‘You miss one hundred per cent of the shots you don’t take’ – Wayne Gretzky 
Narrowly avoiding a career in the local shoe factory after a presumptuous teacher discarded her dreams of becoming a barrister, Rowan Manning has built an impressive career with humour, honesty, and a core of steel. Suffering with imposter syndrome throughout her professional life, Rowan learned that throwing yourself into the abyss is less painful than avoidance.  

In addition to being President of Dentsu Creative UK, Rowan is also the UK and Ireland lead on Dentsu’s EMEA DEI Council, as well as Executive Sponsor at ONE network, providing strategic support and guidance. With twenty-seven years in the industry of global digital content marketing, Rowan sits on the board for the Content Marketing Association, and as a specialist in business transformation, is a member of the Business Leaders Council at the charity, Future Frontiers. A month before the country went into lockdown, Rowan was the Global CEO of John Brown, a role in which she returned the business to strong organic growth, tripling profitability year on year.  

To hear Rowan tell the story of her accomplished career, listen to her dry yet fair perspective on the changing world of women in work, and discover the schoolgirl hijinks that inspired numerable leadership roles, listen to this episode of How I Became.

Topics discussed:
- The power of standing up for oneself, and fighting back
- How to negotiate female leadership and imposter syndrome 
- Importance of simplifying and humanising marketing 
- Core family values of transcending economic barriers 
- Moving to London and alienation at work 
- The imaginary fear of failure 
- The changing face of leadership in business 
- A brief guide on how to turn a business around 
- How to tackle the disconnect between leadership and people through a psychological framework 
- How to speak the language of business and unlearning ‘management speak’ 
- Why you will never regret missing something at work 
- Confronting workplace harassment and gender inequality in a post-Me Too context 
- Boiling down business challenges into three simple categories 
- How to be a mother at work 
- How to create a culture that replaces bad systems with good people

Watch on YouTube

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Episode Sponsor:
Gray Matters - A straight-talking business development consultancy that empowers agencies to position, market and sell themselves for new business success

Unity & Motion - A London based production company specialising in commercials and branded content

Email: info@weunify.co.uk

This is a UNIFY Podcast. Produced by Unity & Motion

Credits:
Director: Charles Parkinson
Poet & VO Artist: Ashley Samuels-McKenzie
Sound Recordist: Paolo Neri
Editor: Paolo Neri