19 | Growing and Leading with Confidence as a Leader

12/17/18 • 32 min

Over a 25 year career in PermanentTSB, Ger worked his way from bank teller to the role of HR Director. This was the first time in its 200 year history that the bank appointed an HR Director from a non-HR background.

His commercial background allowed him to open doors to parts of the organisation that, previously, HR hadn't felt equipped or confident to approach. And it gave him an understanding of the business that allows the HR team to connect enable and build capability that connects with people across the organisation in a much more meaningful way.

Show Notes:

1.20s – Ger’s career history – 2.40 – Bringing the voice of the customer inside – 5.00 – developing a strong leadership culture through the business – 6.28 – Line managers’ role in Big HR – 8.40 – Character, Competence and Connection make a great leader - 11.50 – Some thoughts on listening – 14.10 – Balancing the past, with today and the future – 15.00 – Customers don’t and shouldn’t care about siloes – 18.00 – Fear and being inquisitive – 20.00 – Cognitive diversity and creating psychological safety – 23.00 – the roles of leaders during change is fundamental – 25.50 – Permanent TBS’s changing model – 27.20 – Responsibility for culture sits with Executive and Leadership Teams – 28.50 – Ger’s role models – 30.10 – Ger’s advice to his 20-year-old self – ‘understand yourself’

Show Notes:

Previous Episode

18 | The Human Element to Digital Businesses

Between them, Anth and Ollie have over 30 years of experience helping large organisations to create more compelling and human cultures by focusing on internal communications, employee engagement and leadership.

They met when both were working for RSA and, in late 2015, founded Intelligent Emotion to help organisations humanize workplaces for the digital age. They fundamentally believe that tapping into people's emotions at work, providing purpose and supporting that with great leaders, increases pride, drives innovation and, in turn, generates better and more sustainable business results.

Show Notes:

1.35s – A bit of career history and Intelligent Emotion – 3.50 – Bringing human to a digital world – 6.15 – Leaders need to ask for help – 7.30 – Vulnerable leadership – 9.00 – Great leaders - 10.35 – Balancing directive and inclusive leadership – 11.38 – Jazz hands and connecting people to strategy – 13.40 – Start with people’s current reality – 14.40 – Great leaders are curious and open to learning – 16.25 – Defining ‘leader’ and their role in engagement – 17.30 – The Leadership Pie – 19.00 – Is ‘leadership’ noticed as a deliverable? – 19.30 – Engagement isn’t about pizzas, parties and mars bars – 21.05 – The power of objective setting – 21.40 – Shifting from ‘engagement’ being a thing – 24.00 – Using storytelling to show what good looks like - 26.17 – Internal Comms isn’t just for Internal Comms teams! – 31.40 – Leadership role models - 35.50 – ‘Chief Good News Officer’ syndrome – 37.10 – Advice for your 20-year-old selves.

Next Episode

20 | Situational Leadership can make big Changes

Des has worked in financial services for over 30 years, "both as a banker and leader" as he puts it. Having spent most of his career working in Ireland, his more recent experience is in the UK, as MD of First Trust Bank (AIB's Northern Irish subsidiary) and, more recently, as CEO of Cumberland Building Society in NW England.

He is someone that relishes the challenge of change and, in this episode, we spoke to Des at the start of Cumberland's change journey - a journey made somewhat trickier by the fact that there was no obvious 'burning platform'. We'll talk to Des again later in 2019 to see how his change plan is progressing and what he's learned along the way.

Show Notes:

2.00s – Des’s background and a bit on Cumberland – 3.22 – Purpose and values matter – 5.00 – Listening to Cumberland’s people – 7.10 – Where’s the business today? – 11.30 – What does the change journey look like? – 14.20 – Creating a case for change in a healthy company – 19.00 – Communicating to get people comfortable with change – 20.40 – Being transparent – literally! – 22.30 – Looking at leadership outside the office – 24.30 – The role of people leaders during change – 23.00 – the roles of leaders during change is fundamental – 29.00 – What’s gone wrong so far? – 31.30 –Des’ role models – 34.45 – Des’ advice to his 20-year-old self – ‘nobody gives you self-confidence’