Building effective teams, one conversation at a time

Across RELX, the most effective people managers are not always the loudest people in the room.

They are the ones quietly building trust in one-to-one conversations. The ones creating space for people to grow. The ones who know when to push a team harder - and when to tell someone to log off and recharge. Across RELX, we consider all our colleagues to be leaders. In this story we focus on those leaders who also manage others.

This year, we interviewed some of the great people managers from across the business whose teams rated them highly for manager effectiveness in our employee opinion survey. They work in Risk, STM, Legal and Exhibitions. They lead teams in South Africa, UK, Europe, Japan, China, Philippines and the United States. Between them they manage well over 150 people across a vast range disciplines.

So, meet some of the managers people most want to work for at RELX. Their stories reveal something important: inspiring people is not about hierarchy. It is about how people make others feel - trusted, supported, challenged and connected to a purpose bigger than themselves.

For many, the pressure of delivering results can create distance between managers and teams. The people managers interviewed for this story do the opposite - they move closer.

In South Africa, Nombuso Ncube leads editorial teams in a high-volume operational environment, within LexisNexis Legal & Professional, where consistency and quality matter every day. But she believes performance only becomes sustainable when people feel respected and treated fairly.

“Fairness in how work is allocated builds trust faster than anything else,” she says.

That belief shapes how she leads - with clarity, transparency and open communication. Her team knows what is expected, but they also know they can raise concerns early without fear.

“My role is to support the team, not to make the work feel heavier,” she explains.

In France, Kader Djeradi has spent three decades within LexisNexis Legal & Professional, helping teams navigate enormous change - from software development to digital transformation and today, beginning the journey of AI-driven innovation. His leadership philosophy today is intentionally simple.

“More respect, more transparency and more fluid exchanges.”

He speaks openly about rebuilding trust through regular one-to-one conversations and creating “adult managerial relationships” where people feel empowered rather than controlled.

“The objective is not to control more,” he says. “It is to put just a few checkpoints to stay on the right trajectory.”

That same instinct appears thousands of miles away in the United States, where Patrick Thompson leads customer support teams in LexisNexis Risk Solutions. He deliberately creates connection in an environment where pressure can easily become overwhelming.

“I try to keep a level of fun and humour within the team,” he says. “A person’s mental health is one of the most important parts of being successful at work.”

His team meetings include space to talk about life outside work. There are separate chats for hobbies and shared interests. Team-building activities are treated as important, not optional. Underneath all of it is a leadership style grounded in visibility and support.

“I often assist the team by getting into the trenches with them.”

Again and again, managers spoke about one thing that transforms performance - ownership.

Within Elsevier in Japan, Rika Furukawa leads a team responsible for delivering trusted clinical information to healthcare professionals. Her approach is not to give people every answer.

“I try not to give all the answers,” she says. “I help people think, explore and solve problems by themselves.”

She believes work becomes meaningful when people can connect it to their own future.

“When people feel they can grow, work becomes more than a list of tasks. It becomes time invested in their future.”

In Germany, Martina Volz leads a global portfolio of more than 100 scientific journals in Elsevier. After more than 25 years in publishing, she has learned that great leadership is often about helping people see possibilities in themselves.

“I strive to inspire my team by making them feel that they are capable of so much more than they thought.”

Her leadership style combines honesty, calmness and accountability. She gives people real responsibility while making expectations clear.

“It is quite important to me not to create dependencies,” she says, “but to let everyone own their achievements.”

That same belief in ownership drives Kyra Thomas, who leads international sales teams in Germany and Bratislava, delivering growth across multiple exhibitions worldwide for RX.

“Leadership isn’t about sitting in an ivory tower,” she says. “It’s about staying close to our markets, our customers and our people.”

Kyra believes autonomy unlocks extraordinary performance.

“When a team member feels true ownership over a project, they don’t just meet expectations - they usually shatter them.”

For Shella Palaganas in the Philippines, empowering people starts with helping them discover what energises them.

“When people genuinely enjoy what they do, they become more engaged, motivated and find greater meaning in their work.”

Her role leading the digital services team requires continuous adaptation and learning, but she sees challenge as an opportunity to stretch people beyond their comfort zones and help them discover new strengths.

Across every interview, one theme surfaced repeatedly - people perform better when they feel seen.

Kristin Towberman, who leads sales teams in LexisNexis Risk Solutions in the US, has intentionally built what she describes as an “all for one, and one for all” culture. Her team calls itself the “Mighty Midwest.”

Weekly meetings create space not just for business updates, but for honest conversations about “peaks and pits” - successes, frustrations and lessons learned. The language her team uses matters too. “We do hard things. We keep going.”

Those phrases reinforce resilience during difficult periods and remind people they are not facing challenges alone.

Within RX in Japan, Sayo Hirano believes leadership begins with listening.

“Biweekly one-on-one meetings with my team are more important than anything else for the success of the team.”

She sees trust and psychological safety as essential ingredients for creativity and innovation.

“Only when there is mutual trust and psychological safety can team members be creative and take on new challenges.”

Meanwhile in the Philippines, Vic Conte focuses heavily on creating belonging inside her team. She spends time walking the floor, checking in informally and bringing energy into the workday through theme days, games and team gatherings.

Her goal is simple: “To foster a strong sense of belonging and shared purpose.”

Taken together, these managers offer a different picture of what effective people leadership looks like at RELX.

It is not leadership built on control or hierarchy.

It is leadership built on trust. On conversations. On recognition. On helping people see a future for themselves. On understanding that performance and wellbeing are not opposites - they strengthen each other.

These leaders understand that great teams are not created accidentally. They are built intentionally, one interaction at a time. And great teams drive organisational performance and success.

As Kyra Thomas puts it:

“If you provide a team with clarity, trust and genuine energy, they won’t just find their way to success - they’ll define it.”

Given these insights, maybe it’s time to reflect on your own leadership style?