How do you become one of 2025’s Best Places to Work? | Josh Harris

16 snips

Sep 11, 2025

Josh Harris, CEO of Neverland London — an agency leader who left corporate life during COVID to rebuild with culture and creativity at the core. He talks about walking away from stability, the loneliness and emotional weight of leadership, protecting staff over layoffs, investing in junior talent, and building a culture that attracts people.

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ADVICE

Protect Staff Before Cutting Roles

Protect people first by finding commercial savings elsewhere instead of immediate redundancies.
Use process changes and small operational tweaks to preserve jobs and motivate teams.

ADVICE

Invest In Junior Talent

Invest in junior talent; their energy and proactivity power agency delivery.
Create a culture where juniors can learn from seniors and want to be in the office for development.

ADVICE

Enable Small Experiments Fast

Give leaders autonomy to change and optimise processes without bureaucratic red tape.
Encourage people to run small experiments and take ownership: 'ask forgiveness, not permission.'

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Have you ever wondered if the best move in your career might be walking away?
On this week’s episode of The Courageous Leaders Podcast, I sat down with Josh Harris, CEO of Neverland London. Josh made the bold decision to step away from the security of corporate life and it turned out to be the best thing he could have done.

We talk about the emotional weight of leadership, the pressure to protect people, and the challenge of building a business that looks after purpose, people and profits together. Creating a culture that helped Neverland earn a spot as one of Campaign’s Best Places to Work 2024 and 2025.

We Cover:
01:15 – Leaving a stable job with a newborn during COVID

03:22 – Two breaking points that made walking away the only option

06:42 – Returning to work with new clarity on culture and fit

09:35 – The unexpected loneliness of becoming CEO

12:04 – Why investing in junior talent powers the whole business

15:45 – Protecting people first: cutting costs without cutting jobs

17:41 – Leading without a set path and keeping creativity at the core

21:35 – Why emotional intelligence is Josh’s most valuable leadership tool

28:02 – Balancing control with trust and creating psychological safety

31:19 – Working with founders without the ego clashes

36:46 – The challenges and freedom of an all-new leadership team

39:34 – “Ask forgiveness, not permission”

40:47 – The advice Josh’s future self would give him today

Don’t miss out on this powerful episode.

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