Having taken a very non-traditional journey pushing himself continually out of his comfort zone, Nick Leitch made his way very successfully to Managing Director of corporate lending at Shawbrook Bank. (1000 people strong organisation offering highly personalised, practical, lending and savings products to individuals, businesses and real estate investors.) With humility, accepting you can't be successful on your own and with an attitude of “it's okay to make mistakes and learn” Nick is real, open, and honest about his journey to becoming managing director and what it takes to lead a successful team KEY TAKEAWAY Uncomfortable challenges: “I'm not happy with but I'm okay with putting myself into uncomfortable positions, and challenging myself in a way that says, well, if I want to move, keep moving forward and learn, I'll get the opportunity to experience more things. The easy option is... to stay in low gear or neutral and just sort of coast along. And one has to do that from time to time in order to catch your breath, or just see what's going on around you. But often, if you're really going to push, you got to put yourself in a slightly uncomfortable position once in a while.” Self-made? “I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am without… the people I've had around me; you can't do these sorts of things on your own. You often hear the expression, somebody described as a self-made woman or a self-made man… I don't believe you can't do that all on your own” “… there's an immense amount to learn from other people out there. Look for mentors, look for people who can, you know, who will want to give you guidance, some of the best people out there will be only so only too happy to be able to do that.” Distractions and internal conversations: “I'm easily distracted. I have a quite an active internal dialogue. In my mind, I have quite a large internal dialogue, which has many good things. It means I stop and think about things a lot and kind of work around problem... I do have a very healthy conversation with myself quite often.” ABOUT NICK LEITCH Nick is Managing Director of Shawbrook Bank Corporate Lending leading an award winning team supporting numerous shareholders, management teams and businesses across the UK. His career started in the late 80’s, first in hospitality and then financial services as a sales trainee in consumer, commercial and insurance products. This progressed to working in commercial lending markets for Barclays, TSB and Lloyds in sales, account and people management roles. Thereafter further opportunities were enjoyed with Ernst & Young, Endless and Seneca in advisory, investor, shareholder, director and partner roles. ‘I can’t imagine being anywhere other than financial services, it’s enabled me to experience so many businesses across numerous sectors. The variety makes everyday a school day in understanding how these companies work, but more importantly the needs and ambitions of the owners, individuals and teams we work with. Knowing this and using the experience gained enables empathy which makes for great professional and personal relationships.’ CONNECT WITH NICK LEITCH www.linkedIn.com/in/nickleitch ABOUT THE HOST – ALLI SPARGO Alli is the mother of two daughters and a son, a wife, a daughter and a sister. She is also an executive leadership coach who passionately believes that every individual has the potential to be who they want to be, and do what they want to do (she is living proof of that!): to BE the BEST version of themselves. Alli specialises in behavioural performance as an executive leadership and systemic team coach. Her breadth of business experience, together with her coaching and facilitation expertise, enables her to enhance leadership capability and personal impact, whilst understanding the demands of the commercial and organisational environment. WORK WITH ALLI If you would like explore how working with Alli would support you to be the person you want to be, have the career (and life) you want to have and support your team to perform at their optimum, then please book a free 1 hour meeting with her: booking:-Exploring-Human-Behaviours-At-Work-with-Alli CONNECT WITH ALLI Follow me here with more amazing guest interviews and share with your Podcast friends. https://linktr.ee/allispargo instagram.com/allisonspargoltd twitter.com/allisonspargo linkedin.com/in/allisonspargo HOSTED BY: Alli Spargo DISCLAIMER The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to the host and guest speakers. Please conduct your own due diligence.
