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Freedom to Thrive

A sit down with Lianne Halliday, General Manager at Canvas Offices

Canvas is doing great things. Acquiring great new buildings with a team of great people to power them forward. Progress is the name of the game. And no one at Canvas understands progress better than Lianne Halliday, General Manager at Canvas. We meet to talk about the journey that brought her to Canvas, what’s happened since, and dip into her greatest guilty pleasure. 

 

According to Google, “Lianne is a name of French, Latin, and British origins with the curious meaning, "to twine around." To me, this made perfect sense when I met Lianne Halliday. She’s assertive, social agile, incredibly warm-hearted, and totally unforgettable. Lianne has climbed every rung of her professional ladder with skill, confidence blooming with each new move and an ever-growing thirst to prove herself to the world. I imagine that’s why she’s been appointed to head up the biggest, most coveted building in the Canvas collection to date, 88 Kingsway, Holborn. 



I meet Lianne on a hot July afternoon at her new office. I walk up the marble staircase to the communal space on the first floor. Luxe retro furnishings and inviting booths tempt me to sit, and I see the pool table at the far end hosting a game. The atmosphere is calm. It might be the open plan flow of the room. It might be the light pouring in from the vast windows. Lianne appears from her office. She’s fizzing with positive energy as always and it’s infectious. We sit and chat for a while and then head out into the blazing sunshine and walk 15 mins down the road to the Kimpton Fitzroy London in Russell Square.
 








We step into the cool vaulted halls of this grand space with enormous chandeliers sparkling above and the ornate mosaic zodiac signs beneath our feet. Somehow, Lianne looks very much at home here. She says, “
I got quite used to this kind of thing when I worked at the V&A.” And that’s where our conversation began. We head down the corridor to the restaurant and I ask: 


What did the journey look like that lead you to Canvas?  

“Well, I worked in hospitality for years and I could not get out of it. I was the head waiter, manager, whatever. I was all of them! Started from the bottom and worked my way up. But I just couldn’t get out of it and it was really upsetting because I just I hated it by the end. I was like, I’m so good at my job but there’s only so many tables you can wait on.  


“So I took a big old pay cut to go and work at the V&A working on ‘Projects’, but I knew I couldn’t go any further because it wasn’t the right fit. That’s where I met Tsubi (now, Property Development Manager at Canvas). She told me that Canvas did ‘Projects’, but it’s called General Management and that’s what she did at the time. I said it sounded so similar to my role and she knew the east cluster of Canvas were looking for a deputy. I was like, okay, great I’ll go for it. I got the job and then I worked my arse off because I wanted to be a General Manager. I want to be in charge of the ship and I was obsessed with getting to know everyone.” 



We both pause to order burgers and I ask, what made you want to stay at Canvas? What made you think this is where I want to grow?  

“It was the freedom and trust.  


“When I got to Canvas I was like, if you just give me a chance. Oren (one of the founding brothers) gave me some words of encouragement, “At Canvas, we all work really hard and we love what we do. As long as you try your absolute best in all you do, you’ll achieve anything”. And I remember thinking at that moment, I will work so hard that you’ll never have to worry about me – ever! But then when I started I was worried. Thinking maybe I’m not doing things quick enough, but everything I seemed to do, they loved it, and it was so nice. Oren said,  “Oh right, you’re the quirky one”, and that felt good because I felt my creativity had actually been seen and the weirdness that I’ve always kind of had to dim, I don’t have to dim here. I’ve had it so many times where it’s like ‘you’re too much, you’re this, you’re that’, whereas in Canvas, people
I don’t think I’m too much. 
 

“My CEOs have given me the chance to be here, meet all these really fantastic people and progress as quickly as I did. I mean, I worked my ass off, but it was really quick and having that trust in someone. Then that day came and they said, right, this is going to be a mega building and we’re going to put you in charge of it. That was cool.  

“Another reason that makes me stay is the people. These guys feel like my family. I recently went through a break up and everyone was amazing. Tash (Natasha Bell, Head of Central Operations at Canvas), would sit down and say ‘You alright, girl?’ and people just doing little things like that. Sometimes I’d just need a rant or a cry.  I needed them and they were there. And that’s what got me over it all so quickly, especially considering how big it was and how much relationships can affect you at work. It was because of these guys.” 
 




If you could be the CEO for a week, what would you do?  

“I would make sure that everyone feels like they are doing a good job. I do it with my team now, it’s such a small thing, but I’m constantly thanking them, and I always want them to know how good they are. Because if they’re good, they should know they’re good. And there’s so many jobs where you don’t know if you’re doing a good job. It has a massive effect on what you do next and how you feel when you go about your day. It affects the decisions you make and how you feel about yourself. It’s massive.” 


The burgers arrive at this point. We’re both excited by the unexpected double beef patty and enormous onion rings. Incidentally, the crispiest onion ring either of us has ever encountered! We refocus on the questions… 


So what’s been your biggest achievement and what’s been your biggest challenge?
 

“Biggest achievement, obviously progression, in the short time I did it. And Kingsway is just an absolute dream. But the most rewarding part of my job has been Charlie (the new deputy general manager). I like that I can see a lot of me in Charley, in the sense that she really wants to do well, and I really wanted to do well. It’s an amazing thing, but she’s a lot more confident than I was. But I think she’s fantastic. Our days go so quick because we get on so well. But when we’re discussing something more serious we can switch it on. I’m quick quite strict on my team because I want them to do well. And I want her to progress… even though I don’t want her to ever leave me!  


“And the biggest challenge I would say, is getting clients to interact with us and with each other. They seem happy to interact with me, but to get them to interact with other people was quite hard.”








OK, let’s switch to a few more light-hearted questions now. Be honest and let your imagination run wild!
 
 

What is your greatest guilty pleasure? 

“Dancing in front of the mirror in the bathroom. It’s not exactly a guilty pleasure though I suppose. Well at least it shouldn’t be a guilty pleasure. How would you describe a guilty pleasure?” 


Something that you’re a bit ashamed of, or something that you personally feel guilty about in some way. I’d say it’s personal to each person. 

“I genuinely think I’m so open about everything… I don’t think I have one. I mean, I like Aqua (the band) if that counts? But I don’t feel guilty about it. Yeah, I just, I don’t feel guilty that about that kind of stuff. Hang on, maybe watching children’s TV shows, Lizzie McGuire! She was just so real. an angry teenager and all the things she does I’ve done you know? Like having a go at her mum for no reason and then she comes back to it and she’s like why did I have a go at my mum? Falling out with her friends. Falling in love with her friends. All of it. It’s just really relatable. Really real.” 


OK, if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?  

“Oh Ireland. I lived in Ireland, and it was my favourite place I’ve ever been to or seen. Ballykinler in Northern Ireland. I lived there as a child and we used to go cockle picking. Big massive mountains everywhere. It was just beautiful.” 

Bit of an odd one, but I think you’ll do well here. What would be the perfect flavour of toothpaste? 

“Lychee. Gorgeous. A little bit different. Still fresh, but super sweet. And healthy, too! Love it.”  
 


If you could have one any day in the life of a fictional character, who would it be and why? Fictional character? 
 

“Oh who would I be? I’m going to be really upset when I leave here and I haven’t said the right person. I’m going to go Nancy from Oliver. I’ve played her before on stage and I loved it. It was my favourite thing. They fitted me in the dress and it was a beautiful dress. Plungy but corseted, gorgeous! And for a moment of my life I felt straight because I fancied Bill Sykes but it was only when he was in costume.” 
 

If you could time travel, would you rather visit the past or the future? 

“The past. I would love to see what has been like maybe like Jack the Ripper times. I want to see how crazy that really was. I’m so intrigued by it!” 
 

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?  


“I just want everyone to get along because it just feels like we don’t and it’s really sad. There are so many people in my life that
like want to bring negativity to the world. I don’t want that so I think more harmony.” 
 

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in life so far? 

“To be kind. Because I’ve had people be so unkind to me for no reason and it’s just an really awful feeling so just to make sure that you’re trying your best. I’ve got it wrong so many times. I’ve hurt people’s feelings and it sucks because you always think about it, but that’s your lesson.”  
 


What’s the most exciting thing in your life right now 

“Freedom. I just I feel like I’m really in control of my life right now. I do whatever I want whenever I want to do it and it just feels really good. I’ve got no one to answer to anymore and it feels fantastic!” 

 






Canvas is growing and we need great people on our team to continue doing great things. We value seriously self-motivated people, who want to do their best and love working as a team. If you’d like to be part of an incredible business where exciting things are happening, come and talk to us today.