Lucy Marie Hagues MBE - Building better banking at Capital One

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders Podcast

Lucy Marie Hagues MBE - Building better banking at Capital One | Episode 23

Banker Lucy Marie Hagues is a charismatic leader whose business skills have taken her right to the top of financial services company Capital One UK.

But she still remembers the day when – as a junior member of staff – she was told her poor attitude was having a negative effect on colleagues.

She tells the Nottingham Business School Business Leaders’ Podcast: “I was frustrated with my leader at the time. I thought I understood more about what needed to be done than they did.

“I remember being taken to one side and told in no uncertain terms that I was getting in the way of the team.

“Yes, my skills were great, but the sum total of my effect on that team wasn’t positive. I was shocked. It took me a while to realise that being easy to work with is a key skill.”

But it was a lesson that served Lucy well.

“You don’t get to be a leader if nobody wants to follow you!” she adds.

Lucy’s original qualifications were in engineering, but in 2001 she joined Capital One as a trainee project manager, then data analyst.

In June 2020 she was made head of the bank’s UK operation.

She tells Honorary Visiting Professor Mike Sassi that her Northern, working-class upbringing, may have given her an advantage.

“The experiences we have growing up feed into the way we are as leaders in the future. They give you an understanding of people.

“My parents left school at 15. My dad started out as a tea boy. My mom was an assistant in a pharmacy. It was a big Catholic family in Oldham. I was one of six children.

“I had a real sense that I had to make the most of everything. It was a hugely privileged environment, with a lot of love, a lot of care, lots of access to education… and that sense of when you get an opportunity, you make the most of it!”

During a candid conversation, Lucy says her background also means she is constantly striving to take advantage of opportunities.

“When somebody underestimates you, they hand you an advantage before you've even started,” she adds.

“If you are lucky enough to have the background I've had… first generation to go to university, growing up in in the north… you have awareness and understanding other people might not have.”

Lucy also points out that true leaders don’t need formal titles.

“Leadership is a choice,” she says.

“Seniority is not the same as leadership. When ten people sit at a table and say ‘what shall we do?’, are you the person who is on the edge of your seat with an answer? If you are, you are a leader.

“Lead from where you are - whatever level you're at.

“I remember somebody telling me their success was driven by their leadership of the grey areas - by being someone who stepped in every time there was an absence of leadership.”

And the banking executive advises young leaders of the future to grab every opportunity - including those that make them uncomfortable.

“The ability to tolerate minor discomfort is a superpower,” she says.

“If you can get through that next thing that makes you uncomfortable, then the personal growth available to you is huge.

“Whether that thing is speaking in public or learning a bit of maths that means you'll understand a financial statement better, or going up to talk to somebody at an event…

“You need to say to yourself: this discomfort is a good thing and I'm going to do more!

“It's about relishing the uncomfortable opportunities. Those are the moments when you really develop.

“Live your life through a series of minor discomforts!”

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