Function: C-suite

Reimagining the future of a regional bank

The Brief

The client was a diversified publicly listed regional bank with retail, corporate and capital market divisions that was reimagining group strategy to accelerate growth and increase impact for key stakeholders. The existing strategy had been successfully executed but was focused on traditional activities in the local market. The mandate for the new strategy was to enable expansion of services and geographical reach, leverage emerging technology to reach new customers, and improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.

The Engagement

We began by conducting a round of exploratory interviews with members of the senior leadership team to deeply understand the context, what was working, and where change was needed, This insight was used to craft the agenda for a 4-day in-person offsite. The backbone of the delivery was the Goldcrest Strategy Pyramid, which served as a framework to clarify the organisational purpose, create a new group strategy, and identify the key areas of focus to make this a reality. This work was integrated with activities to develop the necessary leadership, culture and teamwork to successfully land it in the business.

The Outcome

The outcome was alignment in purpose and understanding amongst the senior leadership team, and a clear action plan to accomplish these goals. The new strategy was subsequently approved by the Board and embedded in the organisation with additional coaching, organisational design and communication/team workshops to support the changes required to reach the reimagined future.

Refreshing strategy and leadership for the next chapter

The Brief

The client was a privately owned asset manager that was looking to build on historic success with a strategic shift in the face of a changing commercial environment. The organisation was new to working with an external specialist in this way and were cautious about the investment and the benefits. Despite this reticence, continued business success required a fresh approach and that was demonstrated by the executive committee’s willingness to try something different.

The Engagement

The engagement was to design a process to build the trust that would allow the executive committee to discuss the issues that mattered while spending time together, away from the office and the usual Boardroom dynamic. We started with a round of one-to-one interviews that built rapport, enabled the key strategic issues to be surfaced and the crafting of a meaningful agenda for a 2-day offsite.

The offsite was facilitated by 2 Goldcrest consultants who steered the strategic discussion, connected the conversation to the leadership behaviours needed to underpin success, and galvanised the team around their collective purpose. We followed the event with a pair of follow up sessions to track progress, embed
learnings and maintain momentum.

The Outcome

The initial scepticism, quickly transformed into enthusiasm. This allowed a refreshed purpose, vision and strategy considering a fast-changing macro environment, and a more connected team that was able to model the leadership and teamwork required for success.

Cultural reset to achieve renewed purpose

The Brief

The client was a mid-cap Bank. Their executive committee was a blend of long-serving individuals and newer joiners, and our mandate was to discover the organisational culture needed to achieve its renewed purpose.

The client was aware that culture is shaped by many factors and that the tone from the top is vital. The CEO and HRD recognised the need to gather the team together, debate the issues, understand individual views and ultimately agree on a way forward. They asked Goldcrest Partners to design and facilitate an open and robust process to achieve these goals.

The Engagement

The engagement was to initially get to meet the participants individually, ensure we were known to them, and start building trust between our facilitators and team members. This allowed us to gauge opinions and ensure the agenda and discussion were as inclusive and engaging as possible.

Following these exploratory conversations, we designed a two-day offsite meeting. The agenda was a blend of exploration around the cultural issues, either enabling or hindering effective business, along with very practical actions for the group and each individual executive. Unsurprisingly, some departments were more advanced than others, and this provided the opportunity for executives to share best practices with one another.

The Outcome

The result was a clear view of areas of concern and areas of strength across the organisation. This insight allowed the desired culture to be identified and worked towards. We continue to work with the client at an individual, team and organisational level to continue development and embed the learnings in the business.

Culture change through trust and followership

The Brief

The client, a global S&P 100 organisation, wanted to increase the pace of delivery and improve operational effectiveness. They recognised that while systems and processes were critical, so too was how their people were led and how they chose to follow.  We were asked to design a global roll out of a Trust and Followership programme to support the cultural changes.

The Engagement

The result was a programme delivered both in-person and virtually across 40,000 employees. It explored trust as the bedrock of effective teams and introduced the followership as the other side of the leadership coin, where the focus moves from leaders taking on all the responsibility of delivery to how the followers can pick this up, willingly accept responsibility, and proactively engage.

The Outcome

The roll out continues, with good feedback, and early indications that the new culture is taking root. As with any culture change programme, it takes practice to form new habits and adopt new ways of working. The time and commitment needed to embed the new culture in everyday behaviours is present and the organisation is taking the right approach to yield success.

Senior executive coaching for a COO with a broadening remit

The Brief

The client was a COO at a US-based high-growth asset manager whose scope of responsibilities expanded from the US to Global functions at a time of significant technological, operational and organisational change. The mandate was to turn around the underperforming non-US functions that were critical to organisational success.

The Engagement

A Goldcrest coach with considerable experience working in the asset management industry engaged with the client for an initial 12-month term to support the individual with the challenges that came from the change in role. A series of 1:1 meetings gave the client the opportunity to talk things through, evaluate options and plan decisive actions to resolve a variety of issues. These included managing up, communicating with a globally dispersed team, elevating the competency of direct reports, changing the organisational design and having difficult conversations in an environment of resource constraint and some friction with adjacent functions.

The Outcome

The client reported that they valued the objective perspective brought to the conversations and the measurable outcomes achieved in the business. The engagement was extended for another 12-months to continue the benefit, both personally and professionally.

Is your business strategy fit for the future?

In this rapidly changing world, for any business to thrive, a forward-looking and dynamic strategy is essential. Asset managers are not immune from this reality. Indeed, the pressures on the financial industry are moving at such a pace that a reluctance to strategise and evolve could mean losing ground to more nimble competitors.

In his seminal work, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There How Successful People Become Even More Successful, the US-based coach Marshall Goldsmith examines the notion that over the course of a career, or a business, reinvention is paramount, because what’s asked of you changes. This applies equally to asset managers: business models which may have reaped profits over the past 30 years might not be quite such a winning strategy now.

Many traditional business models were built for comfort, not speed. While profits remained high, why worry about what was around the corner? But the fates of Kodak and Blockbuster are a salutary reminder of what can happen when we fail to respond to the shifting technological trends and customer preferences. As a result, those business behemoths disappeared from consumer consciousness in a bafflingly short amount of time. Clearly their strategy was lacking.

Appetite for apps

At Goldcrest Partners, we believe that there are three main issues for asset managers. In a commercial sense, there’s a permanent change to how much you can charge for your services and what costs you bear which results in shrinking margins. From the customer perspective, a new generation of client is increasingly more intentional, holistic and altruistic about what they want to invest in, with environmental, sustainable and ethical concerns foremost. And there’s the digital revolution, which has transformed how people want to buy and engage, using high-quality technical solutions which give them play-by-play information at their fingertips via sophisticated apps and data platforms.

Put like that, the situation seems daunting, but with guidance this can be an exhilarating time for an executive team to embrace a period of transformation. This is where effective strategic advisory can help facilitate change from within.

End-to-end solution

From initial enquiry to implementation, Goldcrest Partners works with you to help you identify your strategy, and then execute it. For a strategy to succeed – and let’s be transparent, many don’t – it needs to be focused on the right goal, easy to articulate and simple to understand. The inevitable obstacles need to be predicted and the motivation to overcome them mustered.

Through a tailored programme, we work side-by-side with your key decision makers, offering honest and incisive counsel as your team considers the way forward. Thanks to our many years of experience in financial services, we understand your context and the issues your business faces which we combine with coaching and facilitation expertise to enable you to arrive at good outcomes.

Something has to give

There’s a reason we find strategy difficult – it is! But with candour and clarity comes the recognition that something has to give. Our goal is to enable you to design and deliver a strategy which can be distilled and communicated to the organisation in a way that encourages them to unite behind it.

Propelled by a renewed sense of purpose and clear vision, the strategy can then translate into results, an ability to adapt to changing market conditions, and the business can take that crucial step into a bright future.

Why balance is the key to successful leadership

Look for a model of leadership and you’ll find dozens, if not hundreds, of books or articles extolling a single approach as the key to success.

It might be courageous leadership or empathetic leadership. It might be how to be a more creative leader or a more engaging one.

There are books about how the art of leadership is all about empowering people, for example, or providing a supportive environment.

Unfortunately, leadership is not so simple. If it was all about empowering your people and delegating responsibility, then why does command and control exist?  If leadership was all about support, then how would we hold people accountable and set standards?

Sometimes, we do need to take charge and tell people what to do. Sometimes healthy challenge has a place.

At its core how we behave changes depending on context. How we behave at a birthday party is very different to how we behave in a business meeting. How we behave towards someone who is upset is different to someone who is overconfident and taking risks. We haven’t changed, but the context has, and we modify our behaviour accordingly.

Leadership is about matching behaviour to context

It’s the same with leadership. Leadership is all about behaviour, and behaviour is shaped by context. Good leadership is when we as a leader understand the context and behave to get the best out of our people in that situation.

Take the example of empowering people, although most of the time leaders benefit from empowering their people, there are certain situations where the circumstance dictates that a decisive and directive approach is required.

The art of balanced leadership is to find the most appropriate leadership response in the circumstance.

The spectrums of balanced leadership

Our model of balanced leadership has 6 spectrums of behaviour which we believe are key to fitting the leadership style to the situation. We explore each of them in a series of articles to understand the range of behaviour and how to adapt and adjust considering the context.

For most leaders, this means developing a toolbox of leadership behaviours to choose from, so you have the right tool available at the right time. It also means starting to be aware of your natural preferences, so you’ll know which behaviours might be second nature (and perhaps overplayed) and which may need practise.

Achieving balance is a process, not an end state

The truth about balance is that we are always working to find it. It is a process, not an end state. Once we find balance, the context changes and we need to rebalance again.

We intuitively know how do this. We learned to walk, ride a bike, dance and perhaps something more adventurous like skateboarding, surfing, skiing. All of these activities require us to find the balance point and continually readjust.

The task for business leaders is therefore to take this pre-existing skill, this implicit knowing and apply it in a professional landscape.

We believe that, if you seek balance as a leader, you will benefit, as will your team and your organisation.

Why you need a thinking partner

Whether you’re new to the C-suite or established in your role, there will be times when you will benefit from a trusted partner to develop ideas with, in a collaborative exchange.

For those who have recently made that exciting next step on their career trajectory, there might be a need to level up in terms of leadership contribution. For example, you could be navigating new stakeholder relationships, while trying to establish your credentials leading teams who, until recently, were your peers.

More experienced leaders will face crossroads when they come up against particularly challenging situations and talking things through and getting a second opinion from a trusted confidante helps provide clarity regarding their strategic choices.

In both cases, a supportive and candid conversation with an experienced partner who has a clear understanding of the financial services industry allows the leader to step back from the day-to-day and do some deep thinking. This results in more incisive and effective decision-making, greater personal assurance and the potential to transform business performance.

Confidence and clarity

Conversations of this sort can help clarify what is going on for your business, for your team and (most importantly) for you and support you work towards finding more confidence in a well-thought course of action.

Of course, this type of relationship has existed in some form for millenia. The word mentor comes (quite literally) from Greek mythology when Odysseus appointed an old friend, Mentor, to watch over his son Telemachus. Some would consider Queen Elizabeth II to be the ultimate mentor as she held weekly meetings with every UK prime minister throughout her monarchy, offering an experienced ear, context and (very occasionally) a comment.

In a similar vein but with some obvious distinctions, the leadership advisory relationship performs the same function for modern day senior executives at the helm of their enterprises. A trusted sounding board offering a fresh perspective and informed insights can help solve complicated problems. In some ways, there are similarities with the sporting arena where elite performers have a number of specialist coaches focusing on different aspects of their endeavours to achieve peak performance when it matters.

Regular discussion with an expert can help develop self-awareness. We become able to more clearly identify our strengths and also the areas we can improve upon. The learning edge will differ between every leader but the next steps remain the same – now we know where there is room to grow, what will we do about it?

A worthwhile investment

The sporting similarities only stretch so far though. In business, we have to learn and perform simultaneously. We don’t have an off-season to prepare for the what is to come. So just the act of taking the time out within a tailored and sometimes robust conversational framework can help provide the breathing space that helps see old problems with new eyes. Taking this time to invest in your leadership skillset and decision making reaps rewards for the whole business now and into the future.

One client says partnering with a Goldcrest Partners leadership advisor “motivates me to implement impactful business outcomes. They ask provocative questions that guide me towards solutions that balance the needs of my business with those of my team.”

The client had confidence that our advisor “has a deep understanding of the obstacles faced by a leader and is able to share their past relevant experiences as they have worked in the same industry as me. 

“They genuinely care about my success and the success of my team.”

While sharing your professional hopes and fears may seem daunting at first, there’s really nothing to lose and much to gain. Maybe now is the moment to take that next step.

How to have a successful career transition

Transitions happen throughout our working life, whether it’s a promotion, moving to a new city or leaving a job. In this insight piece we explore some common experiences and things to think about when leaving a job.

Who’s calling the shots

A key factor in our experience of a transition is whether we’re in control. Choosing to leave an employer for something new can be exciting, empowering and represent progress towards a desired destination. It is something that we are doing.

In comparison, being made redundant is something that has been done to us. It often comes as a shock and can be scary, disempowering and be a real setback. These experiences can be difficult to process but navigating the unfamiliar territory of a transition is essential to achieve good outcomes.

The first step is to quickly restore the control that has been diminished.

This is why transition coaching is so highly valued. Choosing to work with someone who is an expert in this specialist area brings certainty where there is confusion, connection at a time when there has been disconnection and confidence when there might be self-doubt.

Most importantly, in that action you are taking back control.

Time to reflect

There are some strong practical motives to get straight back to work. As a rule of thumb you’ve got more chance of getting back in if you act quickly. So there’s a bit of a sprint when the headhunters are interested and your knowledge is most relevant.

There is also an impetus to move quickly away from the sense of grief. Many people identify with their role and when that role doesn’t exist anymore, it can present quite an existential crisis. So there can be a psychological and emotional rush to get back as well.

Despite the urgency, making some time to look back and reflect can be hugely valuable. Exploring how things ended, re-evaluating your time in the role and what led you to it in the first place is an important way to learn, clear some difficult emotions and come to peace with the way things played out.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s seminal five-stage model of grieving describes how we transition from denial to bargaining. When this doesn’t work we get angry, that doesn’t worth either so we get depressed before finally finding acceptance.

Understanding this serves as a good roadmap for career change and can also be helpful in personal transitions e.g. divorce, bereavement, empty nesting, retirement.

Taking stock

There are often a few core things to figure out when in transition:

  • Core identity: who are you beyond the various roles you perform? In life we have lots of concurrent roles and what we do for work can be central to our identity, self-esteem and self-confidence. Paradoxically we tend to feel happier and do a better job if our sense of self is independent and not conditional on what we do for a living. Getting clear on this can be life changing.
  • Core skills: what are the things you are good at that have a use in different environments. Developing a comprehensive sense of your transferable skills is great for confidence and also opens up new horizons where what you bring will have value.
  • Core needs: in light of the above what are your options? How do you balance your financial needs/ambitions with your wellbeing, your interests with what someone will pay you to do, the urgency to get back in with a moment to slow down and smell the roses.

Setting new goals and taking next steps

David Kessler, who co-wrote a more recent update with Elisabeth Kübler-Ross On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss, expanded the process with a sixth stage – finding meaning in the experience – which is well articulated in his HBR article ‘That discomfort you’re feeling is grief‘ published during the pandemic.

The meaning we make of the event is what surfaces when we make time to reflect and take stock and fuels our new goals and next steps.

Your goal might be as simple as looking for a similar job for similar money as quickly as possible. Conversely, you may wish to make a change. You may be at a stage of career where you wish to go plural with some NED/Advisory positions coupled with some consulting work.

Whatever the goal, getting really clear on what you would like to accomplish and how best to go about it is critical to success. Working with an expert transition coach can help you set these goals, plan how to execute them and support you as you progress.

It is often said that getting a new job is a full-time job in its own right. It is certainly a challenging but rewarding process that can pay-off in your next role, your self-confidence and the other transitions that life presents.

7 steps to leading a high-performing team

To the casual observer, a high-performing team can look almost effortless, with a sense of collaboration and cohesion, ease and authenticity that just clicks. Every person understands their role, the goal and is fully engaged in the ongoing success of the business.

But achieving this status doesn’t happen by happy accident, if anything it takes as much work as the “day job”.

So what if we applied the same strategy, research and analysis to optimising the operation of our teams as we do to the service of our clients? How would that look?

Goldcrest Partners co-founder Tim McEwan draws on his experiences of teamwork during his career in the British Army to highlight 7 conditions that he believes are essential to success and take away the guesswork.

The model offers a systemic framework to create the conditions that pull together individual brilliance into collective power, allowing each team to define for itself what high performance looks like for them and the journey to get there. As a process, it’s intensive but the results are compelling.

This will be a series of 7 insight pieces, starting with Trust which you can read below.

Trust

We perform well perform because we trust each other. We trust each other’s alignment to our shared goal. We trust each other’s commitment to work hard. We trust each other’s skill and ability. We trust each other to look out for each other. We trust each other to hold each other to account.

Trust is essential to any high-performing team, and many of the most serious challenges to effective team functioning derive from its absence. Patrick Lencioni’s seminal work The Five Dysfunctions of a Team places trust at the foundation of a functional team for good reason.

By its very nature trust is something to be granted rather than made. We cannot insist someone trusts us but we can inspire the conditions under which they may chose to have faith in our trustworthiness. The same is true within teams. Trust within a new team needs to built. It can only be based on exchanges completed. Over time it evolves and develops, is galvanised by shared experiences, wins and losses. Teams are rarely static and the high-performing team is critically aware of the varying trust capital within the group as members change, relational bonds tear and repair, and reputations are built.

Effectiveness of action is critical to high performance and trust is a crucial to enable this. When a high trust environment exists within a team, the division of labour can be clearer because there is confidence in the reliability of others to perform their roles. When we trust fellow team members word and deed, it allows us to focus on our own parcel of activity without double guessing and inefficiency.

Over time, most of us have developed the critical capacity to evaluate the triggers, cues and data to help us decide whether to trust or not trust. This becomes stretched when we encounter novel situations and a high-performing team is able to calibrate the context much more quickly and accurately than an individual.

In its essence, trust exists when we can reliably predict the behaviour of something or someone (including ourselves). Recognising the value of trust and how to cultivate it to create a high-performing team is a vital first step in achieving team goals.