The recruitment landscape is constantly evolving, and staying ahead in the fast-paced world of marketing, digital, and creative industries has never been more important. Stopgap Talks is here to help.
Brought to you by the expert recruitment consultants at Stopgap, this podcast is your go-to resource for insights, advice, and real-world strategies to support both marketing professionals and hiring managers alike. Whether you're looking to take the next step in your career or build a standout team, we’re bringing you expert conversations, practical tips, and the latest industry trends to help you navigate the ever-changing job market.
Join us for honest, engaging discussions that go beyond the job boards, covering everything from hiring best practices to personal career growth—all with a fresh and informed perspective from the UK’s leading marketing, digital, and creative recruitment specialists.
The Leadership Skills Nobody Teaches You. Managing conflict, energy and difficult conversations
Workplace Conflict: The Leadership Skills Nobody Teaches You
How do you handle difficult people, navigate workplace conflict and build a team where people feel safe to speak up?
Leadership isn’t just about setting direction, motivating people and delivering results. It also means navigating difficult conversations, managing competing personalities and knowing how to respond when tensions rise.
In fast-paced marketing teams and agency environments, unresolved conflict can affect far more than team morale. It can undermine trust, damage collaboration and make it harder for people to do their best work.
In this episode of Stopgap Talks, Amanda McCarthy, Consultant at Stopgap, is joined by Eleanor Manuel, Leadership Development Consultant and Coach, and Head of People and Culture at independent media agency The Kite Factory.
Together, they explore how leaders can recognise unhealthy team dynamics, approach workplace conflict more effectively and build psychologically safe environments where people feel able to speak honestly.
They also discuss the importance of self-awareness, setting boundaries and managing your own emotional energy when you're responsible for leading others.
Whether you're managing a marketing team, leading in an agency environment or taking your first steps into leadership, this conversation offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on how you handle conflict, support your team and look after yourself in the process.
Connect with our guests:
Eleanor Manuel: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanor-manuel/)
Amanda McCarthy: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-mccarthy-stopgap/)
We'd love to hear from you - what's the leadership skill you had to learn the hard way?
Join the conversation in the comments.
About Stopgap Talks
Stopgap Talks brings together marketing, digital and creative leaders to explore the people, skills, ideas and challenges shaping modern marketing teams and careers.
Follow Stopgap for more conversations with the people influencing the future of marketing.
6 Oct 2026
Transforming Marketing Teams: From Busy to High-Performing
Why are some marketing teams incredibly busy, but still struggling to deliver meaningful commercial impact?
Campaigns are going out. Content is being produced. Channels are active. Meetings are happening.
But activity doesn't always equal effectiveness.
In this episode of Stopgap Talks, Sibylle Harrison, Principal Consultant at Stopgap, is joined by Iain Morrison, a marketing leader with extensive agency and in-house experience, to explore what it really takes to transform a marketing function into a high-performing, commercially focused team.
Iain has worked with organisations including Greenwich Leisure, the University of Greenwich, The Big Issue, Anna Freud and the British Psychological Society, alongside experience across both agency and in-house leadership roles.
Together, Sibylle and Iain explore why marketing teams can become trapped in tactical "order-taking", where capability gaps emerge and how leaders can rethink team structures, processes and priorities around outcomes rather than simply channels.
🎧 Listen to Transforming Marketing Teams
If you're leading a marketing team, planning a restructure, reviewing your capability or simply wondering whether your current marketing function is set up to deliver what the business needs, this conversation offers plenty to think about.
And we'd love to hear from you:
What separates a busy marketing team from a genuinely high-performing one?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
About Stopgap Talks
Stopgap Talks brings together marketing, digital and creative leaders to explore the people, skills, ideas and challenges shaping modern marketing teams and careers. Follow Stopgap Talks for more conversations with the people influencing the future of marketing.
24 Sept 2026
AI & Marketing: Two Marketers, Two Career Stages, One Changing Profession
AI is changing marketing. But does it change the way an early-career marketer approaches the profession compared with someone who has spent years building their marketing expertise?
In the final episode of our Stopgap Talks AI Recruitment Series, we bring together two marketers at very different stages of their careers to explore how they're approaching AI, what they're learning and how they think the profession is changing.
Jacinta - an early-career marketer, shares her experience of developing her marketing career at a time when AI is already becoming part of the everyday toolkit.
Jennifer - a senior marketing professional with 15+ years' experience, reflects on how AI has changed her own approach to marketing - from content and SEO to strategy, research, podcast production and building more efficient marketing workflows.
Two career stages. Two perspectives. One rapidly changing profession.
For marketers starting out, AI can feel like both an opportunity and a source of uncertainty.
For experienced marketers, it can mean rethinking established workflows and deciding which parts of the job should be automated, augmented or kept firmly human.
But there is common ground.
AI doesn't replace the fundamentals of marketing. It changes how quickly and effectively marketers can apply them.
The marketers who stand out may not necessarily be the ones who know the most AI tools.
They may be the ones who understand when to use AI, what to ask of it, what to challenge and where human judgement adds the most value.
🎙️ Listen to the episode: AI & Marketing: Two Marketers, Two Career Stages, One Changing Profession
Listen to the latest episode of Stopgap Talks and hear two very different perspectives on how marketers are adapting to the AI era.
And if you've been following our AI Recruitment Series, this conversation brings together the themes we've explored across the series - the candidate, the hiring manager and now the marketer.
Because the future of marketing isn't simply about AI. It's about the people who know how to work with it.
Podcast Authority Score: 2 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
4
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
0
Contact Stopgap Talks
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of Stopgap Talks?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
