#93: Cath Possamai - CEO of the Recruiting Group Capita

Cath walked into an army recruiting centre when she was 18, only to walk out again 5 minutes later disappointed and confused at the apparent lack of interest from the male recruiting sergeant, dismissing all thoughts of a possible military career. 25 (ish!) years later she now leads recruitment for the army. In the last two years, alongside her army counterpart, she has overseen the turnaround of a famously broken recruiting operation and private / public sector partnership between the Army and Capita.

In the intervening period, following a sports science degree, Cath has led a series of large scale corporate recruitment operations in the UK and Europe before completing the circle begun at age 18.

Cath’s most important leadership advice is to be utterly authentic. By which she means, be yourself. Don’t think that you need to pretend to be more serious, more intelligent – or even less intelligent – than you really are. Don’t pretend you know things when you don’t. Don’t keep quiet when you have a contribution to make because you think others around you are better, or more qualified. She spent several years earlier in her career thinking that she needed to project a layer of gravitas that she didn’t really feel. She also thought that as she got into leadership roles she needed to know all the answers. To all the questions. All of the time. Clearly that’s ridiculous. The real art of leadership is understanding what you don’t know, assembling a diverse team around you who complement your weaknesses with their strengths, and empowering them.

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