Leadership Lessons with Emma Young, Corporate Affairs Director at Moneysupermarket Group

This month we sat down with Emma Young, who’s held senior comms roles at Disney, SoundCloud, WeWork and Bulb. Emma shared her thoughts on getting into corporate affairs and the key qualities leaders need today. Have a look.

What drove you to forge a career in corporate affairs? 

I’ve always loved storytelling, from when I was a tiny Matilda, hotfooting it to the library every weekend, head full of stories, to when I graduated with my English Lit degree, head full of…essays about stories. I swapped the university library bookstacks for a publishing house’s bookshelves and spent a happy few years working as a book publicist. A publishing friend suggested me for a role in PR at SoundCloud and I began pitching stories about companies and their founders in place of books and their authors. When you boil it down, of course, behind all corporate affairs strategies is a group of people trying to work out what the story is, and the best way to tell it.

What personal attributes do you think have helped you to succeed?

I think there are three things I try to bring to every company I work for:

First and foremost is an ability to think through situations and scenarios. If we do this, then what’s likely to happen next? And after that? I love game planning and working through the likely impact of everything from big creative campaigns to one line reactive statements. And I like helping others to do it too.

Second, speaking of big creative campaigns, is creativity! This job would be pretty dull if you didn’t get to flex your creative muscles, whether that’s finding solutions to corporate communications challenges, or developing out-of-the-box consumer campaigns. The Tech Zero programme, which we created at Bulb, was born out of us wanting to share our learnings as a start-up grappling with its net zero plans, and help other start-ups with theirs. It was an idea that grew and grew, with 350 companies participating.

The third thing is definitely the least glamorous and most underrated skill of a corporate affairs director: the art of getting stuff done. This bit is all about figuring out the internal politics of an organisation and who and what you need to be most effective. Like I said, it’s boring, and very easy to overlook, but it’s vital. Think of yourself as a communications Challenge Anneka.

Who or what inspires you?

Great bosses, great teammates and great peers. There’s nothing I love to ha-admire more than a great campaign that someone else has done. Spotify Unwrapped is genius, as is pretty much everything the team at Airbnb does. It’s a cliché but their incredibly human and thoughtful comms in the pandemic was a masterclass in how to do this very difficult job well.

What words best describe you as a leader?

I imagine everyone says this, but resilience has to be up there. I realise this isn’t a dating profile, but I think a GSOH is very desirable too.

What do you think are the key qualities needed from leaders in 2024?

Kindness, decisiveness, flexibility. Easy!

What skill sets do you think businesses within the start-up and technology sectors will be looking for now, and in the coming years? 

The past few years have been tough all round and, beyond the cliched-but-true skill sets like developing resilience and flexibility, I think there are a couple of things you can work on. One is communicating like a human, that is, drafting messages, speeches and quotes that sound like how you actually talk, and thinking about what your audience wants to hear. Another is being able to think a couple of steps ahead. More on both next…

What is the biggest challenge you’ve overcome during your career?

I’d have to say handling comms during crisis moments for companies. Part of looking after comms for any company is handling crises when they come your way. While the brand building and proactive campaigns side of the job is infinitely more enjoyable, you’re bound to have to work on comms for difficult moments or situations as well, and these can be some of the toughest times in your career. I think there are two things you can try to do when you’re faced with these moments. One is to put employees first. It feels counterintuitive, especially when it’s potential headlines and journalists that people tend to focus on, but think of your employees before any other audience and the rest will follow. Even when you know they’ll be frustrated and have more questions than you can answer, they’ll hopefully appreciate you sharing what you can, when you can, and the messages you’re sharing with them will be easily adapted to become the messages you use with your media, investors and other stakeholders. Be honest, but resist the temptation to overshare. They don’t need to go on all of the emotional rollercoaster with you.

The second is to try to have a plan for all the likely scenarios – plan c can very quickly become a possibility, and plan e, and f, and z… It’s tempting to just focus on the one or two most likely plans and make them perfect, but it’ll be a lot less stressful to have sketched out every scenario when the time comes.

What career advice would you give to someone starting out in your industry?

To be a successful PR, you need to read the news. Is this very obvious? Yes. Does everyone do it? Er. In other non-news, you also need to work hard. This includes thinking through scenarios, bringing smart creative ideas to the table and figuring out how to read the room. In my book, anyway.