Action, Impact, Growth – Details, episodes & analysis

Sharon Maguire, COO at Cynergy Bank, has built a career that spans the full spectrum of financial services across Europe and the Middle East.

In this episode of the Action Impact Growth podcast, Sharon joins Luke Nihill to reflect on the forces that shaped her career, her years working in the Middle East, and the leadership lessons she's carried with her across continents and cultures.

Timestamps:

(01:18) Choosing the workplace over university

(07:24) Changing hiring policies around degree requirements

(09:41) Real life experience vs academics

(15:43) What gives her drive to succeed?

(18:05) Bringing out the best in your team

(20:25) Developing flexible leadership styles

(23:28) If you want to be a CEO one day

(24:12) Have you ever said no to something that you've regretted after?

(26:50) What inspired the move to Qatar?

(30:05) The impact of life in Qatar

(32:50) Building a career in the Middle East

(35:30) Influencing leadership from behind the scenes

(36:44) Business in the Middle East vs London

(38:51) What made her come back?

(39:26) Moving country without a role lined up

(40:36) The importance of maternity leave

(41:52) Great storytelling in a business context

(46:53) Aspirational planning and embracing failure

(48:51) What does it mean to be customer-centric?

(51:27) Demonstrating value in small businesses vs big businesses

(54:04) Predictions for the future of financial services

(56:22) How far would you take AI in the workplace?

Follow:

Sharon - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-maguire-9585885/

Luke – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukenihill/

👉 Discover more leadership insights at: https://www.qurated.com/insights

How do you align 600 people with your vision? James Higgins, CIO of Barclays UK Business Bank, joins Luke Nihill to explore how customer obsession, military discipline, and talent-first leadership have shaped his career. James' story brings unique insights into leading teams at scale, realising potential in your workforce, and why enterprise banks can learn a lot from startups. 

Timestamps:

(00:29) What makes you unique as a leader?

(02:56) Life as a Barclays CIO

(05:12) How do you align 600 people with your vision?

(08:08) The role of leadership in technology

(10:25) Why data-driven leadership is crucial

(11:35) Innovation accounting

(12:33) Building allegiance with your leadership team

(14:58) Hiring for talent

(17:38) Where does a leadership team go wrong?

(19:44) "Figure out what gets you out of bed"

(22:29) The difference between roles and skills

(23:37) Potential matters more than performance

(26:41) Customer obsession

(29:00) How talent and automation will interact in a business

(31:33)"The only thing I cannot buy is time"

(34:38) "Why are you scheduling that?" / Addition sickness#

(37:56) What is the best career advice you've ever received?

(40:51) Is there a mistake I've made that I'll never repeat?

(43:51) "I wouldn't have achieved what I've done in my career without this"

(48:22) What do you wish you knew at the start of your career?

50:02 - Raising the bar on engineering at Barclays 

References:

Shoe Dog 

The Lean Startup

Build

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Working Backwards

How Google Works

Follow:

James

Luke

👉 Discover more leadership insights at: https://www.qurated.com

In this episode Luke sits down with Dean Curtis, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions & Data Services, who shares his approach to continuous personal and professional development.

(00:26) - Be the leader you always wanted

(02:49) - Being allowed to make mistakes

(04:32) - Take something from everyone you meet

(07:46) - Never outworked

(11:35) - If you don't think this is the right thing for you, maybe it's not

(13:57) - Figuring out the future

(17:55) - Performance is…

(20:30) - Turning a team of leaders into a leadership team

(22:24) - Personal relationships drive the standards

(24:24) - Performance vs. results

(26:57) - Learning without university

(28:32) - Everyone can do it, but not everyone does

(30:37) - Discipline

(32:18) - Habits

(36:59) - Managing stress and recovery

(39:15) - Personal framework

(44:29) - Triple H

(48:00) - Will over skill

(50:59) - My two biggest career mistakes

(53:37) - Confidence and conviction

Follow:

Dean - https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanacurtis/

Luke - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukenihill/

Qurated - https://www.quratednetwork.com/about/

Luke is joined by Ritu Soni, a product leader turned Entrepreneur who’s passion for product innovation is infectious. In this episode Ritu shares valuable insight on achieving best in class product management and discusses her journey from India to the UK, experience of working at a number of leading global fintechs and her attitude to moving forwards in life. (0:00) Intro (01:48) Delivering business value (03:49) Unified customer & business KPIs (05:43) Knowing when to say no (10:28) Product differentiation (15:33) Product personality (16:50) Structure for success (20:46) Commerciality (23:00) Pride in product (25:49) Key ingredients of a successful team (27:37) Diversity and Empowerment (32:00) Owning failure (36:08) Resilience (36:57) Reinvention (41:42) No day is doomsday Follow: Luke

Ritu

Qurated

Ian Povey is Mr Payments, with an illustrious career spanning leading global banks, Silicon Valley and now a board member of both SWIFT and The Payments Association, his understanding of this complex landscape is unsurpassed.

In this episode Ian talks through the importance of distilling information into stories, analogies and headlines in order to achieve the big goals.

(00:00) Intro

(01:00) Bringing authenticity and context

(02:48) Followership

(03:46) Storytelling

(08:05) Success = empowerment + accountability

(11:32) Career Planning

(15:02) Recall, preparation and simplification

(18:47) The importance of headlines

(21:29) The flagpole on the hill

(23:28) When covid hit..

(26:38) The three week trust test

(29:28) Listening when problems occur

(31:23) Injecting agitation, while supporting the team

(35:00) The Change Dragon

(36:55) The future of the CIO role

(38:57) Investing your time wisely

(40:56) Accountability and measuring the shift

(44:50) The power of storytelling

Andrew Pearce, experienced C Suite Executive and global operations and technology leader sits down with Luke to discuss his approach to leading and inspiring large teams around a clear mission. Coming from a business background into a technology leadership role, Andrew has some actionable advice on how to maximise performance, whether turning around an underperforming team, or leading high performers to incremental gains. (00:00) - Intro (00:30) - What is leadership? (02:11) - Learning to listen (03:15) - Principles (05:23) - Transparency and sharing (07:12) - Growth and the importance of a successor (12:02) - Say yes to opportunities (13:19) - Communicating goals (16:27) - When to listen and when to dictate (20:11) - Overcoming obstacles and not taking things personally (24:35) - Development points (25:42) - The devil’s in the detail (29:44) - Cycling mindset (31:46) - Transitioning into technology (34:20) - If you know then what you know now (34:51) - Closing thoughts

Luke sits down with Greg Horton from Fairstone, a fast growing and highly acquisitive PE backed Wealth Manager.

A thoroughly modern CTO, Greg talks through his perspective on how to ensure technology drive the business.

This episode includes:

- Open and collaborative leadership

- When to shield the team

- How do you know when you’ve made it?

- The modern technology operating model

- Keeping the customer at the centre of tech decisions

- Investing in people

- Embracing Chat GPT and AI

- Embracing opportunity in the knocks & nudges

Luke sits down with Billy Ferguson, CTO at Thincats to discuss his unique take on how to build and lead a team. 

Having worked at larger businesses previously, Billy talks about the increased importance of culture, peer networks and hiring right when in a smaller environment. He openly discusses the tech choices he has made, the opportunity / cost associated with them and why you don't have to be at the bleeding edge to gain a competitive advantage.

Topics:

Leadership style - Everybody is a leader

Culture - Run, change, transform

Talent - Hiring right

Growth mindset - Why growth matters

Getting things done - Small company speed

Peer network - Building for success

Tech choices - Neo tech & a lack of debt

The competition - Opportunity / cost

Balance - The mental health triangle

Luke sits down with Anna Moore and Jennifer Longden lead people and culture at Pollinate, a fast growing London based fintech. They sit down to discuss all things culture and their ideas on how to drive collaboration across the fintech space.

Here’s a snapshot of the discussion.

– Who Are Pollinate

– The War For Talent “you can’t compete”

– Learning Month

– Award Winning HR

– Values

– Knowledge Sharing

– The People Network

– Say Yes!

What does it take to lead with authenticity? In this episode, David Germain, award-winning CIO and NED, joins Qurated MD, Luke Nihill, to explore how curiosity, trust, and resilience shape modern leadership.From growing up on a council estate to sitting on some of the UK’s most influential boards, David's journey brings powerful lessons on building diverse teams, navigating digital transformation, and staying grounded through it all.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:56) Pick up skills as you're earning

(04:39) "Give me the toughest assignment"

(06:36) The importance of leading with trust

(09:30) "It took time to get comfortable in my own skin"

(13:48) "You'll know you're enjoying what you're doing when it's tough"

(14:45) Becoming a NED

(17:49) How to build a board of directors

(22:11 ) "The great thing about working on boards"

(24:28) Investing in your own time

(28:07) How to create work-life balance

(29:37) The biggest opportunities for digital transformation

(36:13) Transformation is never complete

(41:26) "Allyship is understanding"

(49:51) What matters most to you now?

(52:23) Keep learning

(53:35) What do you wish you knew at the start of your career?

Follow:

⁠David⁠

⁠Luke

Discover more leadership insights at: https://www.qurated.com