Jemma Peers on Women in Leadership

To celebrate International Women’s Day next week (8 March), we shine the spotlight on Jemma Peers, who was recently promoted to the role of managing director at UK-based creative communications agency Top Banana.

Jemma, who has worked at the agency for almost five years, most recently as commercial director, has over 20 years industry experience and an excellent reputation for relationship building, high performance and team leadership. As managing director, she will be responsible for the future development of the agency, working closely with the now eight strong leadership team including CEO Richard Bridge.

We caught up with Jemma on her journey to the MD role, what it takes to be a strong leader in the events industry, who encouraged her along the way and the advice she’d give to the next generation of aspiring female leaders…

Congratulations on your promotion. How’s it going so far?

I’m a month in and it’s going really well. I am really enjoying getting under the skin of other areas of the business that I haven’t been as close to before. My role before was sales and marketing and commercial, so I was really focused on clients and external messaging. Now I am getting under the skin of all the other departments as well from HR and health and safety to creative studio.

I have spent the last three weeks learning what makes each team tick, how they like to work and what works for them and what doesn’t. It’s been important for me to learn how to get the best out of each team quickly. I wanted to make sure that each team feels listened to and valued from day one and make sure that I understand the ins and outs of their world and all the challenges they face.

I have also been working really closely with Jade and Mark who have joined the leadership team to help them to realise their roles within the team. I was very keen that just because someone else was taking the commercial director role, it wasn’t just stepping into my shoes and doing it the way I was doing it. That’s been really important to me, to hand over and give them the freedom and the autonomy to lead in their new roles as well.

Top Banana has a strong reputation for women in leadership. How has that been cultivated and how are women within the business encouraged and supported?

Richard didn’t set out to build a leadership team that was all female. We have just happened to be surrounded by some really strong women who are ambitious in their career and want to go that step further.

I think what is really great about Top Banana is there are no restrictions to entry at any level in the business. So being a woman or having children has never been restrictive. And whether you are part time, full time, or need to pick the children up from school at 3pm, there has never been a restriction as to what your potential could be. We work closely with every member of the team about what their journey could look like and what route they want to take, and we never limit it to one direction.

We do take the development of our teams really seriously. It’s really important to us, and nurturing talent from the bottom up has always been the mantra of the business.

That’s one of the things that attracted me to Top Banana. It was an agency that I viewed to always be willing to push the boundaries and never settle, both from a creative and client perspective but also for their people. We all want to do better, and everyone is so supportive of people being promoted and trying new things. They all want to share in each other’s success. That was something that was really important to me – I didn’t want to be in a competitive internal environment, I wanted to be in a collaborative one.

Can you share more about your personal journey from starting out to now. Were the any particular challenges you have had to overcome?

I was 19 when I started in the industry, so I was very young. But I was very fortunate that I had a couple of really amazing strong female clients and they were such a massive inspiration to me.

Being a female of a younger age has meant that I have always had to work that bit harder. It’s quite male dominated in the over 40s bracket and being a woman under 40 in a leadership position in this industry is actually quite hard. One of the things I have experienced is that when you put yourself into that leadership forum, people still see you as that young event manager. Just because I am under 40 and a woman with a child at home doesn’t mean that you can’t be a good leader. That is one of the biggest challenges I have faced – showing that age and gender doesn’t matter.

I have also had those experiences in certain roles of not being valued as much as male counterparts, even though what I was achieving would show otherwise. Unfortunately I think that is something not just in our industry but globally.

I have always been very driven and focused on working towards the next goal. When I joined Top Banana, I was very honest with Richard that I wanted to be on the leadership team and become his second in command. It’s been in the plan for the past three years, and during the pandemic I worked closely with Richard and a business coach on what the next step looked like for me and what structure the leadership team would need to me around me. It’s been a process, but I took the personal steps necessary and pushed myself to get there.

Which women in your life have inspired you – personally and professionally?

I am from an all-female family – I was raised by a single mum and I have a sister. My mum also has four sisters, so I was surrounded by strong women. It was definitely drilled into me from a very young age that just because I was a woman didn’t mean I couldn’t succeed and do well.

Now I surround myself with lots of people that I find really inspirational, but there have been a few clients in particular over the years and colleagues that have really stood out to me and I have learned a lot from them.

Is there single piece of advice you have been given that stood out?

I did have a male mentor, and I remember him saying to me “unless you say it out loud to people, it won’t happen. Regardless of what the ambition is – if you keep it to yourself, it will be much harder to achieve.”

And that stayed with me and I think that is why I am very honest about my ambitions. There is nothing wrong to saying you want to achieve something.

Describe your proudest moments?

I love keeping in touch with people who have been in my teams over the years and seeing how well they have done. That makes me really proud. I also love standing in the back of the room with all the team and watching the amazing event they have achieved – that always makes me feel proud.

Personally I feel really proud that I have managed to get this far while being a mum. I went back to work full time when my son was 16 weeks old and doing such a demanding job with a small child is an achievement I am proud of.

Could we be doing more as an industry to make sure females are better represented in the events delivered for clients, for example on speaker programmes and panels?

I think it is changing but I don’t think enough has happened yet. There is still some way to go. And it goes further than just women, it is about complete diversity within those panels, from ethnicity to age to gender. There is still a lack of representation in our industry but also in the events delivered for clients.

A lot of that is down to the industry sector – there are some sectors that do a brilliant job of it and others that don’t. If you look at some of the cosmetic and fashion industries, they are absolutely nailing that diversity piece, whereas other industries still need to follow suit. But I don’t think it should be tokenism. Don’t just have a token female or ethic speaker on the panel just to tick that diversity box. Do it because they have earned their place on that panel and their voice needs to be heard.

How do you balance work and life responsibilities? And has it been more challenging during the pandemic?

Personally, it has been a lot more challenging over the last year. I have been on client calls and had my son sat crying next to me trying to home school, which has been difficult. I am really fortunate that I have a very understanding partner. We work hand in hand and it’s a 50/50 split. I have struggled this past year but I have made a conscious effort not to work at the weekends and try really hard separate the two and give my home life the attention it deserves.

How have you kept your team motivated throughout this crisis?

We did lots of Zoom quizzes and drinks and cultural stuff during the first lockdown. But we definitely listened to the team and tried to give them what they needed.

When we went into the second lockdown, they didn’t want so much of the quizzes and drinks. What they wanted was more flexibility, they wanted more support and more time to be together and talk and listen.

We’ve been even more flexible with people and we’ve understood that bad days are okay. We have all experienced lockdown fatigue an everybody has to be really respectful of that. As a leader, I have been really honest about how I have felt through the situation, so they know they are not alone and it’s okay to feel like it.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I would say it’s very honest, authentic, and collaborative. I want to stand with people and not above them. I set expectations because I think it is important to set expectations for people to deliver against, but I don’t rule with an iron fist. I like to think I am people obsessed, both with employees and clients.

What advice would you give to aspiring female leaders?

Have a goal and know the steps you need to take to get there. It doesn’t need to be the big goal straight away, but just keep in mind what you are trying to achieve. And tell somebody. Don’t keep it hidden. Don’t hide your ambition. Find the people who can support and nurture you to get there.