Women Who Lead: A Q&A with Highnote COO Nicola Morris

At Highnote, we believe the best companies are built by people with different perspectives, experiences, and voices at the table. To mark International Women’s Day, we caught up with our COO, Nicola Morris, a seasoned global growth executive, to talk about leadership, growth, and finding your voice in fast-moving industries.

Her reflections remind us that impact and growth come in many forms:

Q1. We often hear that many women still self-select out of opportunities. What helped you start saying yes to more challenging roles?

While it is certainly true that some women self-select out of opportunities, my experience was slightly different, or at least I felt it was different. In my case, and I suspect in the case of many women, opportunities were hard won and only after I had largely already been performing the role, often behind the scenes and definitely for other people.

For a large part of my career, I was already operating at a much higher level than my title suggested. Frequently, I was wrangling resources that didn’t report to me to execute on projects and deliverables that belonged to someone else. In one large company, my peers and collaborators were often two levels above me. I kept wondering, “Why am I not at the same level?" and waited for the recognition to come. The recognition was more than a title as there were meaningful differences in compensation and credibility, especially in large organizations.

I knew I was good at getting the work done, but I didn’t realize that executing wasn’t enough. I wasn’t good at advocating for myself and taking credit. Looking back, as frustrating as it was to be overlooked, I learned an incredible amount that has been invaluable in every role since. I learned to set politics aside, to mobilize (without authority) resources to a common goal, to dig in, to never miss a deadline, and above all, to have grit and humility.

Q2. What have you learned about scaling a company?

Scaling a company isn’t just about processes or headcount growth; it’s about empowering people to own outcomes and make decisions.

At Highnote, and when you are building from the ground up, you move quickly, you make decisions, often with imperfect information, and you build every day. The people who thrive here are the ones who take ownership and are curious. If you see something that needs to exist, you build it. See something that could be better, you change it. That kind of empowerment changes what teams believe is possible.

Personally, I’m a get-it-done person and an execution oriented leader, and I’ve learned that growth and execution happen faster (and better) when you give people the autonomy and confidence to act.

Q3. When you think about AI and automation, what’s the right balance between efficiency and keeping a human touch?

People do business with people. We’re human first, and that connection will always matter. I see AI as a people multiplier because it gives us back the time and space to focus more on the human side of work.

So much of what slows us down is the behind-the-scenes, time-consuming tasks that pull us away from customers. With AI handling those, our teams in areas such as customer success and risk can go deeper with insights and deliver more meaningful value.

AI can make what we do faster, more seamless, and more insightful, but it doesn’t have to make it less human or less relevant. It’s about improving it on every level so we can give our customers more time and attention to build powerful financial products. The goal isn’t automation for its own sake. It’s using technology to remove friction, think and analyze more deeply, and with more insights to produce even better outcomes and solve bigger problems.

Q4. What strengths do you think women uniquely bring to fintech, and how can they intentionally lean into those from day one?

I’m always reluctant to cast a gender with a particular strength, so instead I’ll talk about some strengths that I think are hugely important and let the reader decide how to apply them. Emotional intelligence and empathy. Being able to see a problem and create a solution from multiple perspectives is one of the keys to winning products and creating great companies. Being able to stand in the shoes of others when assessing a situation helps to identify what truly matters to each stakeholder or participant and leads to better outcomes.

Being able to “read the room” and adjust your style, whether you call it EQ or empathy, also impacts your communication style and can change your message from one that angers to one that inspires. Great leaders have this down to a science.

End of interview content

From all of us at Highnote, we’re proud to work alongside leaders like Nicola who bring clarity, resilience, and vision to the companies they help build.

This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the women who are shaping the future of fintech.