Insights

Not confidence, not seniority. Four concrete behaviours that separate advisors from order takers, and how to build them.

John on the gap between running a session and changing what managers actually do in the room.

Most briefs are accepted as written. A better intake asks what the role is for before it asks what it needs.

How Compass Group rebuilt high volume hiring around the candidate experience, and what changed once speed stopped being the only measure.

There are only three ways a recruiter can operate, and most people move between them without noticing which one they are in. Here is what actually moves you from one to the next.

Declining a brief that will not fill is more useful than accepting one that will not. How to do it and keep the trust.

A head of TA walks through the number she defended to her exec team, and the two she quietly dropped.

The best recruiter on the team is now the manager, and still quietly filling roles. Why that costs more than it looks.

The numbers that matter to leadership, the ones that do not, and how to present recruiting as a function rather than a service desk.

Not a prediction. What is measurably gone from the job this year, and what got harder instead.

John has been named to the 2026 Talent 100, recognising the people shaping how organisations hire.

How to commit to what the team can deliver, on evidence rather than optimism, when headcount shifts every quarter.