Tough at the top | Controversial Brewdog CEO James Watt says he's growing as a leader

James Watt, the controversial founder and CEO of Brewdog, has appeared on Steven Bartlett’s podcast Diary Of A CEO, to talk, among other things, about his leadership journey– and despite the controversies around Brewdog’s “toxic culture” and allegations of inappropriate behaviour, he says “I absolutely believe I can get better as a leader.”

And he certainly has been on a journey . As previous Grapevine Leaders articles have explored, he reacted to an open letter last year by former employees highlighting the “toxic culture” at Brewdog with a statement that admitted “on many occasions we haven’t got it right.” However, following the BBC documentary The Truth About Brewdog, in which 15 ex-employees including 12 former BrewDog USA staff reported “inappropriate behaviour and abuse of power” by him, he said he’d be pursuing legal action against the BBC for publishing “totally false” claims.

However, the interview with Stephen Bartlett revealed an apparently more humble and reflective side. In response to Bartlett asking him about his evolution as a leader, and what he’d had to work on and remove, he sang the praises of having a mentor, non-executive chairman Allan Leighton. “Being a CEO is a very lonely job at times,” Watt said. “I don’t think people realise, it’s lonely, it’s intense, it’s difficult and having Allan’s guidance is really important.”

He went on: “In the early years of the business, I managed it like the captain would manage a small team on a fishing boat, whereas now I am looking to evolve my leadership style to the CEO of a medium to large company, which is a bit less intense, a bit less demanding, but more about taking our people with us on this journey. We’re going to do this, it might be tough but…this why we’re doing this, but also making sure the incentives are very much aligned. We want to create a business model where we win together as a company.”