Changing the Game She Leads: Episode 6 Leading with Authenticity | Amy Davies, Managing Director at Workwell Global

In this episode of Changing the Game – She Leads, we’re joined by Amy Davies, Managing Director of Workwell Global, for an honest conversation about leadership, growth, and what it really takes to build a people-first business at scale.

Amy shares her journey from events management and operations into the recruitment and contingent workforce space, before stepping into a pivotal leadership role at PGC Group and helping guide the business through growth, acquisition, and its evolution into Workwell Global. She reflects on the importance of authenticity in leadership, the power of emotional intelligence, and what it means to scale a business without losing the culture that made it successful in the first place.

This episode also explores motherhood alongside leadership, the reality of compromise at different stages of life, and why no one is ever the finished article in their career.

What to expect:

A grounded and relatable conversation about building a career with ambition, leading with authenticity, and staying focused on people as your business grows.

You’ll hear about: 

• Amy’s journey from operations into leading a global business 
• Why authenticity, trust and feedback matter in leadership 
• Navigating motherhood, career growth, and the changing demands of both 
• Building culture across multiple offices without losing what makes a business special 

A brilliant listen for anyone growing into leadership, scaling teams, or trying to balance high standards with a very real life outside of work. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So, welcome to another episode of Changing the Game She Leads. I'm very excited to be here with Amy Davies, who is the managing director of Work World Global, but probably a little bit more famous for being the managing director previously of PGC Global, which then became Work World Global. So excited to have you here today. A reminder that this podcast is dedicated to sharing the real human stories behind female leaders, founders, CEOs, and trailblazers who have made it to the top of their game. Our goal is to explore not just their professional journey, but their personal resilience, values, and mindset and what it takes to succeed. We want to inspire the next generation of female leaders by showing what's possible and what's real. So welcome, Amy. It's really good to see you. Thank you for inviting me. No problem. So would you like to just introduce yourself to our listeners and tell us a little bit about your journey to where you are today?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yeah, of course. So obviously, I'm Amy. Straight away, what I always normally say is about my accent, uh, because people usually pick that up pretty quickly. And I have to remind myself to talk slowly uh so that people can understand what I'm saying. Um, but yeah, I'm Amy, I'm from Liverpool. Um I was born there, raised there, and I still reside there today. So a lot of people, when I meet them, think I either live in London or in America. In Austin. Yes. Um so I travel a lot uh for work. I spend probably more time out of Liverpool working than I do in, but I do live there. Um I live there with my husband, Billy, um, and I have two children, uh, a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old. Um, so I've kind of, yeah, throughout my career, also gone through the career that is motherhood as well. Um, but yeah, I lead work while global. Um, and I could never have predicted to you when I started to probably take my career really seriously, which is probably around 17, 18 years ago, I could never have predicted I'd be leading a global business and it's in EOR. You know, I wouldn't have even known what that term was. Um but fresh out of university, I went down an events management route. Um, and I actually worked for Marriott Hotels, and I always tell people that because um it kind of shaped the beginning of my career in a number of ways. One, I met some phenomenal leaders there, and two, it taught me what real hard work was. It built my resilience because I had to work frontline with the public as well. Um, and I also had so much fun working for Marriott Hotels. There was always something going on. Um, so yeah, so I did event management for Marriott Hotels, then went into work for BT, initially running internal events for them, but also looking after their corporate services. Um, and that really was kind of my thrown into the deep end in a very corporate structured environment. Uh the CEO there uh was a big character, um, and I learned a lot through that. Um, and after that, um, you know, I amassed quite a lot of experience generally in process management, operations, and people, and I really thought operations was where my home was within a business. Um, and I then joined another business which a lot of people would have known back then as Parasol, which was a UK umbrella business. I had no clue at that point what an umbrella business was, and I had zero clue about recruitment either. Um, so I'll just be very open in admitting that. What made you take that role? So it was mainly because they needed help uh with the operational running of that business, and it was very back office focused, and I just felt that my experience would lean well into that, and my gosh, that was a crash course into the industry of what umbrella and working with contingent workers, supporting recruitment companies was, and I ended up being with that business, I think it was around seven years, and that business uh grew hugely in that time. We went on quite a large MA strategy as well. Um, so my career really kind of an experience diversified there. Um, but as with all great uh roles, you and never so we get to a point where you feel like your journey is coming to an end, you know, for one reason or another, no fault of either myself or the business, just I'm I'm running out of steam and I need something else, which is when I then um didn't really want to jump to a similar business because I always think sometimes if you just go to a competitor, for example, it's just going to look different, but it'll be the same challenges and you know, the same people. I really wanted to stretch myself. Um, so I was approached about PGC Group and I met the founder at that time. Um, and what I loved about that conversation will probably come on to it, was his authenticity about where what he needed as the founder of that business and how to get the business to the next stage of growth. Um, and I was probably more attracted to that than I was what the business does. Exactly. But the business essentially was helping uh UK recruitment firms access the US market and delivering a similar solution to UK Umbrella, but a far more complex um solution. Um, but it was also around helping them expand their business. Um, so it was quite an exciting prospect in terms of what I'd be selling and what I'd be delivering as well. So for both those reasons, I ended up there. Um, we had a phenomenal time, um, and long story short, we sold the business to Workwell Group. Uh, it'll be coming up to the two-year anniversary of that event, which is crazy. The two years has gone so fast. Um, but one of the reasons that we did the deal with Workwell was to create what we did with PGC, but on a global level. Um, so I now look after the global business, and we do what we did for PGC in 154 countries, albeit it looks different country by country. Um, and yeah, so I have the privilege now of continuing to lead what was the PGC business, but also the international business now combined as work while global.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Amazing. And as you mentioned obviously that moment when you met this the founder of PGC. Do you think that is a key turning point that sort of changed the trajectory of your career? Because you've obviously had exposure to MA and all sorts of things.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Absolutely. I think you know, I would say every role I've taken has been some sort of turning point for my learning growth and development, but I think for my career, absolutely. Um, and I think the reason for that, Lisa, was because speaking to the founder, he said a few things that resonated with me. The first thing he said to me uh was I think he demonstrated unbelievable self-awareness as a founder. Uh, you know, I've worked with a lot of CEOs, but his self-awareness in terms of what he shared with me, you know, probably other leaders would feel quite vulnerable to do that, where he was quite confident and assured in that. And one of the things he said is he's a leader of 10 and he's very effective, but once it gets past 10, he can see he's not as effective and he needed someone who could be a leader of many to come in and help run the business. So that was the first like, oh, you know, that's great self-awareness. A lot of people don't, you know, have that necessarily. He also said he believed there was a great opportunity to scale the business, but he needed help and someone who could scale the business, not only from a, you know, a growth or sales perspective, because actually arguably, I think he could have done that, but probably more internally, structurally, you know, having the right people in the right roles, bringing people in and getting them to work in a standardised way. Um, and also making sure that the tech supported that as well to enable us to do that. And then the third thing uh was that he always knew he wanted to do an event at some point and he wanted someone to help him get there. And I think he realized to get to the event he needed a leader that could scale the business, support him in executing on what he could see was an opportunity. But almost, you know, we laugh about it now, we're still very good friends today, you know, almost make him redundant in the process because that was part of his dream is to move into a different type of role and not necessarily be running the business. So for all those reasons, it absolutely was a turning point because it's probably the first full business that I've run with autonomy and had the wings to grow it and run it in the way that I really wanted to, and have someone that gave me a platform to do that. I think a lot of people said, Oh, PGC, it looks like it's your business. And actually, it was because the founder allowed me to do that and was very gracious in allowing me to do that and stepping back. So it absolutely was a turning point in my career.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Amazing. And you've talked to what to me in the past about other leaders that you've worked with, and you know, in terms of um your sort of leadership journey, what have you learned from previous previous bosses? Yeah. You mentioned you've only ever worked for male bosses, which is really interesting. So yeah, how do you think that's shaped your career?

SPEAKER_01 8:43

It's a really good question. I think you know, you said at the beginning, for your listeners, it's about you know, young aspiring women who want to step up into leadership. And I think from my perspective, um, you know, I um massively respect other leaders, whether a man or a woman actually isn't the point. I think what you have to do is look at the leaders that you work under or the leaders around you and see what you want to take from that that's going to shape and become the leader you are. I think the biggest thing with leadership for me is authenticity. And I always try to be authentic to who I am because otherwise I don't think people can get on boards with what you're trying to build if they can't resonate with what you know, you as a person doesn't resonate with them. But certainly from some of the um, you know, leaders that I've worked under, what I've taken from some of them is um, you know, I'd say the first one is probably it's always the leaders that people moan about where I've actually learned the most from, funny enough. And I think it's because the leaders that really challenge you and make you feel uncomfortable, actually that's where the growth happens. So a lot of people can moan about those leaders and what they're saying, but actually, if you can get past what that's doing to you emotively and really get under why are they giving that feedback and and you know, what can I take from that actually is where the growth happens. And I think if you can work through that uncomfortable scenario, say or that uncomfortable feedback, actually that's what you can take. So I think you know, there's lots of things I would take. There's even lots of things that I'm taking now from the Work Wild Group CEO, you know, seeing how he operates and what I can take from that. But I think some of the defining things that I've taken is one, to be absolutely authentic to who you are. Um, I'd say two, um, that it's okay to have high standards, but you have to take people on the journey with you to achieve those high standards, and you can't expect what your standard is of other people on day one. That was a big mistake I made years ago, was being frustrated that I had this idea of standards, and some people around me had a much lower. So it's about articulating that and then taking people to that. Um number three, I'd say, is giving people around you the room to grow, but also giving them the confidence. So I am very much an encourager and I like to build high praise, high positivity environments. I'm very much an optimistic. I struggle to be around a lot of pessimists, it really drains my energy. Um, but when you give people the space to grow, so not only you give them the feedback they need, because a lot of the time what you need to develop and grow is in your blind spot, others can see it, but you can't see it from your perspective, so you have to bring it into the front. So I think giving people the feedback, but then also giving them the space to grow into that and the confidence as well. So when they are growing, it's I know that's being tough, but you're doing great, and really validating people and helping them get there.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Are there any tips or tricks in terms of how you give that how you create that environment to give that person confidence?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

I think first of all, you have to build relationships with people to a place where they know that if I'm giving you feedback, it's from a place of genuinely wanting you to do well. So this isn't feedback designed to tear you down, uh, disrupt what you're doing, or to make you feel negative about yourself. This is feedback to help you grow, develop, and get to, you know, ultimately hopefully a more successful place than where you are now. I think once you build that trust with someone, and as I say, if I've been authentic in that and they know it's coming from a you know a very good place, they can hear it. Whereas if they don't understand the intention behind the feedback, uh often they can only stop at the place of the emotional reaction to the feedback. Um, and that stunts their growth. And ultimately, there is no point in giving feedback if it's not to help that person grow. So if that person can see that and hear that, they're more likely to accept it, even if they don't like it when they hear it the first time round.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Yeah, that's really, really important advice. So yeah, very interesting. And with all those things in terms of what you've taken out and how you lead, is uh is there anything about being a woman that shaped your experience of leadership either positively or otherwise?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Um I if I was to link it to gender and you know, and being a woman, um I would probably say, you know, and this has been my experience, so a lot of people might not agree with this, but women tend to be more emotional about men. And so one of um so often I think they can be overlooked or disregarded because there's an uncomfortable emotional element to it. But I think one of thing one of my skill sets that's actually led to my success is I would say emotional intelligence, um, which again is an absolute overlooked skill at a leadership level, but it actually can unlock so much more in terms of performance and return. Um, so I would definitely say um there's that emotional element of women versus men that's different, but actually I do believe that can be a bit of a superpower when it comes to understanding emotional intelligence. And I honestly know so many great male leaders. Um, in fact, this morning I've just had a breakfast meeting with a CEO of a great business. Um, and you know, I'm talking talking to him, and uh what he's saying is resonating, what I'm saying is resonating, but we've looked at it completely differently. And you have to just respect perspectives and you have to really listen to it and understand that your perspective isn't the only perspective. Um, but I absolutely think for me it's that emotional intelligence piece.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Amazing, agreed. And in terms of your career, have you had to make any compromises in your personal life to achieve where you've got to today?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Well, do you know what? Anyone who knows me that's gonna listen to this podcast will probably raise a smile when I say this, but I always talk about life and business as stages and phases. Okay. So, you know, we're all at a different stage of life, and what we need is different. What the people around us need from us can be different as well. Um, and I think, you know, for me with that question, you know, for personal, um I have a very supportive husband, and I would say that we've had to, over the course of both of our careers and of course life, realize that the only way we get through any stage is by operating as a team. Um, and so inevitably I might not have had to make a compromise, but he might have. And we have to ex, or vice versa, and we have to accept for this stage of life this is just where we're at. So, you know, that may look different at different points of time. So when my kids were little, um, you know, a compromise I would have had to make is just accepting that I can't go to evening events, I can't go and network, you know, out of hours, because actually I have a bigger responsibility at home with my children. Um, and so that might be, you know, a small compromise there. Whereas being where I am now where the kids are a lot older and you know, semi-independent in some ways, um, you know, we can change that and flip that. I think back on the kind of personal side, you know, with workers, you know, you do have to make compromises, um, but you can't kind of go against ultimately what you're building in your life. And so if I think about exactly if I think about what I'm building and what I want to create for my family, what I want to create for my children, in particular for their lives going forward, and of course their kids' lives, you know, it's it's a generational thing. It's if this decision with my career is going to detract from that or going to pull away from that, then I make a compromise here. Equally, when I think about my career and what I'm what I want, where I want to get to, and that's changing all the time. Um, you know, because we change and we grow. Again, I think if something over here is going to detract from that, it depends what what it is and what's a trade-off. Exactly. And I think that is exactly it, Lisa, as you said, ultimately it is a trade-off. But I try to always do that without negatively impacting the personal, the relationships in my personal life. That will never, you know, I can never let anything trade off that.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

I think it's all about, I mean, obviously I've got kids as well, and I think it's just about being really honest with them as well and being open. And you know, like some I I kind of went through a phase a couple of years ago and I was just like, I'm I'm not doing anything well, I'm not being a good parent, I'm not not giving everything to work, I'm kind of in that middle piece. I feel really bad, and the kids are suffering. And someone just said to me, Have you sat down with your kids? And I felt really guilty. Someone just said to me, Have you sat down with them and round the table and just said, Look, I'm I'm really struggling, like I feel bad, and this is how I feel. And I was like, No, I haven't. And they were like 16 and 17, and I was like, Well, they can take it, like just be really honest and just say, I'm not getting the balance right at the moment, I know that. And this is what I need, and this is what I need. I just need you to bear with me and just have those really honest conversations. And I was like, Yeah, actually, we should just sit down and say it's not perfect, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Totally, and I think um I think, and I don't know if this is the same for men, actually, because I've never spoken about it, but I've spoken about it to a lot of women that guilt is a real thing because I think um, you know, I can often be guilty of trying to be everything to everyone, yeah. And so you actually can't. So if you're trying to do that, then the a guilt comes in that you're not doing that. Um, so I think you have to be fair to yourself and realistic with with yourself, but also honest, like you say, with those around you. And you know, that guilt can come up in so many different ways, whether it's friendships, whether it's with my siblings, whether it's with my children. Like this week, for example, um, I've been in London three days. I'm going home later this afternoon. Um, and so you know, each weekend we'll talk about the plan for the week in our household, you know, who's where and do and what. Now, my children are very used to that. I, you know, need to travel, and particularly in London at the moment for the stage of the business that we're in. That is what we need, that's where I need to be. Um, and my daughter said to me, Okay, so um you'll be able to do my hair for school on Monday, but you won't be able to do it on Tuesday or Wednesday. And that's something little that she's verbalising as a need that I've now carried with me this week that I'm not there. Um now she actually can do her own hair, she's at the age where she can. Um she likes me to do it. Um, so being able just to talk that through, but also then being able to recognise it's okay that I'm not there doing a hair on Tuesday and say I can't carry that as a guilt now or not go to London because I'm not there to do a hair. So you just have to reason. Um, but I'd say a big thing, you know, whether it's doing my daughter's hair or whether it's something else, like you were saying, is perspective. Yeah. And, you know, you can get lost in the minutia and what's happening here and now. And it's like, well, what am I building again? What are my personal goals that I'm building towards, you know, both life and career, and have that perspective because it won't be smooth sailing, it won't be easy, and there will be times where you have to compromise and have guilt about certain things.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Definitely, definitely. No, I think that's really valuable um insight. Thank you. Um, just in terms of, you know, what's the kind of legacy or impact that you want to leave in terms of your company and your industry?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

I think the legacy for me is never going to be about the size of business I've built. It's never going to be about the size of the eBay D. Genuinely the legacy for me is that people go, you know, she was a great leader, a great person, and you can see that in the teams around her. And if, you know, I ever, you know, left a business or, you know, you know, disappeared tomorrow, I would never want people to say, how good was, you know, that business that she built, or how good was that brand. Yeah, that might be a, you know, oh, that's nice to hear. But it wouldn't be a legacy. It has to be the people that came out of those businesses that I developed, grew, or helped and supported along the way. And how they felt working with me or under me. I think that is far more important than any kind of uh success or you know, your typical company achievements that people might ask. And I know that might sound a bit, again, fluffy and emotional, but that is just who I am. It's about it's about the people around me. Yeah. So, you know, uh, it genuinely is what they would say about my character is far more what I would be pleased about, the legacy of my character than the legacy of any company that I've built.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah, I think one of my questions was gonna be what does success mean to you? And I suppose that's it.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Yeah, it's it's definitely again a come back to what I said at the beginning, you know, about being authentic to who you are, because there is no other Lisa Walder, there is no other Amy Davies, there is no other listener listening to this podcast. You are you for a reason, and you have to stay true. You cannot compromise, you know, or pretend to be. You know, I see a lot of people playing roles. I'm just like Like let the guard down and just be who you are. And I think when you genuinely can create that environment in your company where people can be who they are, be appreciated, be encouraged and developed to grow, that's where you find, you know, real kind of authenticity in relationships. And you know, with Workwell Global now, we've got a lot of officers. And I think what I one of my biggest challenges as a leader is how do I create that across multiple officers where I'm not physically there? That's that's actually and that is a challenge for me today that I'm working through. Um so we have officers in uh Liverpool, where I am, uh London, um, Barcelona, Austin, and we've got a small uh hub in New York. So I physically cannot be present. In fact, sorry, we've got Brazil and Colombia now as well. So or like two other officers, don't want to miss those guys out, they're brand new this year. Okay. Uh but um I can't be physically present and create that same meaningful connection. So it's really then about my leaders around me and who's in those offices and them trying to recreate that, and that's a process that I'm working through at the minute. But if I look back at where I have been, and if I you know, if you if you look at, you know, in particular the Liverpool office, you know, when people come to that office, they can feel it.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

I was gonna say, I can feel you can you've got such a close-knit team that want to be there, and yeah, like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Totally. And so I think for me, if I can, you know, in because you can't build that overnight. So in 18 to 20 more 24 months time, I can look back and say, I have that in other offices, I will have achieved something special. Um, but yeah, you know, people will say to me quite regularly, Oh, you've got a brilliant team, you've got great people, and that is such a compliment to me and such a compliment to them because that is exactly what we're trying to create is a great company because we've got great people, not great people because we've got a great company, it's the other way around.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah, yeah, amazing. And just sort of coming to the to the final questions, um, any advice that you would give to a woman starting their career either in recruitment or in general. Yeah, of course, generally.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Um, I would say um to remember that no one is the finished article. I'm not the finished article, you're not the finished article, your listeners are not the finished article. And I think often when you're at the beginning of your career, you can look around and go, wow, you know, that you know, they've made it, they're perfect. No, no, and no one arguably is the finished article until your last day on this earth when you truly do, you know, if you have an opportunity to think about where you are. That's the only time you are the finished article. So we're all in a process of learning, growing, and developing. Um, and um it's remembering that. So don't be too hard on yourself. Um, you know, don't think you need to be super successful overnight, because actually, success comes in increments, it doesn't come, you know, in big waves, is what I've typically found. And so as long as you keep building and you keep, you know, people talk about the rungs of the ladder, but it's almost just building blocks. You keep putting a block on each year and you keep moving forward, and you can look back and say, This is what I've learned this year, or this is how I've changed, developed, or grown. Um, you know, I think that's important. You know, I'm 42. Um, you know, I still feel younger than that, two rays, which I think everyone would probably say, you know, but I'm 42, and I would honestly and again authenti you know, authentically and openly say this last year has been the biggest learning curve of my career, and I'm 42. So I am still learning, I'm still working through challenges, still growing and developing. So you will never be the finished article, and just when you think you've made it, you haven't.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

Someone brings you down one step at a time. Oh, that's really great advice, thank you. So just got a couple of little questions, little quick fire questions as we wrap up, just to find out a little bit more about Amy Davies. Um, so coffee or wine? Coffee. Heels or trainers? Well, it's trainers, I've got to admit, but I do love a good heel.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Excel or whiteboard? I would say whiteboard, definitely. Night owl or early riser? Oh, I'm a night owl. I have all my best ideas at night. I'm not good for you before 10am at a cup of tea.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Inbox at zero or organised chaos?

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Inbox at zero. You know, I would always have my inbox so low. Today that's not the case. I'm probably the latter, but I absolutely aspire to be inbox at zero.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Amazing. I aspire to be you. Office buzz or work from home buzz? Office buzz. Absolutely. Book or podcast?

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Uh it used to be books. I think you know, we've spoken about this, uh, but now today it's podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Amazing. Anyone that you're listening to at the moment, or you could recommend?

SPEAKER_01 26:48

Yeah, it's probably a really obvious one, uh, but it's one that I always come back to, uh, which is a bit of optimism by Simon Seneck. I am an eternal optimist. I thrive around other optimists. Um, but he's very, very good at bringing business challenges to life and and you know, talking about the way out of them. So definitely that one. Thank you. Okay, so when something goes wrong, who's the first person you'll call? You know what? Um I'd say that's changed over time today. It's probably my husband, Billy. Before would it be your girlfriend? It would have been, it would have been my sisters, it would have been my best friends, but it's definitely uh it's definitely now him from that, you know, what I spoke about about that team perspective as well. And I do laugh with people because um, you know, my husband isn't of the world that you know we're in. It makes no sense to him, but uh, he is a brilliant listener. Uh, you know, he doesn't always know what advice to give, but he absolutely will listen and knows me best as well. Yeah, that's that. Scale fast or build slow? I if I was again being true, I'd probably say build slow. I love to build something that's healthy and organically growing in the right way. I think there's again a time and a place for scale and fast, and there's so much excitement to that. But I think if I'd start something again tomorrow, I'd go build slow.

unknown 28:04

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

And finally, legacy I think I know the answer to this, but legacy or lifestyle. A legacy every time. Well, I can safely say I think you're building something very exciting. And you know, I'm very privileged that you've spent this time with me and to share all your views with our listeners. I think they're gonna get a lot out of it.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

So, Amy, thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much. Lovely to be here.