Plusnet boss: Why authenticity is becoming a commercial advantage

Authenticity in leadership is often framed as a soft skill. Joanna Carman, Director of Plusnet and Chief Marketing Officer at BT Group, makes a far more hard-nosed case: it is a lever for performance, engagement and ultimately growth. Reflecting on her early career, she recalls a moment that shaped her approach.

When told “we don’t wear trainers here”, she pushed back instinctively. “I sort of looked at him and said, well, I do,” she says. What followed was telling. “More and more people started to wear trainers; you actually create a pathway for others to be individuals.”

For Carman, this is not about dress codes but about unlocking discretionary effort. “There’s nothing more exhausting than coming to work and pretending to be something that you’re not,” she explains.

In a labour market where employee engagement remains fragile, Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report found only 23 per cent of employees are engaged. Leaders who foster authenticity are not indulging culture; they are strengthening productivity.

Her career, which she describes as “squiggly”, spans finance, telecoms and startup environments, but a consistent thread runs through it: transformation. “I’ve never walked into a job where everything’s set up and it works really well,” she says. That reality will resonate widely. Change is rarely optional, but Carman is clear about why many programmes fail. “If you don’t overinvest in bringing the people that are going to be doing it with you on that journey, it won’t be successful.”

Her mantra is blunt: “People, people, people, customer, customer, customer.” It is a reminder that transformation is less about systems and more about alignment. McKinsey research published in 2024 supports this, showing that organisations that prioritise employee engagement in transformations are 1.5 times more likely to outperform peers.

Carman’s dual role, running Plusnet while acting as its CMO, reflects a broader shift in how commercial and brand functions intersect. “Modern-day marketing is a lot more commercial and numeric than it ever has been,” she says.

Separating the two, in her view, weakens outcomes. “The further apart functions operate, the more dysfunctional the outcome.”

Instead, she advocates cross-functional problem-solving anchored in customer needs. Ideas do not begin with campaigns or capabilities, but with insight.

“Customer insight is like your step one,” she explains, followed by assessing the scale of the opportunity and only then execution. This discipline is critical in competitive, commoditising markets. Broadband, she notes, risks becoming a utility noticed only when it fails.

The opportunity lies in reframing it: “Rather than thinking about broadband, think about what do people need in the home?”

That shift, from product to problem, requires constant proximity to customers. Carman spends time in contact centres and retail environments to hear unfiltered feedback. It is often uncomfortable but necessary. “You can sit in a bit of a tower and then you go to the kind of harsh, high street reality.”

Leadership, she argues, ultimately comes down to judgment. “Most of your job is either decision making or enabling other people to do things.” Not every decision will please everyone, but transparency matters. “As long as you can show people your thinking, generally people sort of go, okay.”

In an environment defined by constant change, Carman’s approach is strikingly consistent: be clear on who you are, stay close to customers, and bring people with you. The rest follows.