15.12.2025
The Financial Services and risk sectors are undergoing a fundamental reinvention. From my perspective within Risk, Banking and Search, it’s clear that the traditional leadership playbook doesn’t stretch far enough. Leaders must understand the tectonic shifts happening under their feet right now.
This article draws on conversations I’ve had with female C-suite leaders across Banking, Fintech, Risk, and Compliance on the Women Who Make It Happen (WWMIH) series. Their stories cut through the noise, offering a clear-eyed look at the trends already reshaping the sector and the behaviours leaders need to embrace now. Not someday.
Across those conversations, four themes rose to the top – each one pushing leaders to rethink how they lead and prepare for a Financial Services sector being reshaped by data, AI and rapid digital change.
1. Leadership gets a human upgrade: From authoritative to authentic
The traditional command-and-control mindset is slowing businesses down. Across Financial Services, leaders are shifting towards a style that’s human, grounded and built for productivity. Authority on its own doesn’t land anymore. Authenticity does.
Ellen Watson Hicks, former Chief Risk & Compliance Officer at Railpen, recalled past career advice where she was told, “being nice is not going to… help you in your career.” It’s a mindset rooted in a different era. Today, her leadership philosophy is built on what she calls ‘compassionate leadership’, a strategic approach focused on fostering psychological safety, clarity and trust. As she put it:
“I’ve recently learned that there is a name for how I like to do things and that is compassionate leadership which is absolutely not the same as being soft or not expecting people to work hard… it’s creating a sort of a psychologically safe space for people to experiment, fail fast, and learn.”
This new leadership model is foundational to building the resilient, innovative cultures required to thrive. It moves beyond persona and performance to a more integrated approach.
That theme echoed across many conversations I had on WWMIH. Tanja Gihr, Non Executive Director at One Home and former Head of Sustainable Banking EMEA at Barclays Investment Bank, spoke in her episode about the courage it takes to “lead authentically” and stay true to your own values in an industry where confidence is often mistaken for conformity. She emphasised the importance of finding your “truth and authenticity” in the banking world.
My conclusion is that the future of leadership in Financial Services won’t belong to the loudest voice, but to the leaders willing to be genuine, build trust quickly and create the conditions for people to do their best work.
2. The AI revolution is here (and it’s a human challenge as much as the tech one)
Forward-thinking leaders in finance no longer see AI as just another tool to optimise old processes. They view it as a structural shift. A rewiring. A moment that will change how banking works from the inside out.
In her episode, Denise Ho, Head of Operations Technology Risk at ClearBank, pinpointed AI, quantum computing and tokenisation as the seismic trends redefining Financial Services. Embedded banking. Next-gen platforms. The capability to power real-time payments at scale. But she also brought the conversation back to what really matters:
“I think what we need to look at is how we prepare ourselves for these shifts – especially the seismic trends we’re seeing now, like AI and quantum computing. It’s not just about accepting them or facing them as they come; but about staying resilient, staying relevant in the industry, and making sure we’re ready for whatever comes next.”
And for Denise, readiness is as much governance as it is engineering. As she put it, the real work is in how organisations adopt AI and whether they bring their people, their business and the regulators with them. The challenge is not just in building the models, but in building the governance, trust, and understanding around them.
That human imperative echoed across every conversation I’ve had with senior women in finance. The tech curve is steep, but the talent conversation is steeper – and, in places, behind.
Many leaders describe today’s change as “faster and more complex” than anything the sector has seen before. That urgency drives Clare Pearson, Strategic Advisor at Finexer and Head of Technology Operations & Delivery Management at Fnality – who was my guest on the WWMIH – and whose work in STEM and social mobility aims to strengthen the future talent pipeline long before individuals enter the sector.
Heidi Physick, Chief People Officer at Oodle Car Finance, reinforces the same dual responsibility: adopt transformational tools while creating the conditions for safe, strategic and inclusive deployment. It’s a balance the industry can’t afford to miss.
In short: the AI revolution demands as much leadership evolution as technical innovation. The organisations that thrive will be the ones that act boldly but responsibly, sharpening capability while empowering the people who will shape what comes next.
3. The new bedrock of strategy: where culture and compliance meet
Culture is no longer a “soft” topic relegated to HR. As I’ve argued before when discussing non-financial misconduct, culture now sits squarely inside Risk, Compliance and operational resilience. This shift is not just an internal evolution but a direct response to immense external pressures – reputational risk, intense regulatory scrutiny, and the war for talent.
Lucy Morley, Chief Credit Officer at Tint Financial Services, emphasised on the podcast that culture is explicitly stated as the biggest mitigator of risk, supported by FCA focus and strategic business success.
You can’t build a data-driven future in risk and compliance without the right cultural foundations. A culture of fear, where mistakes are hidden, is a massive liability. Raluca Efford, COO at Vemi Money, echoed this in her episode, when she said: “You need a culture where it feels safe to speak up… because when people fear the consequences of challenging the status quo or challenging the leaders’ opinion in the room you just never truly innovate, you never truly evolve.”
Similarly, the “psychologically safe space” championed by leaders like Ellen Watson Hicks – where teams can “experiment, fail fast, and learn” – becomes a core risk mitigator. Transparency, early intervention and open communication are the edge. This is where culture stops being soft. It becomes structural.
4. The end of the corporate ladder: your career path is now a ‘portfolio’
The traditional, straight-line career path is disappearing. In its place, a portfolio-style career is rising – built through sideways moves, cross-functional jumps and stretch assignments that give leaders real range. In a world defined by constant change, that breadth is becoming a competitive advantage.
Clare Pearson’s journey across audit, travel, retail, and deep into the payments sector, illustrates this perfectly. The “full range of knowledge” she’s built simply can’t be gained by promotions alone.
Claire Barratt, Executive Director at BCB Group, put it even more clearly: “I remember a female leader saying she’d taken opportunities to step sideways rather than chase the climb. Those shifts gave her a broader understanding of the business and shaped her into a more rounded leader. That really stuck with me.”
This shift requires a new mindset from waiting for perfection to backing potential. Clare pointed out that many people still wait until they can tick nearly every box on a job description. Meanwhile, others will go for the role even if they’re only halfway there. Increasingly, organisations back the latter – adaptable thinkers who learn as they go and grow into what’s next.
In the future of work, skill acquisition will matter more than title chasing.
Conclusion: what kind of leaders will this moment create?
The Financial Services landscape – and everything within – is being reshaped by powerful trends.
AI adoption is now a cultural challenge as much as a technological one.
Leadership is shifting from authoritative to authentic.
Careers are portfolios, not ladders.
And culture has fused with compliance, becoming a strategic safeguard.
So the question isn’t simply “what’s coming next?”
It’s sharper than that:
Who are we ready to become as this future takes shape?
