Sarah Walker-Smith - I'm not your average CEO

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Sarah Walker-Smith isn’t a conventional company chief executive.

She runs one of Britain’s Top 50 law firms, with an annual turnover of more than £70m.

But in the middle of the pandemic, the CEO of Shakespeare Martineau decided to sing to her 900 staff.

Accompanied by a company partner on the piano, she recorded her own ‘Christmas single’ version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

“It was an authentic representation of who I am – and my heart was aching, literally, for the world and for everybody in our business,” Sarah tells Episode 11 of the Nottingham Business School’s Business Leaders Podcast.

“I’m definitely not your average chief exec in terms of my background… and how I speak and how I look sometimes. But what the pandemic has taught me is that you just have to be yourself.”

It wasn’t the first time Sarah, who originally wanted to be an actress, had sung a song for her business.

“In May last year I recorded a version of On My Own, from Les Miserables,” she said.

“The response was unbelievable. I had 200 emails saying, ‘you’ve just made me cry’ and ‘we’re so in this together…’ It was best way I could say to people, we’re all going through some terrible stuff.”

Sarah – a double alumni of Nottingham Trent University – started her career as an accountant before moving into marketing with Boots, then Browne Jacobson LLP.

She became the first non-lawyer, woman CEO of a top 50 British law firm when she joined Shakespeare Martineau, in February 2019.

Her leadership style is very open and she has established a big social media following during lockdown.

But she believes, the most important thing for any leader is to let people know what they stand for.

She tells Honorary Visiting Professor Mike Sassi: “I’m not going to be restrained by what you’re supposed to say or what you are not supposed to say as a leader, because I’m also a human being and people want to see human leaders.

“I’m sure at some point it’s going to get me into trouble… but employees and stakeholders and clients want to know who they are dealing with.

“The pandemic has taught me they want leaders who are authentic.”

During the podcast, Sarah talks about attempting to establish “bubbles of certainty” for staff, allowing colleagues to continue working from home and the difficulties of restructuring a business during lockdown.

And her independence of mind is reflected in her advice to Nottingham Business School’s young leaders of the future.

She says: “The world is changing at a rapid pace, so find your own way. Have the confidence to be yourself.

“Nine times out of ten your own instincts will be right. You will be a so much better – and happier – leader if you do it the way you want to do it.

“And tune in to people. Develop a sense of empathy… to connect with lots of different working generations… Find out where people are at. It will pay back in spades.”