The Shift No-one Explains
Debs didn't plan her career. She followed her curiosity through the dot-com boom, into fintech, telco, travel and banking, building what she calls a properly "squiggly" path, and ended up leading a global technology team without ever quite noticing the moment it happened. In this episode, Debs talks with Lauren and Danielle about what actually changes when you step into senior leadership, and how little of it matches what you'd expect. She talks about the year it took her to stop trying to fix the code herself, why she had to give up planning for every eventuality once the pace outran it, and the moment an HR director warned an exec to "watch out for her, she's ambitious" like it was a bad thing. It's a conversation about letting go of being the best doer in the room, learning to trust your own judgement when there's no time to prepare for everything, and working out who you become once people start turning to you for the answers. Topics covered: Following passion over a plan, and building a genuinely squiggly career The moment leadership finds you, and why there's no finish line to cross Letting go of being the doer, and the sporting analogy that reframes it completely Why overpreparing stopped working once the pace outran it Managing up, and what changes when your senior leadership actually has your back Growing into confidence as a naturally shy, reserved person The HR director who called her ambition a warning sign, and what that taught her Finding her people through a non-exec board role, and why an outside network matters Becoming a parent, and learning to be kinder to herself What changed in her that nobody warned her about "I've always been quite ambitious, not for power or fame, just to do cool stuff." If you've ever had your ambition handed back to you as something to watch out for, this one's for you.