Episode 29, Part 2 - Lucy Houlding (Vanguard): Leadership, Decision‑Making and Growing People

Matt Best: Hello, and welcome to the Growth Workshop Podcast. In this podcast, we'll be Matt Best: sharing insights from our combined 30-plus years experience and hearing from other industry leaders to get their thoughts and perspectives on what growth looks like in modern business. Thanks for joining us. We're back with part two.

Dannii Mathers: Just touching on being a leader and your leadership skills, from the experiences that you've had, especially those pivotal moments that you've already explained, how has that really shaped your leadership and how you show up today? Lucy Houlding: Yeah. So I think one thing I learned relatively early on in my career, and th-this was a framework that I think has really helped me become as, as well-rounded as possible. And this was the idea or concept of having a personal board of directors.

So it's a very simple but powerful idea of you have a group of people that you could turn to for help with different things. So whether that's facing a particular challenge with a task at work through to really wanting just to get some different outside perspectives from the industry or just someone just to give you some very honest and direct career advice. And that group of people should be from diverse backgrounds, diverse personalities, have different styles, and should absolutely be both men and women and from people from both inside and outside your organisation too.

So I think that's a really helpful framework for anybody regardless of your industry, by the way. But maybe more I think it, it's helped me as a woman because that kind of sponsorship or mentorship doesn't always happen organically. You have to be really intentional about building those relationships and networks. Whilst I do know many women that, that like to drink pints down the pub it's not always a natural or organic environment for everybody.

So again, I think that's something that I know has really helped me as a leader is, say, having those different perspectives having that strong support system to turn to when I needed support. And yeah, as I say, I think that's ultimately helped me become a more effective leader. Although I'm sure not perfect. I'm sure I've got a lot to learn.

But as I say, having that diverse support system really helped. And I think that there's definitely been times where I've probably neglected that support system, and it's typically those times that you really need those people or tho-those different perspectives is when you realise that - Or certainly for me, I had a moment a couple of years ago when I confidently could go to only two or three people. Which, again, was a kind of moment that made me realise that, you need to be really intentional about building those relationships and looking for sponsorship and mentorship where you can, and that's something that I actively encourage anybody that I mentor coming into the industry now.

Jonny Adams: Th- this is just too tempting. When we start to talk about personal board of advisors, I think we're gonna have to give the audience, who is that one person on our personal board of advisors? And I don't know, Dannii, I'm looking at you to maybe go first, then Lucy maybe second and me third... or Dannii Mathers: so I would say one of mine would be another entrepreneur that I know who is great at slowing me down, because I tend to work very fast always...

I almost struggle to pull myself away, so I need someone that brings a little bit of calm to my life. And she's very good at slowing me down and getting me just to be in the moment and be present, because so much can be had by slowing down. But we live in this very fast society, especially with AI and everything else that speeds, helps speed us up, that actually we can miss so much insight if we don't take that time to slow down. So it's definitely something that I need to be more intentional about.

Jonny Adams: And the, again, it's like a tease, like what does she do to help you slow down? Dannii Mathers: So whether that's mindfulness, additional breaks journaling, all these things that we know we probably should do, but like you were saying- Putting your phone down ... putting your phone down, yeah, just taking those moments to be really present. And a bit like what you said about mentoring, and it's the first thing that can just disappear when you feel you get really busy.

But actually, it's the thing that you need to increase- Yes ... and do more of. Yes, definitely. Like more coaching, more mentoring, because- Yeah ...

yeah, otherwise you, you can't see the wood through the trees, and I think that's when you can sometimes make, not necessarily the wrong decisions, but the long decisions. Yes. So yes, for me, it's being more intentional with my time to slow down so I can see things from a more horizon perspective. Jonny Adams: I need to know who this person is , but Lucy?

Lucy Houlding: I would say it's one of, a close friend of mine who I met when I was living in Santiago in Chile. We both arrived at similar times. We were doing different jobs but were going through very similar experiences, and as she described our time there really well, it was a rollercoaster. It was highest of the highs, lowest of the lows.

So whenever I'm, I'm facing or grappling with something now she'll always be one of the people that I want to call first because, yeah I f- I feel like she, she understands. We work in similar industries now. And yeah, she always brings a lot of humor. Dannii Mathers: Can we get her on the show next, do you think?

Lucy Houlding: Maybe. Yes I think, yeah for me she brings that humorous element and yeah, I think it's very easy to take life very seriously. And so to have someone that has, yeah, been through kinda similar experiences as to you, she certainly kinda helped me see the lighter side of particular challenges. Jonny Adams: Oh, it's great because it's nice, isn't it, when you reflect on things like this?

And when I'm thinking about my personal board of advisors, we're in a trust tree here, aren't we, guys? Lucy Houlding: Yeah. You sure? Jonny Adams: Yeah.

When I think about self, I think pretty aware of things in life, but been told and know that self-regulation is something that I'm probably not the strongest at. So I need to be much more about thinking about responding, not reacting. And that's really something I'm working on as an individual and as a professional at the moment, probably more so at home than I am in the professional world. And the person I would bring straight on the board of advisors, I don't know if he would accept it or not, is my wonderful friend Khalid.

We were living together in North London for a number of years in our sort of late 20s, early 30s, and we both went through a life moment together. I'm not gonna go into too much details. So we- We need tissues. Yeah.

Is it working? So we did the classic, did we run away? Yes, we did. We jumped straight on a plane, went to South Africa drove the Garden Route.

And if you've ever done the Garden Route- ... from Cape Town up and back, it was a wild time, we had the fun, but we talked, and talked. And I think as being a male or a man, and maybe in a family where, my dad didn't talk as much my mum tried to get a lot of out, out of me, but never really got to a point, that to sit there in a car for eight hours where you are only gonna talk, and we really went down to the depths of all those things. I think if there's any a moment where I need to turn to someone, although we might only talk once every two months, three months, it's just the guy I'd go to, work or personal life.

So yeah Khalid. Dannii Mathers: Three exchange friends numbers. You can have my friends, and I'll have your friends. Sounds great, yeah.

Jonny Adams: We'll have a s- the six of us next time. A couple more questions, Lucy and then this is, this has been brilliant so far. So- Let's think about industry. Yeah.

We- we've got, Vanguard, one of the largest asset management firms across the whole world. You guys can see things in the future. You've got some of the most, brightest people in the market. What's one of the strategies that you're seeing at the moment?

When we spoke about, some of those things going on in the industry about moving, individual savers towards investors, that's a really intriguing and interesting point. Could you describe what you're doing, what Vanguard is doing to help Lucy Houlding: people? Yeah. So I, I think specifically in the UK, I think this is a big challenge that we have as a nation because we are a nation of savers and not investors.

And some of the research that we've done has shown that around 30% of the UK adult population have roughly 200 billion of spare cash sitting in bank accounts. And I think it's that fear and friction that prevents people from investing. People think that investing is like gambling or it's too complicated. All the while, their cash sits in bank accounts and inflation obviously as we know erodes the value over time.

Whereas at Vanguard, our goal is really trying to make investing as simple and affordable as possible, and we do that with our low-cost diversified products, whether that's a kind of one-stop shop solution like our LifeStrategy funds or our managed ISA, if you were to come to invest with us directly and wanted somebody else to invest that, that money for you. But we're also big on education, and we think very long and hard about our plain talk investment language and you really try to encourage people to understand that if you can save, you can absolutely invest, and it's those, small changes or investments into a savings plan that add up over time and can make a real difference.

And, w- we at Vanguard we do that through partnering with lots of different firms across both the UK and Europe, whether that be digital wealth platforms, financial advisors wholesalers to name a few, all in the aid of trying to, help, Or reach as many million of investors as possible, as I say, with our low cost diversified product. So just a small small goal there. But yeah we're an ambitious organisation and we think there's a huge opportunity to, as I say, help savers become investors.

Jonny Adams: That's really interesting 'cause I think, Dannii, you and I could probably as individuals think about the concept of saving into investing but how are Vanguard going about that? Give us some practical examples. Lucy Houlding: Yeah. So I- to be honest I think it all starts with our culture and our mission.

We are a mission-led organisation, investor first, and a lot of that is driven through our, our mutual ownership structure, and that is, is one thing that genuinely is unique about Vanguard, is that every decision that, that we make is with our investors' and, or our clients', best interests and needs in mind. And that our mutual structure, ownership structure is really what drives the culture and philosophy throughout Vanguard globally and is inherent in our investment philosophy as well.

So as I mentioned earlier, our goal is to, in trying to help as many millions of investors we know that the biggest hindrance to helping investors generate as much wealth as possible over time is cost. Like cost is the first thing that eats into investment performance over time. We are very passionate about delivering kind of low cost, high quality investment products. And yeah, as I said, working in partnership with lots of different firms and that's very much part of my job to help reach as many investors as possible.

Jonny Adams: Amazing. And if we think about looking to the future, so if we think about that, that, that sort of crystal ball, as I said at the start, Dannii, take us away with this last question. Dannii Mathers: So you took the crystal ball. I was gonna lead with the crystal ball.

So thinking five years from now, what advice would you give financial leaders when it comes to future-proofing their culture, their investors, their capabilities? What advice would you give? Lucy Houlding: I would say it, it all genuinely starts with culture. And looking ahead I think leaders that will get this right will create teams that can learn faster, adapt faster, and genuinely create that long-term value.

So I think- Yeah, for me, future-proofing is all about the culture and bringing out a culture that, that brings out that capability, accelerates that capability and building a place where people feel like they can genuinely belong and make a difference, I think is what is gonna yeah, is what we need for the next five years and beyond. Dannii Mathers: So really investing in the people. Lucy Houlding: Yes, definitely. Jonny Adams: Amazing.

That brings us to the end of an amazing episode, Lucy. Just amazing. The background, your story, Santiago. I'm gonna go and look later and see if I can get a holiday.

You should, yep. I know where to come for some tips. That's right also just, j- just the conversation that I was a part of, and you both were stimulating about women in financial services. There is so much more to unpack there.

It's gonna be a really important part towards the industry moving forward. So I think you two could have a catch-up more about that moving forward as well. And then also about what Vanguard are doing as part of your strategy and what it might look like in the future. So today has been amazing.

Thank you so much, and thank you, Dannii. Dannii Mathers: Thank you, Jonny. Thank you, Lucy. Oh, thank you for having me.

Jonny Adams: Thank you, Lucy. Much appreciated. Matt Best: For more insights, make sure you subscribe. And if you enjoy the journey, don't forget to leave us a review.

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