is often the marketing budget. So when we heard that The Prince’s Trust was taking a creative approach to digital marketing during the cost of living crisis we had to find out more. We first met Donna W...

How to tap into the power of skilled volunteers  It’s Volunteers Week so we wanted to find out how charities and corporates alike can benefit from skilled volunteering programmes.  Kim Perlow is the founder and CEO of Link UP London an organisation that harnesses professional skills for social good through skilled volunteering. Link UP, which started in 2016, is committed to building stronger comm...

How to influence Westminster now We meet Ian Dunt, author, political journalist and broadcaster Have you ever wondered what really goes on in Westminster? Maybe you work in policy and are planning how to campaign for change in politically turbulent times? Ian Dunt, author of new bestselling book How Westminster Works…and Why It Doesn’t is here to lift the lid on Westminster and share what he found...

Why leaders need to rethink resilience We chat with Bruce Daisley, author of Fortitude, workplace culture expert, and podcaster   We’re thrilled to open season 7 with a brilliant conversation with Bruce Daisley. Many of you will know Bruce as the author of Fortitude: The Myth of Resilience and the Secrets of Inner Strength (out now in paperback) and his previous book The Joy of Work. Bruce is a wo...

How to put digital at the heart of your organisation We chat to Sharon Jones, Head of Digital Innovation at The King’s Fund We’re closing season 6 by chatting to a charity digital legend about their journey as a leader. Step forward Sharon Jones, Head of Digital Innovation at The King’s Fund. Sharon has worked as an editor and producer in organisations such as MTV, Sky and among others, the BBC. B...

How leaders can reach Gen Z online We speak to Jeff Nathenson, Managing Director, International at Whistle. We speak to a lot of leaders who want to reach young people online. So how do you get the attention of Gen Z, when every brand and influencer is competing for their attention? Jeff Nathenson is Managing Director, International at Whistle , the digital entertainment media company for Gen-Z. L...

What it’s really like to be a neurodivergent CEO We chat with Tree Hall, CEO of Charity IT Leaders It’s estimated that 1 in 7 people in the UK is neurodiverse. So what is it like to be a neurodiverse leader?  Tree Hall, CEO of Charity IT Leaders , was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 47. In this very personal episode, she shares her story, exploring what autism means to her, and how it has shap...

How to put the fun back into work We speak to Emmy O’Shaugnessy, Director of Innovation and Growth at Oxfordshire Youth, and Michael Rucker, organisational psychologist and author of The Fun Habit. The last 3 years have been tough and 2023 will be challenging. Engaging our teams is more important than ever so how can we bring fun and joy back into the workplace? Is it even possible right now? Join...

How to help your organisation hit refresh In our latest episode, we chat with Lou Lai, Chief Client and Transformation Officer at TPXimpact. The new year can mean new ways of doing things. And we’ve got just the episode for you if your organisation needs reinvention in 2023. Lou Lai, Chief Client and Transformation Officer at TPXimpact, knows all about transformation. We begin with her own story o...

What will the leaders of 2023 need? We speak to Jane Ide, CEO of ACEVO The last two years have seen huge, unprecedented upheaval, leading to the current state of permacrisis. There are so many challenges facing civil society, and the wider world, into 2023. What qualities will leaders need for the road ahead? Few civil society leaders are better placed to answer this question than Jane Ide, CEO of...

How RNID went fully remote and agile We chat with Michael Wilkinson, Associate Director for Digital and Innovation at RNID Going fully remote, and agile, is a big ask of any organisation. It inevitably brings risk as much as opportunity. What do charities need to do to make this a success? Back in 2020 RNID (or Action on Hearing Loss as it was then known) announced its plans to sell its office and...

Autumn books for leaders We recommend our favourite books and chat with the author of Human Powered, Trenton Moss.   Grab a coffee and head for your sofa. It's time to ease ourselves gently into a new season of Starts at the Top with our recommended new reads for leaders. We’ve rifled through our bedside tables to bring you a selection of the books we’ve loved reading over the summer, covering top...

How NatWest are tackling the digital skills pipeline crisis We speak to Wincie Wong, Head of Services Workforce Technical Capability, NatWest   According to FutureDotNow almost 10 million UK workers are missing fundamental digital skills needed for today’s workplace . Large organisations can make a big difference here, simply by skilling up their workforce. So what can we learn from them? We were...

How two digital leaders job share We chat to Beth Parfitt, Head of Digital and Kit Powney, Head of Digital, Digital Maturity, at Tearfund   Competition to hire digital talent is fierce, and the great resignation is making this even harder. Could one of the answers to this problem be more digital leaders job sharing, offering them flexibility and peer support? In this week’s episode we chat to two...

The leaders’ guide to content Content is a huge part of what every organisation, and every leader does. How else will your users hear about what you do or engage with your services? And yet content is still often seen as an operational function, not a critical element of every organisation’s proposition and strategy. This week we speak to Eleanor Young, Head of Content at Shelter, who is on a miss...

The UK video games industry is worth £7.16 billion. So what does your organisation need to know about the opportunities and risks it offers? This week we chat to George Osborn, Head of Campaigns and Communications for UKIE, the UK video games industry trade body, about inclusion in the gaming industry, how charities and fundraisers can tap into the potential of gaming, and what the state of gaming...

How leaders can tackle misinformation - we chat to Laura Dewis, Chief Operating Officer at Full Fact   According to Ofcom’s latest research more than a third of internet users are unaware that online content might be false or biased. Creating and sharing content is such a huge part of what organisations and leaders do, so how can you make sure the information you’re sharing is accurate and truthfu...

What do charity CEOs do next? Matt Stevenson-Dodd spent 9 years as CEO of Street League, the UK’s leading sport for employment charity. During his time in post, Street League grew rapidly and he and his team launched an innovative online impact dashboard showing real time transparent impact data. Now Matt has channelled his passion for data and impact into founding Trust Impact , a data and impact...

How to tackle your tech carbon footprint - We speak to Avril Chester, Chief Technology Officer at RIBA Logging onto Zoom calls and relaxing in front of Netflix is part of our everyday lives. So we were shocked to learn that almost 4 percent of all carbon emissions are from digital technologies, according to a 2019 study by the Paris-based think tank The Shift Project. A one-hour video call between...

How can you be an anti-racist leader? We chat to Martha Awojobi, CEO of JMB Consulting and founder of #BAMEOnline Three years on from #CharitySoWhite and two years since the murder of George Floyd inclusion is a matter on many leaders’ minds. So how can you lead this work in the right way, and create the change you want to see in your organisation? Martha Awojobi, CEO of JMB Consulting and founder...

It’s almost Christmas and we thought we’d spoil you with an amazing panel of experts well versed in two big issues that we’re hearing a lot about from leaders right now. One, how can leaders deal with the pitfalls that come with an increasingly tough climate on social media? Two, how can they do so whilst looking after themselves? We were thrilled to speak to our four wonderful guests: two former...

We speak to Tom Loosemore, Partner at Public Digital and co-author of Digital Transformation At Scale. Getting the right team in place for your digital transformation, and helping them work on the right things, can be the difference between success and failure. What can leaders do to build winning teams? Tom Loosemore, Partner at Public Digital and co-author of Digital Transformation At Scale has...

Women represent 31% of the UK tech workforce and just 10% of its leadership roles. So what can we do to improve this? Joy Foster, Founder of Techpixies is on a mission to help thousands of women upskill with social media so that they can return to work, change careers or start their own business. Since 2015 she and her colleagues have helped 5,000 women grow their tech skills. She joins us to disc...

What do leaders need to know about online harm? We speak to Imran Ahmed, founder and chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Online hate speech in the UK and US has grown by 20% since the start of the pandemic. 48% of charity CEOs have experienced trolling. So what do leaders need to know about online harm and how to tackle it? Imran Ahmed is an expert on this issue. As the foun...