Explore every episode of the podcast Action, Impact, Growth
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What Happens When You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone | Sharon Maguire Interview | 30 Oct 2025 | 00:57:36 | |
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 | |||
| Building a leadership brand | 02 Sep 2025 | 00:51:31 | |
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: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Follow: 👉 Discover more leadership insights at: https://www.qurated.com | |||
| How to improve your performance in business and leadership with CEO, Dean Curtis. | 26 Feb 2024 | 00:54:16 | |
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/ | |||
| Product Leadership 101 | 22 Jan 2024 | 00:42:30 | |
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 | |||
| Taming the Change Dragon | 09 Nov 2023 | 00:45:58 | |
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 | |||
| A masterclass in situational leadership | 20 Jul 2023 | 00:36:21 | |
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 | |||
| Embracing Opportunity | 05 Jun 2023 | 00:39:31 | |
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 | |||
| Everybody is a leader: Billy Ferguson at Thincats | 27 Apr 2023 | 00:51:52 | |
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 | |||
| The Importance Of A Network - With Pollinate | 11 Jul 2022 | 00:23:55 | |
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! | |||
| How curiosity creates stronger leaders | 09 Jul 2025 | 00:55:06 | |
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: Discover more leadership insights at: https://www.qurated.com | |||
| How playing rugby trained me for the CEO role | 15 May 2025 | 00:40:08 | |
Luke Nihill of Qurated, sits down with Greg Ellison, CEO of Alpha bank to discuss his journey from the Rugby field to the boardroom and the importance of leading with meaning.
(00:00) Intro (00:45) Rugby (03:58) Fittest, fastest and most professional (07:30) Father’s footsteps (10:28) You can waste, spend or invest time (13:46) Finding inspiration (16:26) Just be curious (18:40) Getting good results (20:10) No silver bullets (23:48) Making work meaningful (27:04) Hire, lead, and get things done (29:20) “How’s your little bank going?” (33.20) Building resilience (37:40) Self belief
Follow: Greg - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregellison/ Luke - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukenihill/
Refs and resources:
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| Communication is crucial in leadership (Lessons from a CEO) | 28 Apr 2025 | 00:52:28 | |
Peter Strandell, Nasdaq SVP turned fintech CEO, sits down with Luke to discuss the learnings in moving from corporate to start up and importance of “embracing the suck” (00:00) Intro (01:55) Startup vs Corporate personality (04:52) Leading in a post Covid world (06:47) Reading the (virtual) room (9:34) Communicating with purpose (14:02) Breaking down strategy into pieces (17:01) Adapting to your audience (19:14) Bonus and incentives (21:55) Global Integration (24:01) Skills in the age of AI/ the US advantage (27:03) Execution beats strategy (31:20) CEO letter (34:56) Battle scars (37:14) Learning from failure/take a step back (41:39) Safety (44:09) 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 (46:44) Doing the bad stuff / Embrace the suck (51:33) Discipline for growth (55:00) Celebrate the small wins (58:26) Crises management (01:01:44) Two things not to be afraid of Follow:Peter StrandellLuke NihillRefs and resources:
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| Leaders are made, not born | 11 Feb 2025 | 00:46:36 | |
Alberto Verga, CEO MS Amlin Business Services sits down with Luke to discuss what it takes to lead a business, and the lessons he’s learned on his way to becoming Managing Director.
(00:00) Intro (00:32) Leaders are made, not born (03:49) The characteristics of a leader (05:15) Leadership is lonely (07:46) Making big decisions (09:46) Balancing views (13:03) Opportunity knocks (15:51) Becoming a corporate citizen (18:03) Developing skills (22:55) More than one way to the top (23:44) Don’t be territorial (26:02) Making the company better (28:40) Qualities for success in leadership (32:07) Organisation structure constructs (35:43) Opportunity will always exist (38:49) Automation and AI (42:37) IQ and EQ (45:13) There’s no substitute for experience Follow:
References discussed:
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| Define your career on your own terms | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:44:28 | |
Tingting Peng, Chief Transformation Officer of Moove, an Uber-backed fintech start-up, has a career journey that is nothing short of inspirational. Spanning investment banker, yoga teacher, Investor and leader in a global tech firm, Tingting has defined her career on her own terms, pursuing purpose and proving that there is more than one way to reach the C-suite. (0:00) Intro (2:25) A day in the life (4:11) Becoming a multipotentialite (7:57) Deciding your path (11:55) Stepping back to develop strategies (15:46) Slow down to speed up (18:46) Working across the matrix (22:15) How can I help you do your job better? (24:54) Finding inspiration (27:17) Creating your own opportunities (31:50) Drinking from the firehose (34:15) Defining moments of failure (37:07) Silver linings in failure (38:29) Fulfilling purpose (40:55) Being comfortable with challenging the status quo
Luke - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukenihill/ Qurated - https://www.quratednetwork.com/about/ | |||
| The road to IPO: how to lead your business to success | 30 Sep 2024 | 00:40:24 | |
From successfully selling his own company for an eight-figure sum to steering a mid-tier bank through an IPO in 2023, experienced CEO and Board Advisor Bhairav Trivedi reflects on the remarkable achievements that have defined his career. He reflects on key leadership lessons and insights gained throughout his impressive career. A must-listen for anyone looking to learn from a true business leader. (00:00) – Intro (00:39) – Proud moments in your career (02:37) – Striking a balance (03:51) – Learnings in leadership (04:51) – Non-negotiables of a leader (07:22) – Maturing through learning (08:56) – Flipping the mindset (11:02) – Transparency in strategy (12:54) – Developing drive (13:23) – The road to CEO (16:06) – Compliance vs Remittances (16:58) – B2B or B2C business model (18:50) – Tailoring to your market (20:07) – Identifying opportunity (21:48) – Conviction in your abilities (23:59) – Pros and cons of being a Founder (25:27) – Failure not an option (26:59) – Setting the growth strategy (29:01) – Road to exit (33:06) – Post-exit reflections (37:16) – Measuring success (38:17) – Balancing act Bhairav - / bhairavtrivedi Luke - / lukenihill Qurated - https://www.quratednetwork.com/about/ | |||
| Leveraging differences to fuel success | 29 May 2024 | 00:41:30 | |
Geline Midouin is Executive Director and COO at a top 10 global law firm. Having moved to the US from the Caribbean as a child, Geline carved out her success by working her way up within the Media industry, before transitioning into the very different world of legal. Geline has harnessed her differences, turning them into her superpower, and then has gone on to empower her team to do the same. (00:00) Intro (01:11) Surround yourself with people who are different (03:13) Firm values (04:10) Inclusive leadership (05:57) Question and engage (08:48) Adjusting leadership style (13:13) Confidence in bring a new perspective (15:52) Seeing issues at a two, not a 10 (18:11) Finding Solutions (20:44) Creating accountability (24:04) Transitioning into a new industry (27:39) Mediocracy is not something that I strive for (29:31) Appreciating people (31:48) North star, goals, and a plan to get there (34:58) Think, and dream bigger (37:53) Diversity and the importance of long-term thinking | |||
| How to future proof your career, with Martyn Atkinson | 17 Apr 2024 | 00:29:49 | |
In this episode Luke sits down with Martyn Atkinson, Lloyds Banking Group CIO Consumer Relationships & Mass Affluent, to discusses the importance of identifying and developing skills in advancing your career. (00:00) - Intro (00:44) - Luck and judgement (01:44) - Being open to opportunity (02:47) - Identifying the gap (04:35) - Learning mindset (07:55) - Breadth vs. depth (09:45) - The increasing importance of softer skills (10:46) - What does the CIO role look like? (12:44) - AI and the roles of the future (14:45) - Personal Development (16:25) - Gripping the edge of capabilities (20:03) - Use strengths to mitigate weaknesses (21:22) - Exercise takes priority (24:56) - Step back to go forward (27:03) - Igniting ambition (28:37) - Be broad
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