The Guest –Lee Provoost, CTO at Flagstone
In this podcast episode, we are joined by Lee Provoost, the CTO at Flagstone, a UK-based fintech company helping clients get better returns on their savings. In this episode, Lee reflects on his journey growing into technical leadership, from leading high-stakes projects while learning on the job, to navigating imposter syndrome and finding his footing as a leader.
Some highlights of this episode include:
- Non-linear path to CTO
- Learning on the job & being “comfortable with being uncomfortable” —
- Startup vs. corporate reality
- Leadership self-care & transparency
- AI’s impact on product engineering
Q: In your leadership journey, have you ever experienced imposter syndrome? If so, how do you deal with it?
“Yeah, it’s something that lingers in the back of your mind all the time, but it lessens over time. I still feel it quite regularly, but I remind myself that I got this role because I clearly bring something to the table and the people around me have recognized that. It’s also why, three years later, I’m still the CTO of this business—you need to remind yourself of that regularly.
When I ran my own business many years ago, I printed a meme as a massive poster in the office: a Labrador sitting at a keyboard with the caption, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing.’ I did it to normalize that none of us really knows everything—we’re all learning.
Surround yourself with good coaches or mentors, and with peers on your leadership team. It can be lonely, and occasional validation from peers—‘that was a great job’ or ‘you handled that well’—definitely helps”
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