How do you stop being the person who drives everything – and build a team that can drive the business without you?

Lisa Morgan is Group Managing Director of Generation Media, an employee-owned media and creative agency. She’s led the business for the past 11 years and has helped build a culture recognised by the Sunday Times, Campaign and Investors in People.

In this episode, Lisa shares how she:

• Moved from a fast-paced, directive leadership style to a coaching approach - recognising that empowering others is the only way to scale
• Replaced reliance on annual appraisals with 90-day sprints that connect company, team and individual objectives
• Turns weekly one-to-ones from transactional updates into transformational conversations using a simple 15:5 reflection process
• Asks leaders to write the biography they want in five years, then identify the steps they can take now to build careers rather than just jobs
• Learnt to slow down, listen and resist jumping straight to solutions - particularly as a naturally decisive ‘red’ personality type
• Uses Investors in People as an ongoing improvement process, with employee feedback directly shaping initiatives across values, recognition and community impact

Lisa offers a thoughtful perspective on what changes as an agency grows - and why scaling successfully means shifting your attention from driving the business yourself to building the leaders, culture and systems that can drive it for you.

How do you take over from an entrepreneurial founder and put more structure into the agency without losing its core culture?

Charlie Marchant is CEO of Exposure Ninja, the digital marketing agency. She took over from their founder three years ago. Since then, she’s maintained revenue, reduced headcount through natural attrition and almost doubled their profit.

In this episode, Charlie shares how she:

• Found her own leadership style after initially struggling to see herself as CEO - and why trying to copy the founder would have been a mistake
• Learnt to embrace the messiness of experimentation after years of preferring processes, workflows and optimisation
• Leads change by being explicit about what is changing, what isn’t and whether something is an experiment or a committed decision
• Shares revenue, profit and EBITDA with the whole team - helping people understand both the health of the agency and the commercial reality their clients face
• Builds connection in a fully remote team through regional hubs, cross-department buddies and personalised recognition
• Makes learning part of the weekly rhythm, including company-wide sessions that teach people how other departments and disciplines actually work

Charlie offers a thoughtful perspective on what happens when an operator takes over from an entrepreneurial founder - and why structure and experimentation need each other if an agency is going to keep moving forward.

How do you lead through mergers, restructures and AI disruption without losing the trust of your team?

Nick Towers is CEO of the digital experience consultancy Remarkable. Since taking over the business, he went on to acquire three more businesses before bringing them together under a single brand. Along the way, he's led restructures, international expansion and difficult redundancies while keeping people and culture at the centre of every decision.


In this episode, Nick shares how he:

• Brings multiple businesses together by involving people early and building trust through constant communication
• Creates certainty during change by explaining the process and timelines, even when the outcome isn't yet known
• Uses the ADKAR change framework to structure communication, training and adoption during major change
• Builds a culture around being a genuine joy to work with - for clients, colleagues and the wider community
• Treats AI as a growth opportunity rather than a headcount reduction exercise, positioning it as an enabler instead of a threat
• Balances global consistency with local culture so teams feel part of one business wherever they work

Nick offers a thoughtful perspective on leading through uncertainty, showing that successful change depends as much on trust and communication as it does on strategy.