In the third interview in our Leadership Series, we were blown away by the knowledge and wisdom from Guy Duncan, Chief Technology Officer at Tide. One of the fastest-growing FinTech companies in the UK. Guy has over 20 years of experience in tech leadership, previously as a CTO of BMW and other large organisations like Valtech and pay you. Be prepared for really practical insights on tech leadership, how to reduce your work stress and how to prioritise your time as a C-level executive.
Here are some of the best nuggets of wisdom from our chat:
GD: Passionate, focused and loving.
GD: In terms of artistic expression, I don’t see a difference between painting and coding. When I see a Rothko at Tate Modern or an engineer's code, there’s really no difference. For me, they are both beautifully artistic even if the code is clean and simple. I’m very interested in functional programming languages. I think they enable clarity and purpose. When technology and product are seamlessly brought together in a flow state, to me that’s beautiful.
GD: Of course. I have a daily yoga practice because I like how it breaks me down physically and mentally – it allows me to be present-minded. The parallels between my yoga practice and my agile practices in innovation are paramount. If you cannot be honest with yourself, if you cannot love yourself, how can you love the company that you work for? How can you keep yourself accountable to be a better leader and grow?
They both require a lot of commitment to be at an advanced level. I didn’t start doing handstands first-time in my yoga practice. You have to build up those skills. Like with managing a team, you start with the basics and uphold your values – openness, transparency and servant leadership. Really serve the team, listen to their pain points and remove their suffering so they have room to innovate.
GD: The best part is problem-solving. The real title should be Chief Problem Officer. Working on innovation and innovation cycles, it’s really about solving really meaningful problems and digging into them. They’re hard problems – ones you can’t solve by just reading a book. They’re multi-faceted and complex. Where people and technology come together, using emotional and intellectual intelligence to do it.
GD: I have a weekly session with myself where I go through all of my ideas. I write them all down and think about them later. When I come back to them, I go through a process of reviewing either with a ‘hell yes’ or ‘hell no’. I prioritise that way – restraining myself so I save time, and time for my team. Then we only focus on the great ideas, finish them on-time and get them done and executed really well.
GD: Sooner Safer Happier by Jonathan Smart. It’s all about patterns and anti-patterns for business agility. It’s for anyone who is interested in scaling agility in their business. Whether you’re a startup or a scaleup.
If you want to hear more of Guy discussing his leadership philosophy, listen to the full interview on our Creative Capes Podcast:
If you’re more of a visual learner, head over to our Youtube Channel @futurelondonacademy
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