Rebecca McNiven is general Manager EMEA at Silverbean, a global partner & affiliate marketing agency based in Newcastle.
With over 14 years of experience in affiliates and partnerships management, she joined the agency in 2022 following senior positions at the likes of Awin and Partnerize.
Whether it’s school runs or being in the ‘hot seat’, McNiven shares a recent week in her life.
Monday
I’m on the school run today, so I head into the office after dropping off my two kids. First thing on a Monday I have a meeting with my senior team. The team runs through the status of their ongoing projects, and outlines their plans to ensure everything is on track. It’s also my opportunity to work out where I may need to give my attention to throughout the week.
In the afternoon I have a review meeting with my executive coach. I’ve been working with him for a year, and it’s really lovely to reflect on how much we’ve achieved in that time, and how many practical changes I’ve made to my ways of working. We worked together to set up a leadership canvas at the beginning of our time together, so we use that as a framework to assess what’s worked, and where I need to focus next.
5.15pm and it’s time to pick up the kids from their after school club.
Tuesday
Early start today with a 6am gym session – got a deadlift PB so the early start was worth it! I head into the office around 8.30am, and today I’ve got my black lab Barney with me. We have a dog friendly office which is brilliant. I’m working in our big Den space downstairs today, as Barney is scared of going up our stairs to the desks, and I’m too tired to carry him up there!
I spent a couple of hours this morning working with our HR associate director to look at our people agenda. Our focus today is looking at how we ensure we have the right talent in the business for our future plans. It’s also really important we take this time to take a step back and review our organisational design – the team structures and roles that worked well for us 12 months ago, might not be right for where we want to be in 12 months time.
I’m not always brilliant at taking a lunch break, but Barney forces me to get outside and have a proper break in the local park.
The afternoon is meeting heavy – organising the launch of a new project to increase visibility across the business of internal projects, working with our finance associate director to look at the way we measure success against our clients, and a catch up with the sales team to review ways of working across sales and delivery teams.
Wednesday
An early start this morning for our monthly All Hands – this time focused on ‘great work’ – an opportunity for teams across the company globally to share some of the brilliant work happening, celebrate this and make sure we’re rolling out the good stuff across all teams.
I have my weekly performance meeting with my direct reports. Performance is a huge focus for us as a business, and the purpose of this meeting is to look at the performance we are driving for our clients – identifying where there are any dips, and ensuring the right plans are in place to drive the numbers up (of course also recognising where we are doing a brilliant job too!).
Following this, we have our monthly senior ‘hot seat’ meeting. I am in the ‘hot seat’, and our seniors have the opportunity to ask me questions on our strategy, share challenges and talk about success stories. These are usually really productive sessions, and it gives me a great insight into what’s working well in the teams, and where I might need to focus my attention.
I take advantage of our flexible working policy to finish early, pick up the kids from school and take them to their tennis lessons. I really treasure having this time with them. Spend some time in the evening catching up on emails after my early finish.
Thursday
We run an internal ‘Fast Forward’ programme, with the purpose of ensuring our talented people are building on their skills, and have what they need to progress in the business. It’s highly competitive to get on to the scheme and it runs for six months. People on the programme have access to a senior mentor in the business – which is where I come in. I have a session with the employee that I am mentoring in the business, and today we talk about some of the key competencies they want to work on to move from their current role into the next level up. I really enjoy these sessions and have been surprised by how much I learn in them.
I have a meeting in the afternoon with my senior management team. This runs monthly, and is a chance for us to come together, share challenges, wins and work out how we best support each other across the following month to achieve our outcomes. I’m really proud of how this team works together – we have some positive tension in this meeting which I always encourage!
Friday
I tend to work from home on a Friday and keep this day free (or as free as possible!) from calls and meetings. This is my thinking, planning and strategy time, and it’s sacred! Today my attention is on the metrics we use to define success across the business. Similar to the people agenda session earlier in the week, this is about taking a step back and working out whether the data and the metrics we have always used across the business still serve us in the right way – and crucially whether they give us the right information to make positive changes off the back of them.
I use some time in the afternoon to get on top of my inbox, and plan for next week. I am in the habit of identifying my big projects, and scheduling in time to work on those throughout the week. The risk otherwise is that my week is run by other people!
