Psychology Matters: ‘Decide what part of society you want to change, who you want to help, and focus on using psychology to effect change.’

Can you tell us a bit about your career journey so far? How did your psychology degree help lead you to where you are today?  

It was quite a few years after graduating that my psychology qualifications really started to make a difference to my career. After graduating, I worked in television for several years (a TV show was almost made based on my dissertation), before transitioning to pensions and retirement.  

But when this work evolved into employee engagement, that's when the skills and knowledge I'd learned during my qualifications really came into effect. I was spending more time with employers, consulting with them on how to drive better outcomes for their people and how to create better workplace experiences.  

After a few years, this resulted in me writing my first book on the employee experience, which leaned heavily into psychology to build an evidence base for the recommendations I was making. By the time I got to my second book, psychology was informing almost everything I do.  

Fast forward to 20 years after graduating and I'm using psychology daily. It remains the foundation for my research, my talks, my writing, and my consulting with large global employers.  

How do you use psychology in your work?  

Aside from using research in psychology to back up my theories, I use psychology in my role as Executive Fellow at King's Business School, as a leader in my role as Chief Innovation Officer at Benifex and Zellis.  

I'm frequently trying to engage people in my ideas, get them to support and champion change and psychology is a big part of this. Getting people excited about their work, getting customers to believe in what I'm saying, and getting employers and parliamentarians to take my recommendations, couldn't be done well without the knowledge and experience of psychology in my life.  

Please describe any work experience you have completed during your undergraduate degree that has helped prepare you for your career.  

I remember one of my first ever lectures, my lecturer said, "you'll forget most of what we teach you, but you won't forget how we taught you to think." That always stayed with me.  

During my psychology degree I felt like I was taught a lot about not taking things on face value, to question what is put in front of me and the power of building an effective evidence base for my arguments and plans.  

I also learned a lot about how advertising and marketing persuades people, how humans make decisions and how we can appeal to the emotional, rather than the rational brain.  

Those lessons were profound, and I see those characteristics in a lot of people I know with a background in psychology.  

I'm frequently trying to engage people in my ideas, get them to support and champion change and psychology is a big part of this.

What key skills or traits do you think are essential for success?  

For me, some of the key skills that I think have advanced my career have been networking and wherever possible, putting the needs of others first. This practice meant that when I wrote my first book, there were a lot of people in my community willing to support me, and I think that is a big reason why that first book became a bestseller.  

What advice would you give to somebody studying psychology who is just starting their career?  

Decide what difference you want to make in the world and start from there.  

When you care passionately about something, the purpose, belonging and often the money will come. Decide what part of society you want to change, who you want to help and focus on using psychology to effect change.  

The best and most impactful people I know have done this and they've made great careers out of it.  

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