James Driver

Head of People

Lots of times – I had a great childhood. We didn’t have much growing up and there was a charity nearby that provided short holidays for children – Every year I would go to Staffordshire and stay with a family up there for a week – I still keep in touch with them now (although not as much as I would like) but they were some great times.

Neil Price – my primary school teacher – I had just been diagnosed dyslexic and moved out of one teachers class that, from my memory was the opposite to Neil (we used first names in my primary – very modern for the 80’s). Neil understood my difficulties and had a great mix of being patient and approachable but would push you to do better where appropriate. It was less about what I learnt and more about providing exactly what I needed at a time when I didn’t know what I needed.

Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte.

In todays world holding absolutely everything in our heads and being able to access it and it’s relevant points at any one time is near on impossible. I personally have a terrible memory and can sometimes feel that pang of panic when asked about something that’s not on my mind at that moment. I’ll hold my hands up and say I haven’t managed to implement it fully yet (only just read it) but have started organising my projects and their various parts across home and life on Notion.

No Rules Rules by Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings.

I enjoyed this book on a professional level it has some really interesting and ‘new’ ideas in it – the very act of ripping up the rule book and building something purposeful is interesting to me. But – BIG BUT – it needs to come with a caveat – I’ve seen so many founders pick up this book, read that honest and open feedback works, and try to implement it on it’s own – The reason, IMO, this worked at Netflix is because it was a part of a wider culture and belief. It’s no good lifting the part you like and expecting it just to work on it’s own. Take heed think about your culture and the impact that it might have.

Super Pumped by Mike Isaac

I couldn’t work at Bolt and not read the story of what and how Uber started out. This is a great book and lesson in what not to do in a company. It’s full of drama and shock and the appointment of Dara to take over from Travis was, in my opinion, the only reason they survived – interestingly I’ve since found out that one of their values since Dara joined was “Do the right thing” in everything you do – something I think a lot of companies would benefit from putting this at the heart of every decision (you can still do the right thing and be commercial, they’re not mutually exclusive)

Asking if your content is your own or AI generated 😉

As someone that suffers, as many do, from imposter syndrome this can be an all too familiar feeling – the unshakable thought that I shouldn’t be there with everyone else because I haven’t gone through the traditional routes or education or even career. A while ago whilst I was listening to some Ted Talks I came across a great talk (Amy Cuddy, Fake it till you become it) At the end of that talk I found an important lesson in the idea of not “fake it till you make it” (this suggests that there’s an end to the journey that you need to arrive at) but rather “fake it till you become it” I still get moments of, sometimes, crippling doubt, but this one lesson has allowed me to understand that the very act of doing what I do makes me good at what I do – So i try to embrace the feeling of nerves – say yes, and go for it. I wont always be right, Im not meant to be right all the time or have all the answers and that’s ok – as long as I keep learning and adjusting.

Not super recent but I was fortunate enough that a founder I was working for had access to Superhuman and gave me an account. As someone that doesn’t get on with emails (I have an embarrassingly high amount of unread emails in my personal account) this changed my life, ok a little dramatic perhaps, but within a week of using it I was on a streak of 4 consecutive days of clearing my inbox before the end of every day. It honestly changed my view and opinion on emails completely and made me feel more put together and organised.

Not a complete off the rails disaster but the first time I implemented Performance Management in a company – it was my first senior HR role and my CEO asked me to look at best practice and put something together. The very next all hands announced that I would be releasing it the following week!!! Some very quick work, research and hasty decisions later I delivered a technically sound, but clunky and confusing editable PDF. I learnt how to stay humble in that role. It was also where I learnt to Take my work seriously but not to take myself seriously.