The Blueprint for Building Great Teams

John Veal
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Weekly

Most team problems don't start where you think they do. They start with a decision made months earlier: who got promoted, what the team was told it was for, which role got filled in a hurry. The Blueprint for Building Great Teams is a conversation with the people who made those calls. Founders, leaders and the people who build teams for a living, talking about what they decided, what it cost them, and what they'd do differently now. Recent episodes: why one business scrapped probationary periods entirely. What to do when you inherit a team you didn't build. Why the "toxic team member" is usually a symptom rather than a cause. It's for anyone who has built a team, been handed one, or is trying to fix one. Hiring comes into it, because it has to, but it's one decision among many, not the subject. New episode every Wednesday. Hosted by John Veal, brought to you by Nobul RS.

  1. 1 day ago

    Career Stage Motivation: Why Your Best Candidate Isn't Chasing a Title (with Julie Woosey)

    Julie Woosey is Chief People Officer at The Growth Company, one of the largest social enterprises in the UK, covering business support and finance, employment, health and justice services, education and skills, and the promotion of Greater Manchester through Marketing Manchester and Invest. She arrived in 2026 after 17 years at the University of Salford, where she rose from HR Business Partner to Associate Director of People Strategy and interim Deputy Chief People Officer. That move is where the episode starts. Julie has sat on both sides of the decision: the leader trying to attract people, and the candidate weighing up whether to leave somewhere she had given nearly two decades to. From there she and John get into why most company values are wallpaper, how one organisation that teaches plastering, works in prisons and sells Manchester to international investors can share a single set of values and many different working environments, why "fix the culture" is the wrong brief, and what the 2030 demographic dip means for anyone hiring in five years' time. What You'll Learn: Career stage motivation: why the things that pull a candidate at 25 are not the things that pull them at 45, and why we wrongly judge motivation on a level playing fieldWhy, for a senior hire, the job title and the salary were not the motivators, and what wasThe management dictionary problem: why words like integrity have no specificity and cannot build a cultureHow Salford arrived at the word "thrive" by asking colleagues rather than a leadership team with a clipboardThe golden thread: purpose, values, behaviours, leadership competencies, and why a recruiting manager has to be able to tell that story in an interviewWhy people leave their manager, not the organisation, and why the biggest complaint is inconsistency between managersWhy Julie is not sure she likes the word culture, and why micro cultures across a complex organisation are something to accept rather than fixWhy a "toxic culture" is usually unhappy people, and why a process never fixes the situationThe 18-year-old population peaks around 2030 and then falls sharply: what that means for entry level hiring, older workers and reskilling

  2. 21 Oct

    Why Are You Still Here? Stay Interviews and Hiring on Behaviour (with Paul Dawson)

    By the time someone is sat in an exit interview, they've already decided to go. So why ask them? Paul Dawson (CEO, Agena Group) spent 20 years at Capita before leading a parking management business of around 400 people. He hires on behaviour, never on qualifications, keeps people at stretch, and stopped asking leavers why they were leaving. He asks the people who stay instead. You'll learn: How to hire people at stretch and make it safe for them to get it wrongThe interview stage where candidates present their first 100 days, and what happens to that plan once they're hiredHow to run a board where everyone can argue with the CEO and still line up behind the decisionThe question every stay interview starts with, and why Agena tracks retention instead of attrition

  3. 7 Oct

    What Culture Actually Is, and How to Hire for It (with Sarah Garry)

    What is company culture actually made of, and how do you hire for it without breaking the team you already have? Sarah Garry, Chief Executive of the British Brands Group, has spent more than a decade leading trade bodies and professional associations. She defines culture as "the way we do things around here" and explains how subcultures, fairness and honesty in recruitment decide whether a team holds together. You'll learn: Why there's no good or bad culture, only cultures that suit some people more than othersHow subcultures form, and what happens when staff and the board pull in different directionsWhy tolerating bad behaviour from a top performer becomes your real cultureThe T-shaped manager, and why most managers say they've never had management trainingWhy succession planning belongs in appraisals, not in the week someone resignsHow to design interview tasks that test the actual jobPerfect for CEOs, HR leaders, not-for-profit leaders and anyone hiring into an established team. #CompanyCulture #Recruitment #Hiring #Leadership #TeamBuilding #NotForProfit

  4. 16 Jul

    The "Toxic Team" Myth: Psychological Safety, Cliques and Smarter Hiring (with Nicole Williams)

    What if the "problem person" on your team is actually a symptom, not the cause? Chartered Occupational and Coaching Psychologist Nicole Williams (founder of Nicole Williams Organisational Psychology) joins John to unpack what really drives toxic team cultures, and what leaders can do about it. You'll learn: Why psychological safety is the foundation every team needs, and what happens when it's missingHow the challenge and support balance makes or breaks a leaderThe difference between a tight-knit team and a damaging cliqueHow to use personality profiling and structured interviews to hire better as you scale#TeamCulture #PsychologicalSafety #Leadership #HiringStrategy #B2BSaaS #OrganisationalPsychology

  5. 15 Jul

    People First in the Age of AI: Building Teams When You Can’t Compete on Salary (with Anna Ganley)

    How do you build and keep a great team when you can’t compete on salary — and what is AI really doing to creative careers? Anna Ganley (Chief Executive, The Society of Authors) joined as a temp on reception and rose to lead the union representing over 12,500 writers, illustrators and translators. She shares how flexibility, training and honest career conversations hold a team together, and offers a clear-eyed take on generative AI, copyright, and protecting the creative workforce. You’ll learn: • How to win talent when you can’t pay top of market • Why honest career conversations keep people (or help them leave well) • What AI really means for creative careers — and how to respond responsibly #TeamBuilding #NotForProfit #PeopleFirst #AIandWork #Leadership #Recruitment

  6. 1 Jul

    Stop Writing the Job Spec: Hiring for the Need, Not the Gap (with Michael Ruiter)

    Something breaks in your business. How long before someone writes a job spec? For most teams, about three weeks. Michael Ruiter, interim CEO and transformation consultant, thinks that's the wrong move almost every time. In this episode he breaks down how to hire for the need, not the gap: The questions to ask before you write a single job descriptionWhy your current need and your future need are often two different jobsWhy experience doesn't predict on-the-job success#Hiring #InterimLeadership #Recruitment #TeamBuilding #Transformation

  7. 24 Jun

    Reshaping a Team You Did Not Build: Transformational Leadership Done Right (with Jenny Jarvis)

    When you inherit a team you did not build, where do you actually start? Jenny Jarvis (COO, Energy Saving Trust and author of Lead With Confidence) shares how she walks into established teams and reshapes them through transformation: diagnosing the organisation before judging the people, and starting with the work rather than the org chart. You’ll learn: • How to prepare before day one and test your assumptions instead of acting on them • Why most we need a new hire decisions are really structure problems in disguise • How to redeploy the talent you already have before replacing it #TransformationalLeadership #TeamBuilding #LeadershipStyle #HiringStrategy #WomenInLeadership

  8. 17 Jun

    Why Every Application Gets Read by a Human (with Sarah Mukherjee MBE)

    How do you build a recruitment process that genuinely tests for values, in a 50-person organisation operating in 120 countries? Sarah Mukherjee MBE (CEO, IEMA, former BBC Environment Correspondent) shares the practical operating model behind a small, global, values-driven team: human-read applications, peer interviewers, a welcome letter at the front of every job description, and why ‘soft skills’ should be renamed professional skills. You’ll learn: How to test for values without relying on rehearsed answersWhy every application is worth a human readWhat the ‘welcome letter’ front-page does to your applicant poolWhy ‘professional skills’ is a better, fairer name for the things that actually make business work#ValuesDrivenHiring #ProfessionalSkills #HumanInTheLoop #JobDescriptions #PeopleAndCulture #NotForProfit #Sustainability #TeamBuilding

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Most team problems don't start where you think they do. They start with a decision made months earlier: who got promoted, what the team was told it was for, which role got filled in a hurry. The Blueprint for Building Great Teams is a conversation with the people who made those calls. Founders, leaders and the people who build teams for a living, talking about what they decided, what it cost them, and what they'd do differently now. Recent episodes: why one business scrapped probationary periods entirely. What to do when you inherit a team you didn't build. Why the "toxic team member" is usually a symptom rather than a cause. It's for anyone who has built a team, been handed one, or is trying to fix one. Hiring comes into it, because it has to, but it's one decision among many, not the subject. New episode every Wednesday. Hosted by John Veal, brought to you by Nobul RS.

Information

  • Creator
    John Veal
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Clean