When Expertise Stops Being Enough: Genevieve Kangurs on Strategic Leadership

We are usually promoted because we are good at what we do.

But what happens when the next role requires something completely different from us?

In this episode of The Impact Room, Michelle Ansell speaks with Genevieve Kangurs, Customer Director at Vanquis, about the shift from functional expertise to enterprise leadership.

Genevieve describes a common leadership paradox.

The skills, knowledge and behaviours that help someone succeed within their function can become the very things they cling to when the role changes.

Instead of stepping into the new job, senior leaders can find themselves continuing to do the work they already know how to do.

The conversation explores what being strategic really means in practice.

For Genevieve, strategy is less about producing clever ideas or a polished presentation and more about sense-making, choice-making and helping an organisation make better decisions.

Michelle and Genevieve also discuss why customer leadership must connect with commercial performance, why curiosity becomes increasingly important as leaders progress, and why the strongest leaders can move between the detail and the bigger enterprise picture.

They explore the five transitions Genevieve and Andy Matheson are developing through Routefinding: Leadership in Uncertain Terrain, including moving from functional delivery to strategic contribution, from functional thinking to enterprise thinking, from personal expertise to developing others, from responding to change to creating it, and from working within culture to actively shaping it.

Genevieve also shares a practical question for any senior leader:

“What is the work that only you can do?”

Because as responsibility grows, leadership is not simply about doing more.

It is about understanding what only you can contribute, creating space to think, asking better questions and becoming comfortable operating where the answers are not obvious.

A thoughtful conversation about leadership, strategy, customer value, curiosity and what it really takes to operate at enterprise level.

Read and see more here:

Learn more and follow Genevieve. / genevievekangurs The Routefinding Substack "Leadership in uncertain terrain is here: https://routefinding.substack.com/ The Routefinding Newsletter can be found here: / stepping-up-when-expertise-longer-enough-g...

The People Keeping Us Safe: Satia Rai on Safety, Visibility and Purpose

Security professionals are everywhere.

In our hospitals, shopping centres, supermarkets, workplaces, transport hubs, major events and some of the UK’s most sensitive infrastructure.

Yet the scale, capability and importance of this workforce is often overlooked.

In this episode of The Impact Room, Michelle Ansell is joined by Satia Rai, CEO of the International Professional Security Association (IPSA) and Founder and CEO of Women in Protective Services (WIPS).

Having started her own career on the frontline around 30 years ago, Satia has experienced first-hand both the opportunities within the security profession and the barriers that can prevent people from seeing it as a long-term career.

She shares why professionalising the sector means more than licensing. It means better training, development, working conditions, recognition and career pathways for the people entrusted with public safety every day.

The conversation also explores Satia’s drive to bring more women into protective services.

Through WIPS, she wants to make successful women more visible, connect women across security, policing, fire and other protective services, and build stronger pathways into leadership.

Satia also discusses an area particularly important to her: violence against women and girls.

With security professionals often among the first people to notice when somebody is vulnerable or at risk, Satia believes this workforce could play a much greater role in public protection through awareness, training, empathy and partnership.

Her own story runs throughout the conversation too. From frontline security to CEO, from feeling underrepresented to becoming a visible industry leader, Satia describes finding her purpose through people and learning the importance of authenticity, representation and belonging.

As she puts it:

“It’s important that we reflect the communities that we protect.”

A conversation about security, certainly, but also about leadership, visibility, opportunity and what happens when people finally see somebody like themselves succeeding.

Learn more about this episode here:

Contact Satia https://www.linkedin.com/in/satia-rai/

More from IPSA https://www.ipsa.org.uk/

Learn More about WIPS https://www.ipsa.org.uk/wips

AI is moving quickly, but many organisations are still struggling to turn experimentation into genuine business value.

In this episode of The Impact Room, Michelle Ansell speaks with Maggie Sarfo, who helps growth-focused organisations and leadership teams connect AI ambition to measurable commercial outcomes.

Rather than starting with the technology, Maggie starts with the business problem. She explains why so many AI pilots fail to scale, why adoption is more than usage, and why leadership teams need to understand their readiness before investing further.

The conversation covers AI maturity, AI literacy, governance, ethics, data readiness, culture, trust and the changing skills leaders need as AI becomes embedded into the way organisations operate.

One of Maggie’s most striking observations is:

“If you add AI on top of the chaos, it will become more chaotic.”

Michelle and Maggie also explore the future of work, the rise of agentic AI, the risk of cognitive overload, and why leaders may need to rethink the foundations of their business rather than simply adding AI tools to existing systems.

This is a practical and thought-provoking conversation for senior leaders, founders and transformation teams who want to move beyond AI pilots and start building the foundations for sustainable growth, better decision-making and measurable impact.

Maggie is the Founder and CEO of Meres Consult Learn More about Meres Consult,

website: https://www.meresconsult.com/

Complimentary AI Readiness & Maturity Assessment: https://meresconsult.com/ai-assessment.html

Complimentary AI Exploration Consultation: https://tidycal.com/maggiesarfo/explore

Connect with Maggie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-sarfo/

Global business growth and AI adoption consultancy

Watch the Full episode on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/2FOicTBmWGw

Learn more about Douglas Jackson Executives Search and Leadership Advisory for Permanent and Fractional AI leadership and direction. https://www.douglas-jackson.com/executive-search-proven-diverse-leaders-headhunters/