Business Leaders interview: Jo Merriman

What motivates you in your work and what do you find most fulfilling about being a business leader?

I am motivated most by doing the right work and enabling others to succeed. I have found that if you do these 2 core actions the clients, business and ultimately revenue is looked after, and you get to create a healthy and ambitious environment.

How did you develop your leadership skills and how would you define your leadership style?

I have always been attracted to lead - ever since I was at school - in sport teams or in my acting endeavours at youth theatre and eventually Drama School. I have been fortunate enough to have been around inspiring people throughout my life and work and more recently deliberately sourced a mentor who I respected, not only as a woman in business, but also through my interactions and having witnessed how they conducted themselves at meetings, interaction with the wider business and as a person.

My leadership style is interesting. I would like to think I am energetic, encouraging, enabling, ambitious, focused, kind, and passionate. My leadership style is intentional and deliberate but also very much embodies by inherent strengths, traits, and values.

Innovating is crucial in our very diverse industry. How do you stay ahead of trends and incorporate them into your global strategy?

I love reading articles and the odd podcast. I also listen to audible and work my way through a few books every month that could be anything from leadership to autobiographies to marketing and business. I have found that reading a variety of different books brings so many different elements that can help innovate, keep ahead of trends, and can influence strategy.

What do you consider to be the key component(s) of effective business operational development?

Consistency and doing the right thing not the first thing.

How do you approach identifying areas for improvement within a company's operations?

I have created a great Senior Leadership Team who I empower to suggest ways of improving our current operations. As they are closer to the daily challenges, they are best placed to share the difficulties, offer up solutions, and eventually devise and implement any improvements.

Where do you think the most promising investments should be focusing on and/or made on?

I believe in a combination of people and systems. I think it is a fine balance but as everyone is aware - people are everything in business and if you have a great team, healthy working environment with systems that support the work and not hinder - that for me is the perfect combination and were I invest and focus.

 What is or are your biggest career achievement(s)?

I think my biggest achievement was working my way up to Director, Commercial Operations. Having been in the business when I joined as a Business Development Manager to being promoted to overseeing and running the UK Operations within 5 years, I am very proud.

Do you have examples where your leadership made a difference? If so, what were they? 

I have been fortunate enough to mentor a few people in my career but my most recent mentorship has been my most rewarding. I worked with someone who was extremely talented and good at their role but lacked confidence in their ability. This was making their day to day, at times, challenging and I could see, causing them some discomfort and distress. We worked together on unlocking the internal dialogue and breaking down what was accurate and real and what actually wasn’t - and had been mis-read. Having this breakthrough has meant their confidence is more evident and consequently their work and client relationships greatly improved. 

 What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?

Patience

How did you identify and seize opportunities for advancement in your career?

I remember trying to sell something to someone once - and we connected on LinkedIn. When I found myself looking for my next opportunity - I reached out and because I had made a good first impression, he offered to send me to Manhattan and help set up the New York Office of his business. He not only paid for my apartment near Greenwich, Manhattan I also received a decent salary for the time I was there. This has taught me to say ‘yes’ when you are offered opportunities as you just never know where they may lead.

Have you achieved everything you wanted in your career so far? 

No. It’s funny. As my confidence has grown, I want to do better and bigger work. This last role has further cemented my ambition. I never thought that I would be leading a business. I want to continue to lead teams, but I also want the impact of my work to reach wider and further than ever before. I want to encourage and enable more people, teams, and clients to achieve and in doing so accelerate my own career.

How important is personal development to your success, and how do you approach it?

Hugely. In today’s world there is so much information online to access. I constantly dip in and out of articles, podcasts, or online training. I recently invested in a business coach, and I will be continuing this moving forward. I now fully appreciate the impact having someone on your team, focused on you and your work.

How do you prioritise tasks when everything feels like a priority?

There are so many tools out there to help you and I have tried a lot of them. I have now simplified my priorities. I use a simple 1,2,3 system - 1 is always the work that must be done with 3 not urgent/not important - but nice to have. I also have an asterisk which often means - it would be a lovely task to get to one day or to delegate to someone - but it falls outside of my other criteria. It normally means it is a passionate project that I believe will have an impact but has various complications and could easily become a distraction from the other priorities.

What was the hardest decision you have taken as a leader? 

To transition a business into the parent company. Whilst it would mean a stronger proposition for the customers & the businesses - it also meant significant changes to the place of work, line management and in time - make-up of the work we delivered. Change can be hard.

What steps do you take to measure your own performance?

I ask my boss for feedback regularly, my mentor - if she is aware of decisions I am needing to make & when I have shared the outcomes - as keen to understand what I may need to do differently as well as the yearly Performance Review process where I have a chance to contribute along with my manager on my goals and performance to date.

What does success mean for you as a business leader?

That the team and my colleagues feel supported, enabled, and encouraged to succeed, that clients feel listened to in terms of needs and receive exceptional service and the company is meeting the revenue and business goals.