In June 2023, Richard Liu’s JD.com (known as Jingdong in Europe) celebrated its 20th anniversary. The company also announced plans for the next two decades in the form of its new “35711 Vision.” Here’s an overview of the 35711 Vision and JD.com’s low-cost market strategy.

JD.com’s 35711 Vision: Sustained Growth

JD.com revealed its 35711 Vision in a letter to employees. The vision outlines a path for sustained growth over the next 20 years.

What The Numbers in “35711 Vision” Represent

The numbers in “35711 Vision” each stand for a crucial aspect of JD.com’s future-facing strategy:

● The “3” represents JD.com’s goal of establishing three businesses with more than one trillion RMB in revenue and 70 billion in net profits.

● The “5” represents JD.com’s plans to have five of its businesses included in the Fortune Global 500.

● The “7” represents JD.com’s goal of creating seven publicly listed businesses with a market value of 100 billion RMB.

● The “1s” represents JD.com’s plans to contribute 100 billion RMB globally in taxes and create more than 1 million jobs.

Creating A Clear Path for Growth

JD.com’s 35711 Vision is aimed at creating long-term, sustainable growth. Sandy Xu, CEO, set out the Company’s three main strategies for growth. 

1. Build the business in developing markets.
2. Advancing the company’s technology and services.
3. Expand JD.com’s international businesses.

Sustainability And Social Value

JD.com is also committed to having an impact on Sustainability and the Markets in which it is active. Examples include:

● Providing more than three trillion RMB in benefits to the company’s frontline employees.

● Increasing 100 million farmers’ incomes.

● Helping 60 million small- and medium-sized enterprises implement digital transformations.

● Developing a global supply chain infrastructure to support economies that represent 80% of the world’s economic volume.

● Achieving carbon neutrality.

JD.com’s Low-Cost Market Strategy

Throughout 2023, JD.com has introduced several merchants that offer cost-effective products to its platform.

The trusted e-commerce company has long served consumers with a select group of merchants. These merchants’ products often appeal to higher-income shoppers. Now, this expansion of affordable products welcomes a new class of merchants to the platform. These merchants’ cost-effective products attract a broad consumer demographic.

As part of its low-cost market strategy, JD.com has hosted initiatives to help small merchants sell low-price products. For example, the 2023 “Spring Dawn” initiative made it easy for small merchants to launch stores on the JD platform.

These merchants spanned from college students to designers, craftsmen, and farmers, among other entrepreneurs. Thanks to this initiative, the number of new merchants joining JD.com rose by 240% compared to the same period in 2022.

JD.com’s impressive history of supply chain purchasing places the company in an advantageous position to sell high-quality, low-cost products. Its warehouse and trucking network also supports the company’s strong position in this market.

Guided by its 35711 Vision, JD.com will continue to make innovative moves in the next 20 years with a focus on long-term growth.

Learn more about JD.com’s 35711 Vision.

About JD.com (a.k.a. Jingdong)

JD.com, also known as Jingdong, is a technology and service enterprise with a supply chain at its core. Founded by Richard Qiangdong Liu, JD.com is a renowned leader in China's e-commerce industry and the company has expanded across retail, technology, logistics, healthcare, insurance, property development, industrials, private label, and international business. Ranking 46 on the Fortune Global 500, JD.com is China’s largest retailer by revenue.

JD.com serves nearly 600 million customers and has set the standard for e-commerce through its commitment to quality, authenticity, and competitive pricing. The company operates the largest logistics infrastructure of any e-commerce company in China, pioneering a standard experience of same- and next-day delivery. JD.com also promotes productivity and innovation across a range of industries by offering its cutting-edge technology and infrastructure to partners, brands, and diverse sectors.

Today, we have the pleasure of sitting down with Alba Contreras Rodriguez ,the founder of FONS LLC (Focus on Solution) - https://focusonsolution.com/. Alba's journey from Venezuela to the United States and her successful career in various industries led her to pursue her passion for coaching. Alba is an expert in executive and team coaching, helping leaders and organizations excel in times of transition and transformation.

1. Alba, thank you for joining us today. Please share an overview of your personal journey and how you found Focus on Solution Coaching.  

I was born and raised in Venezuela and moved to the United States right after High School to learn the English language. My childhood dream was to become an architect and later shifted to a STEM path in business administration and computer & information sciences, opening the door to a successful career in various industries.

After graduation at 21, I moved back home and started working as a systems programmer and analyst. I later worked for General Motors, KPMG management consulting, and Ford Motor Company. Ford offered me an international assignment at corporate headquarters in Michigan. They sponsored me to become a USA citizen and return to school to get my MBA at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. In 2017, after 23 phenomenal years with Ford, I decided to retire early to pursue my next career. 

I launched FONS LLC, which stands for Focus on Solution, to pursue a new path by following my passion or calling. I was motivated by several key lessons: the importance of focusing on the humans in any transformation; knowing myself and being confident in defining my path; learning to become a CEO, and being a lifelong learner. To become a successful coach, I attended a coaching school, got trained and certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and became a team coach practitioner credentialed by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). 

FONS provides Executive, Team, and Group coaching for leaders and organizations to excel and enable transitions and transformations focused on human readiness. 

2. The name of your company, "Focus On Solution" (FONS), speaks to a positive and forward-thinking approach. How does this philosophy inform your methods in executive and team coaching?

My coaching approach is grounded in empathy, intuition, and trust-building, which describes me as a spiral lighthouse coach – I am all about getting the holistic 360 view and finding the connection between the BEING and the DOING. It is all about deepening the learning and creating a grounded harbor of trust, safety, and connection. I encourage my clients and teams to think beyond their comfort zone and expand their horizons by focusing on the ecosystem and interdependencies. My coaching philosophy and methods allow me to help my clients navigate VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) business environments and deliver results while improving their well-being. I am a thought partner, accountability partner, and sounding board for my clients.

My coaching programs are focused and tailored to the goals and challenges of the individuals, teams, and their stakeholders. My clients trust me to help them build self-awareness and develop new attitudes to be more effective leaders and teams through reflection, experimentation, and action.

3. You've been recognized as one of the top coaches in Detroit by Influence Digest. What unique strategies or techniques do you offer your clients to ensure your services stand out?

With my extensive experience in various industries for over 30 years as a corporate executive, management consultant, and credentialed coach, I am a coach who understands the power of coaching in transforming leaders and organizations. My purpose is to help leaders and teams recognize and achieve their highest potential to serve better and add value to their stakeholders. I understand the responsibility and how it feels to be in their shoes. 

My Focus on Solution Programs©, for individuals, teams, or groups, use a structured, flexible process and set of tools based on the needs of the client(s) and mainly focuses on their BEING, not only on their DOING. The program's main components include honoring confidentiality, building a relationship of trust, gathering data through assessments and 360 interviews, identifying the areas of development and focus, and co-creating a coaching plan to deliver the expected goals and success metrics. The coaching sessions have an agenda of the client's needs; the work outside the sessions is about reflection, practice, experimentation, and learning. 

4. You offer a Team Coaching service. What, in your experience, are the key benefits an organization can gain from investing in team coaching? And what are the benefits of team coaching over individual coaching?

Team Coaching is a powerful and effective process that enhances the performance of the individual members, the leader, and the team as a collective, impacting the immediate business and broader organization.

Eighty percent of organizations operate almost wholly in teams, and today's world is complex and changing rapidly. Today's challenges need collaborative teams, and organizations need qualified team coaches and leaders who can create connections on multiple levels to develop a sustainable and prosperous workplace.

Integrating Team Coaching into an organization can: 

• Enable teams to adapt and navigate the challenges of today’s hyper-complex and fast-changing world
• Help team members think beyond themselves and their team to consider the organization’s larger objectives as a whole 

• Facilitate teams to work with each other and every stakeholder across the organization 
• Develop greater clarity of purpose, better processes of decision-making, communicating, and organizing work 

Unlike one-to-one coaching you might be more familiar with, Team Coaching explores issues related to collective performance, enabling the team to recognize and manage influences on its performance, now and in the future. Team coaching takes a systemic view of those influences, which may concern the team's internal dynamics and how it interacts with its stakeholders.

5. Dealing with diverse personalities and working styles can be challenging in a team coaching environment. How do you approach these dynamics to create an inclusive and beneficial coaching environment?

Throughout my corporate career, I was responsible for leading and collaborating with diverse teams worldwide, which allowed me to work with diverse personalities and working styles. Inclusion relates to belief and behavior. It’s the magic sauce that activates and releases the power of diversity. 

I use three main ways to create an inclusive and beneficial coaching environment.

1. Imagine an iceberg; as a coach, I create trust, safety, and connection to help people explore what is above and below the waterline and assist them in exploring layers and perspectives. I encourage teams to utilize different lenses that allow them to understand and navigate the culture of their organization and as part of a more extensive ecosystem.

1. I can raise awareness of where I notice specific biases in the team. As an outside pair of eyes, I am in an ideal position to notice what they cannot do from within. Helping the team identify their fundamental biases and their impact on their ability to perform at their best is an excellent first step.

1. Making ongoing feedback safe, with ways for actively sourcing this, ensures the perspectives and experiences of others are consistently understood.

6. What are some common challenges you've observed teams facing when striving for better collaboration and efficiency, and how does your coaching address these?

The teams I have coached share common challenges as they operate in highly complex, intense, and rapidly changing environments. Some of the issues that impact a team’s ability to collaborate include:

1. Undefined or unclear purpose, strategy, and processes
2. Lack of trust
3. Blurred roles and responsibilities

My team coaching programs consist of supporting the team as a whole and individually. I conduct team sessions in workshops, team meeting observations, assessments, stakeholder interviews, and experiments within the framework of the action plan that we co-create together.

Think of team coaching as fitness coaching for the whole team. It will take some hard work, both in the coaching sessions and outside, but the result will be a more nimble team that is "Fit for its Purpose."

7. Can you share a success story where your coaching significantly impacted an executive's performance or led a team to achieve exceptional results?

I have experienced great success at coaching global executives on navigating corporate culture and processes, as well as cross-generational leadership and multicultural organizations. Clients seeking to lead strategy and implementation of significant transitions and transformations have leveraged my expertise to ensure human readiness for success.

One of my success stories is a Senior Vice President promoted to President of a Hospital and Regional Leader for multiple healthcare organizations. While transitioning to an enormous responsibility scope, this executive struggled with being more strategic, figuring out her new role, and working for the board of directors. I designed a customized coaching engagement with 360 interviews to identify professional growth opportunities and co-created a coaching action plan. Following the coaching engagement, the client, team, board, and sponsoring organization saw growth, enhanced communication, and executive presence, which also played a crucial role as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. In my client's words, "Alba's support and direct feedback helped limit my stress during adapting to a new role and working in the new normal of a global pandemic."

8. With the shift towards remote work and digital collaboration, how have you adapted your coaching techniques to remain effective in this new landscape?

Since I launched my business, I have supported clients virtually worldwide. During the pandemic, remote work became ubiquitous, and most clients use a hybrid model. 

I use a digital platform and tools that help facilitate coaching sessions, offline work, and communication. Regarding team coaching, I have supported teams virtually and in person, which is more convenient for the workshops.

9. Could you describe what a first-time client can expect during a typical coaching session with you?

My Focus on Solution Coaching program© starts with getting to know each other. The success of a coaching engagement depends on a relationship of trust, which is only possible by honoring confidentiality.

We start the session with check-in and what has transpired since the previous session. Discuss the homework and pending items, identify the main topic for the session, which can be an agenda item we have agreed to, or discuss a situation or issue. We end the session by gathering the client’s takeaways and commitments. The session's notes and fieldwork go to the client, who also has access to me in between sessions via email, call, or text. 

10. Lastly, for executives or teams considering coaching, what advice would you give them as they embark on this journey?

When executives or teams consider embarking on a coaching journey, I suggest being intentionally focused, patient,  disciplined and enjoy the journey. Find a formally trained and credentialed coach who can support you effectively.

A successful coach must be curious, empathetic, open-minded, and comfortable with challenging clients to get out of their comfort zone. Primarily, my experience and willingness to challenge the client are why I have gotten hired as a coach; simply going with the flow would be doing the client a disservice.

In terms of what to expect during a coaching experience, similar elements apply to executives and teams: 

1. Be curious to seek and accept feedback. 
2. Be challenged individually and collectively to become your best selves. 
3. Be willing to be uncomfortable at times. The ask is that you treat each moment of discomfort as an opportunity to learn for your benefit and the benefit of the team and the stakeholders.
4. Be open to experimenting.  
5. Be ready; it will be a transformative experience.

Is it Possible to Lead a Business Without Empathy?

James Kelly

CEO and Co-Founder of Corndel

It wasn’t so long ago that autocratic management styles prevailed. The ideology that guilt and fear ‘motivated’ employees, omnipresent managers watched for mistakes and decisions were made by leaders without consulting their staff. The result was typically a lack of innovation and many downtrodden and dissatisfied employees. It seems amazing that businesses could function in such a manner, even a couple of decades ago.

Autocratic management seems particularly brutal and archaic at the moment. We now understand a lot more about organisational behaviour and acknowledge the management styles likely to succeed involve democracy, coaching, vision and above all, empathy. The latter is fundamental because our workforce faces a set of exceptional circumstances caused by the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis. Immense uncertainty prevails and tough personal finance decisions are having to be made. Many of us are reflecting on our life’s priorities.

As we move into a longer-term shift into remote and hybrid working practices become more embedded and emerging technologies, such as AI tools, becoming part of our workplace life, human skills such as empathy are becoming - and will continue to become - even more important.

Corndel’s recently-published Workplace Training Report revealed that 71% of HR leaders have seen the cost of living crisis increasing anxiety and stress among their teams and 27% feel that more staff than usual are asking for salary increases. It’s clear that employees need to be treated with care and understanding.

Businesses should also acknowledge that the recruitment market continues to be difficult and vacancies remain at above pre-pandemic levels. Employees are unwilling to stick around in environments which don’t support, nurture and help them through these difficult times. They know that they hold the cards in a hugely candidate driven market with record numbers of job vacancies caused by a huge skills shortage.

It’s heartening that many businesses now realise that nurturing empathetic leaders is more valuable than ever before. Such leaders excel in hiring and evaluation. They increase productivity and foster long-term relationships which improve retention. They care about their team’s lives both inside and outside the office, recognising that the two are seamlessly interlinked.

The key skills that empathetic managers possess are human in their nature. They can actively listen. They can lead and inspire their team to go on a journey with them. They constantly observe and take the time to walk around in the shoes of the people they work with.

True empathetic leaders understand the motivations for behaviour. They can even predict the stresses and strains their team might be feeling and help mitigate these effects. Such leaders will use the tools they have available to their full advantage. They might thoughtfully redistribute workloads, improve the office environment or change their own behaviour.

So, if you feel your business is lacking this sort of talent, you might be wondering whether it’s possible to create empathy within the existing leaders that you have. The answer is an emphatic yes. And the journey begins with learning and development.

About Corndel

Corndel offers industry-leading development programmes in leadership and management which contain crucial employee well-being and mental health components. Our courses bolster the human skills of managers, giving them the tools to support, understand and anticipate the holistic needs of the people they work with. Taking the valuable decision to invest in upskilling managers with human skills will send a signal to your entire organisation that you are a caring employer who is committed to developing an empathetic culture.

The harsh reality is that businesses will not retain their valuable employees without a culture of employee care and leaders who are empathetic in their daily working lives. The results of bringing additional human skills to management teams will be fruitful. Organisations with empathetic leaders have high productivity, motivated staff and a loyal workforce who will willingly accompany your business every step of the way as it progresses.

Finance Monthly is pleased to announce that the full list of winners of our 2021 Women in Finance Awards has been published.

Working in the financial services sector as a woman has always meant facing challenges, barriers to entry and an unequal gender balance in the workplace. Since the release of the Finance Monthly Women in Finance Awards 2020, we have seen some progress towards gender parity in the sector – however, 20% representation of women on executive committees and 23% on boards is still a far cry from our end goals and proof that a good deal of work remains to be done to ensure greater opportunity for women’s advancement in financial services.

As a leading financial publication, Finance Monthly strives to shine a light on the work of female professionals, the obstacles they face and the challenges they overcome. Each of the finance experts featured in this year’s edition of the Finance Monthly Women in Finance Awards are women who consistently achieve more than is expected of them despite barriers within the industry at large.

2021’s Featured Winners

This year’s standout winners include Susie Hillier, Head of Wealth Planning at Stonehage Fleming, who tells us about her success in building a diverse and high-performing team. We also hear from Rebecca Fels Larsson on her career progress as an investment professional at CORDET, among many other stories of achievement from female professionals.

At Finance Monthly, we are proud to share each of these stories with you. Congratulations to all our winners.

Chris, I believe that you and Josie have just been involved in a project on this topic in collaboration with London Business School. How did that come about?

Chris: Josie and I both run independent executive coaching practices and have worked very well together on coaching briefs like this in the past. I was invited as an alumnus of LBS and now I’m part of their Alumni Career Coaching team to co-create a pilot leadership webinar aimed at senior executive alumni. It felt natural to bring Josie into the mix on this topic because she is a great communication coach and complements my background in finance.

So, what did you learn from this exercise?

Josie: So many golden nuggets came out of it! I don’t think that any business would have signed up to mass hybrid working as an experiment unilaterally, however, we were all thrust into the pandemic regardless. Collaborating with other leaders in this webinar produced some great insights into the challenges of adapting business models to suit current circumstances. With so many factors and permutations to consider, it provided the leadership cohort that participated a real opportunity to a) air & debate the challenges and b) share best practices in finding possible solutions from their collective experiences.

Chris: It was indeed a fascinating session. Hybrid working is not exactly a new concept for leaders to handle, but since the pandemic employees have experienced, en masse, the flexibility that hybrid working offers and quite reasonably want it to continue in some form. Subsequently, how can leaders - globally - maintain business effectiveness and cohesion while at the same time allowing employees greater flexibility in how they work? It’s a huge question. Hybrid working isn’t going away, so the difference between winning and losing in this new world order will be measured by the speed at which leaders are able to adapt their business models effectively. The upside of course is that, for agile leaders who can embrace this coming of (the digital) age, there’s a huge opportunity to listen, learn, adapt, and grow in spite of the pandemic.

In this new hybrid culture of work, if you had to put the main challenges companies are facing into distinct categories, what would those be?

Josie: Chris and I spent a long time researching and soliciting feedback on this question in preparation for the webinar. Thankfully, as you might imagine, there is also some great empirical research that has been done on the pandemic’s impact as it unfolds. From our perspective in the context of team leadership, the primary challenges boil down to three Cs: Culture, Communication & Connection.

• How clearly is the Culture being defined & understood in your business?
• How much is Connection embraced and encouraged within your business?
• How much does the leadership facilitate open, two-way Communication at all levels and across the organisation and really listen to the feedback?

Chris: Yes, absolutely. It’s the combination of firm Culture also cast as vision & purpose; Connection, specifically in terms of active engagement; and effective Communication across the whole organisation from the top down which actively embraces the best of what technology can offer. The obvious challenge for leaders in a hybrid context is that the binds that tie individuals to the organisation are by definition loosened in a hybrid working world. So forward-thinking leaders are figuring out how best to better utilise digital tools to foster innovation & collaboration whilst retaining an acceptable degree of oversight over productivity & accountability.

Josie: And not just controlling productivity but increasing it by continuing to develop & upskill teams through formal and informal Learning & Development (L & D) activities. How can you best train your people when you’re not in the same room as them? What is truly going to work?

Chris: Exactly! One big conundrum across all professional services is how do we train our young talent in a hybrid context.

Really interesting. What are the implications of these findings for leaders going forward?

Josie: Great question, leaders are beginning to understand that, in moving forward, “one size fits none” and old styles of leadership are unlikely to fit the bill. Hopefully, they will adapt their style of leadership before they are forced to by the workforce voting with their feet. Currently, in investment banking (based on reports in the mainstream media), we’re seeing two types of leadership being played out in real-time. Some banking leaders believe it’s still optimal to “return” to a pre-pandemic business model. They’ve been upfront about requiring teams back in the office after Labor Day unless they are an active health risk. On the other hand, some other firms, notably in Europe, appear to be taking a more flexible & pragmatic approach about who might need to return to the office full-time or part-time and when. Which type of leadership will attract and retain the best talent? Only time will tell.

Chris: From our research, developments in the legal profession seem to be playing out differently from banking probably in part because the nature of legal work lends itself more easily to remote working than banking. From what we are seeing, the law firms are currently taking a more pragmatic view as long as productivity remains high and client needs are being met.

What have the leaders you have spoken to shared about this?

Josie: Well, that’s the beauty of hosting these webinars with senior leaders from a variety of locations and sectors; it invites a myriad of different perspectives and context is key. We are talking predominantly about knowledge workers who account for 1 in 5 workers globally but, for example, make up 60% of the workforce in the US. So, it’s a far bigger consideration today for corporate leaders in the world’s advanced economies than it is elsewhere.

Chris: In addition, the trends set by today’s Fortune 500 companies will be studied and in part incorporated into the global way of doing business in the coming years. This undoubtedly has wider ramifications for the planet and how we live and work. It’s a huge obligation and a massive opportunity at the same time for today’s leaders to embrace constructive change.

So, it seems like an almost insurmountable challenge to solve with so many considerations?

Josie: I think you’re right in so far that this challenge won’t get solved overnight - but let’s be optimistic! Good leaders stay curious, embrace calculated risk and set & articulate clear ‘SMART’ goals. They solicit advice & ideas. From these, they come up with creative solutions that fit their organisational purpose and then start implementing them. Of course, this may require some trial & error and you will need to embrace this risk positively from the outset.

Chris: A key factor going back to the three Cs is that the direction of travel within the organisation is clearly communicated, understood, and has collective broad-based buy-in from employees.

Josie: Absolutely. It’s not just what you say but how you say it, to whom and how often.

Chris: Yes. Communicating vision effectively is fundamental to a sense of shared purpose and leads to significantly higher engagement, whether office-based or hybrid. Picking up on Josie’s earlier point, knowledge workers are being paid to think for a living, so why not take into consideration more of their ideas. Since when did all good ideas emanate from the C-Suite?

You mentioned earlier that organisational context is important. Could you elaborate on this?

Josie: Sure, for example, we could contextualise knowledge work-tasks into predominant typologies; Information work, Evaluation work and Creative work as described by the team at Steelcase, a US real estate consultant. Informative & Evaluative work can be done far more easily remotely than Creative work which requires a higher degree of in-the-moment collaboration and collective energy which cannot be easily recreated in a digital (or asynchronous) setting. The benefit of bouncing ideas in a room together is, therefore, more likely to bring Creatives back to the office than Informative or Evaluative workers.

Chris: Equally you can divide the workforce demographically. Data from a 2020 Gensler study suggests that Millennials & Gen Z workers actually want to come back to the office (okay, maybe not 6 days a week!) because their remote working-set up may be less ideal. You could also contextualise the workforce by Learners, Provers and Leaders. Learners may want to be in the office more to gain experience from senior colleagues and actively seek advice and mentoring in order to develop their careers.

Josie: I would also argue that leaders need to increase their visibility and presence to engage with the wider workforce to model open communication and ease of access to their knowledge.

According to a study by Microsoft, a staggering 40% of knowledge workers are considering switching to a new employer in the next 12 months as a result of their pandemic experience and re-evaluating their goals & objectives in terms of work-life balance. Listen up, leaders!

How can leaders score some quick wins in the process?

Josie: Being seen to engage with employees and be open to new ideas and dialogue between the levels. UBS for example seems to have modelled this well. They recently carried out an internal study of their 72,000 employees soliciting feedback on a range of topics. It concluded that two-thirds of its workforce were in positions that would allow for hybrid working. Merely by demonstrating a willingness to listen and adapt, I would be very surprised if that communique had not significantly increased employee engagement at a time when the battle for talent is white-hot. According to a study by Microsoft, a staggering 40% of knowledge workers are considering switching to a new employer in the next 12 months as a result of their pandemic experience and re-evaluating their goals & objectives in terms of work-life balance. Listen up, leaders!

Chris: I would also add that leaders and people managers at all levels of the organisation should assess their own relational skills and take some constructive feedback on development areas. This is a huge opportunity for L&D. It has been well-documented that Millennials and Gen-Z workers, in general, seek more feedback, guidance and encouragement from their leaders. Possibly more than current Gen-X leaders may have received as they were building their own careers.

Even in a hybrid world, there are some easy fixes for this. Praise direct reports in public & critique them more in private. Pick up the mobile phone more often to express gratitude for a job well done or for going the extra mile for a colleague and make a habit of doing so to build social capital with your employees. That personal touch can have a huge impact even though it may take a few minutes.

New methodologies for working are being created, tried and developed as we speak.

This all sounds great but what is the impact of getting it wrong?

Josie: You’re likely to lose your best people! The market for talent became global overnight with remote working. Now, if an employee is dissatisfied with the status quo or pace of change they will start to look elsewhere. Finding a better fit for their talent is now a more global opportunity, especially in hot growth areas like technology and healthcare.

How can leaders identify when things are going off-plan and what can they do?

Chris: By really listening to those reporting into them. For many leaders it will require a more open & responsive communication style and a willingness to engage rather than dictate, embracing the diversity of thinking and developing the necessary EQ skills to get the best from the team. Leaders at the top of their game have a multi-tier strategy in mind to set and communicate clear goals. They then ‘lead side-by-side’, trusting in and empowering teams & individuals to innovate and when they fail, to encourage them to try again without resorting to a blame game.

In your opinion, how is this all going to play out over the coming years?

Josie: I think fortune will favour the brave. New methodologies for working are being created, tried and developed as we speak. It won’t be a question of “Must we keep up with the changes happening all around us?” so much as “What will happen if we don’t?”  The wizened, old-world behemoths may seem tough now, but what happens when the disruptive newbies of the tech world forge new paths without fear because they’re willing to fail and try again until they find a better path that works?

Chris: I would also say that there is plenty of scope for further disruption within established sectors such as banking, the law and consulting. We are seeing this already in FinTech where digital business platforms have been built from scratch in the 21st century by leaders who started them in their 20s. In my opinion, it is these kinds of sustainable, nimble, high-growth companies that will attract some of the best talent coming into the workforce over the coming years, especially if they can clearly demonstrate their raison d’être and offer the most attractive & flexible working environment for their employees.

What do you think we’ll be saying in ten years?

Josie: “Blimey, who knew where we were going to end up - AND aren’t we glad we took those risks?”

Chris: My hope is that the good guys win. Ultimately for the remainder of the century, leadership should be about responsibility rather than entitlement. It’s about sustainable profitability set within the parameters of environmental, social and governance excellence. Hybrid working is after all only one chapter in the unfolding story of doing business in a complex & challenging world.

Fascinating topic. Final question - how can leaders take this conversation further?

Josie: Firstly, I would say engage an outside expert to come in and listen, understand what you are trying to do and enable you to refine and effectively communicate your vision, goals and expectations to key stakeholders both inside and outside the business.

Chris: It’s the beauty of having someone unrelated to the business who can: 1. Keep you accountable to your ‘why' in a season of huge systemic change; 2. Challenge some assumptions and 3. Facilitate recovery and course correction as needed. This is what Josie and I love to do.

Chris has worked in financial & professional services for over 30 years and can be contacted at Chris@BramleyAdvisors.com   

Josie trained and has worked as an actor & master communicator in the UK & US for many years and can be reached at Contact@JosieGammell.com

Credit Suisse will overhaul the leadership of its investment bank and risk division following the collapse of hedge fund Archegos Capital, which the firm estimates will cost it $4.7 billion.

In a statement on Tuesday, the firm said it would take a hit of 4.4 billion Swiss francs from “the failure by a US-based hedge fund to meet its margin commitments”. The hit will likely undo “the very strong performance that had otherwise been achieved” and set the lender on course for a 900-million-franc loss in the first half of 2021.

Credit Suisse was one of several lenders acting as prime broker for family office Archegos Capital, run by controversial former hedge fund manager Bill Hwang. The firm collapsed last month after several large leveraged bets failed to pay off.

Credit Suisse dumped $2 billion worth of stock to end its exposure to Archegos. It also announced that Chief Risk Officer Lara Warner and investment banking head Brian Chin would step down follow the losses.

In addition to the hit taken from Archegos, Credit Suisse has also been caught up in the implosion of Greensill Capital, a major supply chain finance firm that also collapsed last month. Credit Suisse ran funds worth a total of $10 billion that invested in debt instruments generated by Greensill Capital. The funds were suspended after Greensill’s collapse.

The firm has yet to calculate the cost of its involvement with Greensill Capital.

“The significant loss in our Prime Services business relating to the failure of a US-based hedge fund is unacceptable,” Credit Suisse CEO Thomas Gottstein said in a statement. "In combination with the recent issues around the supply chain finance funds, I recognise that these cases have caused significant concern amongst all our stakeholders."

However, Gottstein expressed optimism for the future of the company. “Serious lessons will be learned. Credit Suisse remains a formidable institution with a rich history,” he said.

Laws governing financial crimes within the market haven’t always been as quick to catch up with the trend of crimes themselves, as has law regulating more traditional crimes such as larceny or robbery. However, when it comes to fraud, the law is fairly clear, and the penalties are steep.

A company director making a false or misleading statement is committing a federal offense that carries the threat of serious prison time .

Fraud can take a number of forms from the top of company leadership

A company director is the figurehead of corporate leadership, and speaks directly for the company. It is against the law to misrepresent information that is relevant to the company’s status in any way that may impact investment decisions, manipulate stock prices, or otherwise influence the course of business and the market.

A common instance of fraud is when a company’s directors mislead investors as to the real state of the company’s financial health. Another form of fraud may be presented internally, such as if a CEO sends a memo to their staff informing them that they are running a quarterly profit, when they are in fact running a deficit.

Whatever the means, the law itself is pretty clear-cut. The sentence for making false statements can increase when additional counts are involved, and corporate fraud also involves other financial crime elements.

Other common forms of fraud that may be included in a bundle of charges against a company director for making false statements include:

• Wire fraud
• Money laundering
• Conspiracy to commit fraud
• Accepting or soliciting bribes
• Market abuse and insider trading
• Falsifying documents

A company director is the figurehead of corporate leadership, and speaks directly for the company.

Regardless of the charges, however, any charge is bound to come on the heels of an extensive criminal investigation. This may start with a complaint or anonymous tip. It could also arise from suspicions on the part of competing firms or directly from regulators or legal investigators.

The criminal investigation

Just as there are a number of ways for company directors to commit fraud through the issuing or simple verbalizing of false or misleading statements, so too are there a number of ways to get caught. Some of the ways a company director may be exposed for illegally making a false statement include:

• Being caught lying directly to a law enforcement or regulatory agency representative (ex: the FBI)
• Being exposed by a whistleblower within the company for circulating false information internally
• Being investigated and exposed by a regulator for false information leaked or spoken to associates for the purposes of manipulating the market
• Being caught inflating numbers in company publications or company disclosures

Of this list, getting caught lying to investigators seems like an unlikely path to downfall for a chief executive, but it happens quite often. For example, former MiMedX CEO Parker Petit was convicted of fraud in November 2020 after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found that he had falsified the company’s actual financial situation in SEC filings, with the associated securities fraud charge carrying a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison.

While not the same as lying to police in the interrogation room, falsifying an SEC filing, while it seems a brazenly reckless move to make given the consequences, is a common cause for fraud charges.

Running a legal defence to prosecutorial offense

Unlike most criminals, guilty company directors in fraud cases tend to have some of the best legal representation available on the planet. There are a number of mechanisms and legal arguments that a good defense attorney or company’s general counsel can employ when their company director is charged with making false statements.

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A primary line of defence is to attempt to argue that the company director did not know that what they were saying was false. This argument could be supported by evidence that another member of the company falsified the information. It could be chalked up to accounting error.

While a tried and not always true method of defense, a common approach is to simply deny that the company director did make a false statement. This is certainly a tougher argument to make if documented evidence suggests otherwise. Ultimately, these cases will come down to a combination of the strength of the respective legal teams involved and the truth itself.

Peter Ryding, founder of Vicyourcoach.com and award-winning CEO mentor, discusses the prevalence of imposter syndrome in the financial sector and how it can be tackled.

The impact of COVID-19 will be felt for a long time, materially and psychologically. COVID-19 is not a leveller. It is divisive in who and how it strikes and in its wider impacts.

July has seen a record-breaking spike in unemployment and the sharpest economic downturn in living memory with the IMF predicting global GDP will shrink by nearly 5% this year.

McKinsey foresees a dramatic impact on mental health.  As witnessed after the 2007-08 global financial crash, depression and anxiety escalated coupled with alcohol and drug use. Suicides rose by 13% with an estimated 46,000 lives lost due to unemployment and income stress.

COVID-19, however, has more in its armoury than previous financial crises. Aside from financial concerns, lockdown isolation and profound uncertainty around ‘new normal’ working environments are likely to create significant and far-reaching mental health issues.

For both humane and commercial reasons, business leaders should be alarmed and ready to act. Mental health is highly correlated with productivity. According to The Mental Health Foundation, addressing wellbeing in the workplace increases productivity by as much as 12%. And that’s during ‘normal times’. The immediate hit to productivity now and in the near future is likely to be considerably greater.

Mental health is highly correlated with productivity.

So, now is undoubtedly the time for strong, resilient and compassionate leadership. Clarity of leadership and practical support are both needed over the months and years ahead.

However, in recent discussions with CEOs and CFOs, unsurprisingly, I have seen a huge increase in stress and self-belief and confidence have taken a hit. Not only are they tackling some of the biggest challenges they have ever had to face but also facing their own job security and safety concerns. Finance in particular has been in the eye of the storm, navigating their organisations through the tumult, safeguarding and advising on financial stability and integrity.

Through my work as a coach to CEOs and boards, I know that confidence and resilience are often skin deep. Impostor syndrome is widespread.

Perhaps this should come as no surprise? The most severe cases of imposter syndrome are often observed in sectors which recruit and promote overachievers and demand the highest standards. Finance is a classic example with long hours as standard and a tough competitive culture. To be noticed, employees have to continuously outperform and work even harder than their peers so it’s unsurprising that they often suffer chronic self-doubt. Add COVID pressures into the mix and it's a recipe for a mental health tsunami.

Even the most outwardly confident and successful executives live in fear of being exposed. Which is why ‘self-confidence’, ‘overcoming self-limiting beliefs’ and ‘resilience’ are some of the most requested skills within VIC, the e-coaching and e-learning platform I founded.

What is impostor syndrome, and how does it affect the financial sector?

Imposter syndrome is a pattern of behaviour where people doubt their success and accomplishments despite strong evidence to the contrary. Impostor syndrome not only affects mental and physical wellbeing, it also negatively impacts performance, productivity and proactivity. It stymies innovation and restrains bold leadership. By sapping self-confidence and self-esteem, it can prevent you from achieving your potential and block the organisation reaching its goals.

People exhibiting traits of imposter syndrome have an internalised fear of being exposed as a fraud. Indicators include being a workaholic, being a perfectionist, never asking for help and needing to know everything yet never knowing enough. These traits are often encouraged and rewarded in the finance.

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According to recent research nearly 60% of workers in accountancy, banking and finance have experienced imposter syndrome and whilst both men and women experience it, women seem to suffer more than men. A 2019 report by Access Commercial Finance found two-thirds of women had experienced feeling like a fraud in the previous 12 months and only half of men. Disparities still exist in female representation at senior levels in the financial services sector. Whilst 44% of the workforce are women, they make up only a third of senior management. External validation alleviates imposter feelings and a lack of inclusion, role models and positive support reinforces self-doubt.

So, what can you do to overcome impostor syndrome?

For some, impostor feelings are fleeting, and for others they are persistent. There are practical measures you can take against them. For example:

• Know it’s common. Studies suggest that simply knowing you are not alone helps.
• Separate feelings from fact. Just because you feel something doesn't mean you are. We all feel ‘not quite up to the task’ at times.
• Accept you will never be perfect and forgive mistakes.
• Give yourself credit. Recognise your worth and value, internalise positive feedback and don’t fixate on the negative.
• Attribute success truthfully. Everyone has good and bad luck. Attributing success to luck undermines your abilities and confidence.
• Identify your ‘rules’, challenge them and rewrite. “I don’t have to be right”, “I don’t always have to know the answer”, “I can ask for help”, “I don’t have to be strong”.
• Keep a list of your accomplishments and strengths. It’s less easy to discount your success when seen against a backdrop of past successes.

Actions to address impostor syndrome in your organisation

Impostor syndrome negatively impacts the success of your whole organisation. So, take positive action to address it.

• Develop clear policies to address and support mental health. This is no longer a nice-to-have but an essential. Train managers to spot mental health red flags within their teams.
• Spot drop offs in performance or signs of regular overwork - emails sent way before or after normal working hours, unusual delays in responding, holidays not being taken or procrastination over decisions.
• Watch out for team members who are feeling out of their depth. Look for signs of loss of self-confidence and anxiety, for example expressing greater uncertainty, becoming self-deprecating, deflecting praise, attributing success to luck or to the skills of others in the team.
• Attribute success fairly and rebalance; reward teamwork and as well as hard work. The current and post-Covid environment will require a new approach to incentives and performance management.
• Discuss imposter syndrome. Studies suggest education helps.
• Have a strong inclusion agenda. Women and minorities suffer more from impostor syndrome and strong role models and positive support help.

We want to reach out and help businesses, teams and employees during these extraordinary times by offering VIC for free. VIC gives an interactive ‘coach in your pocket’ for all employees with self-coaching tools and thousands of hours of multi-media content to help with self-confidence, stress, resilience and a host of other personal and business skills.

However, it can be difficult to know the aspects that are best to invest in. Here are five things your business should put their profits into in order to be successful.

Marketing

One of the most important elements of your business is going to be marketing. This is how you sell your products and services. Do not wait until you have built up a good customer database. From the beginning, you have to be investing in marketing so that you can grow. In particular, internet marketing is vital in the digital age and will attract new people to your business. If you do not know a lot about this, it is imperative that you outsource or hire employees that do. Having a marketing team will be highly benefit for your success.

Training and Education

If you want to continue to grow as a business, you need to invest in your workforce. Your staff are going to be responsible for the daily running’s and tasks at your company. It is essential they know how to be efficient and productive. Therefore, regular training is going to be important so that new skills can be learned and updated, depending on the field you are working in. There should also be a general opportunity for education so that your employees can progress.

Outsourcing

As your business builds momentum, there are going to be simple yet time-consuming tasks that need to be done. This could be anything from accounting to sorting the payroll. A good way to invest in your company, but save money at the same time, is to outsource some of this work. This can be a good way to find experts with the relevant skills and experience and only pay them for the work completed. Take your time and find professionals that are going to help your business grow and do not rush into decisions. Always seek testimonials before hiring third parties.

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Yourself

While many businesses owners remember to invest in their premises and their employees, they often forget to invest in themselves. There are still a lot of skills you can learn, whether this is taking online courses or attending conferences. After all, you are in charge of everything when it comes to your business. You want to stay up-to-date with the latest discoveries and technology so that you can stay ahead of the competition.

Equipment

If your business is doing well, you may see no need to change the status quo. However, it is essential that you continue to invest in your technology and equipment. This is going to allow you to keep up with innovations and trends in your industry. While you do not have to change your setup completely, every year you should be looking for ways to boost your efficiency. If you are worried about money, you can always look into equipment financing online. This can give you access to credit options.

The global COVID-19 crisis has triggered the most disruptive period to British society in peacetime history. The impact on the public and our healthcare system has been devastating, and our economy is facing the prospect of a recession much deeper and more painful than the economic crash of 2008.

However, this must be seen differently to 2008; a time where a culture of risk-taking by banks and from within the financial services industry left consumers and businesses reeling as credit lines were pulled. Back then the ‘casino culture’, which was so widespread in the city, was seen as the root cause of the crash, triggering substantial unemployment and misery for millions. 

Now, we are all in it together, with the coronavirus hitting start-ups, small traders, shopkeepers and global businesses without discrimination. Companies are already collapsing into administration, with millions of workers furloughed on 80% salaries, and having to be supported by government finance and emergency loans. Wayne Johnson, CEO of Encompass Corporation explains to Finance Monthly why now is the time for banks to prove themselves.

Let us be quite clear - businesses and the general public need banks more than ever in this challenging time. It is certainly true that many of the major providers have already stepped up and  emergency banking proposals have already been enacted to help businesses and individuals in these trying times. The Bank of England, for example, has already cut interest rates on their loans to 0.1%, and are working with HM Treasury to support large businesses by offering cash for their corporate debt. Elsewhere, many major consumer banks are offering mortgage, credit card and overdraft payment holidays for up to three months.

However, there is still a gulf of trust between businesses and banks, with many organisations still feeling that financial services firms do not always have their best interests at heart.

Today, the banks are in a much better position, with deeper capital buffers and better regulation. Thus, major financial service providers are in a unique position whereby they can potentially regain the trust of the British public with a strong stance, deep pockets, and generous investment in struggling businesses.

Let us be quite clear - businesses and the general public need banks more than ever in this challenging time.

Moving forward, banks should continue their dedication towards their customers and British business in general through swift action and financial support that proves ongoing, selfless commitment to the economy and its people.

This concerted effort requires adaptation from the financial services industry. The increased dependency on loans and support will inevitably have an overwhelming impact on the skeleton crew of bankers, who are themselves having to deal with the transition to remote working and unprecedented economic climate brought upon us by COVID-19.

Fortunately, there is an abundance of automation and regulatory technology (RegTech) at the banking sectors’ disposal. Recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and updated legislation from the Fifth Money Laundering Directive (5MLD), for example, has increasingly pushed banks towards using automation in recent years. While it is no secret that client onboarding and background checks are greatly improved with the assistance of the right RegTech, many financial services organisations can be somewhat hesitant when it comes to introducing new technology to their centuries old trade.

This has to change now. Automated customer onboarding is effective, efficient and empowers analysts at a time when human interaction is, in many cases,  no longer an option during this unprecedented time.

Furthermore, the efficiency of proven RegTech software can ensure financial institutions are in a position to comfortably manage, and even accelerate, payment processes – a particularly useful function for SMEs, organisations and individuals at a time when they need access to finances and payment processes more than ever.

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Additionally, in today’s landscape, where consumers have come to expect instant services in all sectors of customer experience, automation is all the more crucial. Statistics from recent research that we published found that 38% of UK businesses have deliberately abandoned an application for banking services due to ‘slow due diligence processes’. Furthermore, nearly one third of businesses said they now trust challenger banking brands and fintech providers - known for their slick and fast digital onboarding - more than traditional banks.

COVID-19 has put consumers in an unprecedented position, as thousands are having to lean on traditional banks, modern fintechs and lenders. Thus, it’s a better time than ever to speed up and smooth out processes, if no less for the purpose of providing the best possible services for those who desperately require it.

Finally, there has been an increased trend in opportunistic cyber criminals looking to profit as a result of  the current climate and, more specifically, from the influx of remote workers - many of whom have not been trained with even the most basic fraud detection or cyber security measures. Such criminals have been known to exploit the goodwill of remote workers through fake charities and financial fraud schemes, before laundering stolen money through overworked and under resourced financial services.

With the right technology in place, financial institutions can reduce the strain on their employees and resources, and flag criminal or suspicious activity at a rate never before possible. This will help combat the wave of online financial crime facing workers and businesses in lockdown, and ensure that accountants and banking services are not unknowingly contributing to money laundering during the crisis, which is set to afflict the nation for the foreseeable future.

The ruthless ‘barbarian at the gate’ and unscrupulous ‘corporate raider’ have evolved into a more thoughtful, sophisticated and socially conscious investor. In turn, this shift has heralded the ever-increasing prominence of environment, social and governance (ESG), impact, and socially responsible investing.

Like most significant behavioural and cultural shifts, this trend is driven by factors both internal and external, with chief responsibility laying at the feet of limited partners (LPs), alongside brand management concerns and an increased chance of returns.

However, for PE leaders looking to reap the rewards of social conscious investing, it’s not enough to simply look the part. If PE firms want to legitimately strike a balance between doing good and doing well, they’ll need to have social impact at the centre of how they define success and how they operate. This will require significant cultural shifts ushered in by the appropriate inclusive leadership.

The LP push and social positioning

Private equity’s move towards socially conscious investments and practices has, broadly speaking, been spurred by the requirements of limited partners. With LP’s monies sourced from pension funds, universities, governments, etc., they are often representing the interests of average citizens. As such, these LPs need to be confident that this money is being managed by people whose values align with those of their constituents.

PE firms, therefore, need to consider our current social environment. Issues including diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability and contemporary labour practices take a more prominent position in the public consciousness, with much of this driven by the values of millennials. Adhering to these values can drive profit, and research has shown that millennials will pay more for a product when it has social or environmental sustainability as one of its benefits.

Issues including diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability and contemporary labour practices take a more prominent position in the public consciousness, with much of this driven by the values of millennials.

This transition, coupled with the increasingly public interest in private funding means that equity investment is now a spectator sport where the audience can play a shaping role–with a rotation of its thumb or a click of its keyboard–in determining whether the leader has earned the right to continue. Organisations with diversity and inclusion practices that don’t face up to scrutiny, shaky environmental sustainability or unethical employee practices, therefore, present a far riskier investment proposition.

The resignations of Miki Agrawal of Thinx and WeWork founder Adam Neumann are just two examples of how the public now plays the role of moral arbiter. Or, take the gig economy debate and the various companies which operate within it. An initially attractive investment opportunity lost its bloom as public concerns around zero hours’ contracts and workers’ rights caused many valuations to tank.

Driving for value and driving for values

It’s clear then why impact investing has gained such a significant position in PE investment strategy, with large PE firms having set up their own separate funds focused on impact investing. Bain Capital has ‘Bain Double Impact’, which is focused on helping “mission-driven companies scale and drive meaningful change.”

On the smaller end of the market, a new breed of firm has emerged dedicated to positive change. Harlem Capital is a NYC- based minority-owned firm whose focus is to “change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years”. This bold mission statement has already paid off for the firm, garnering public praise, media coverage and support from large cap PE firms such as KKR and TPG.

At face value this looks like an ideal scenario; businesses, PE Firms, LPs, society and the environment all benefitting from a more conscious and responsible flow of money. However, this ideal can only be truly achieved if this social conscience is an inherent, inextricable part of a PE firm’s culture, rather than a reflexive attempt to respond to an emerging zeitgeist. To fully realise the potential that impact investing holds, PE firms must not only shift where they deploy their money, but also rethink how they build an investment thesis that deeply connects to the psychology of all company constituents and the public.

This ideal can only be truly achieved if this social conscience is an inherent, inextricable part of a PE firm’s culture, rather than a reflexive attempt to respond to an emerging zeitgeist.

What’s leadership’s role in building a new PE culture?

If PE Firms are to see the full benefit of impact funds, their leadership needs to be beyond reproach, and they must promote not only a drive for value, but a drive for values. The DNA and mindset of PE cultures and their leaders must evolve to rise to the challenge of a rapidly changing landscape.

A mindset and cultural shift of this magnitude is a leadership challenge, and our model of inclusive leadership highlights the keys to making the real difference. We have found that inclusive leaders focus on:

1) Curiosity – creating the conditions for learning, creative thinking, and openness to new ideas;

2) Courage – embracing the uncomfortable, taking risks, and empowering others; all crucial for leaders who will have to work to evolve a system that has historically produced great results in its previous mode of operating; and

3) Connection – deeply understanding self and others and building bridges for meaningful engagement; a non-negotiable for investors to understand how to build a value-generating investment thesis that ignites public belief rather than ire

Our data shows that PE leaders score low on the 3Cs of the inclusive leadership model with the most marked dip found in Connection. This is not totally surprising when one considers the rigid metrics that determine success or failure within the PE space. Internal rate of return, and multiple of money will always have a high place on the agenda, but in this brave new world of impact investment and heightened public scrutiny, leadership strategy and talent management approaches need to evolve to drive all the relevant success behaviours in its leaders.

PE has the opportunity to reshape its past and its future. Once decried as a value destroyer, stripping companies of assets for profit, the stage is now set for it to balance driving value and driving values. To achieve this, PE leadership needs to deeply embed the values they aim to promote and create a leadership culture that is open to ideas and investment not solely from a financial returns perspective.

Doing good and doing well can go hand in hand.

Authored by Rosanna Trasatti, Managing Director, Global Head of Private Equity at YSC.

In 2017, the SKEMA Business School Observatory on the Feminisation of Companies published its Gender diversity in the banking industry report, looking at female representation in 71 banks across 20 countries. The report found that although women make up 52% of global banking workers, they average only 38% of middle managers and 16% of executive leaders. The researchers suggest that women in banking face a ‘double glass ceiling’ – while reaching the middle management tier can be challenging, breaking through to more senior leadership roles can be tougher still.

Research from the FT also highlights that although the majority of junior staff working in financial services are women, only one in four reaches a senior role. The research demonstrates that the proportion of women at each level plunges dramatically as women move up through the ranks. In general, the FT concludes, progress has been painfully slow. Some representative comments from women interviewed for this research include, “if all your bosses are men there isn’t much to aspire to” and “men are better at self-promotion”.

In 2016 Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO of Virgin Money, led a government review into the representation of women in senior management in the finance sector. Her report, Empowering Productivity: Harnessing the Talents of Women in Financial Services, revealed that only 14% of executive jobs were held by women.

The researchers suggest that women in banking face a ‘double glass ceiling’ – while reaching the middle management tier can be challenging, breaking through to more senior leadership roles can be tougher still.

Gadhia’s report identified a ‘permafrost’ in middle management - women are either failing to progress or simply leaving. Although there is a widespread assumption that many women put their careers on hold to focus on family, the research found that women without family commitments were just as likely to stick in middle management or to walk away. Gadhia suggested that the issue is a complex one and the solution lies in cultural change.

There is some evidence that women are more reluctant than men to put themselves forward for leadership roles. And even in our age of quotas and women in leadership initiatives, there is still an ingrained unconscious bias deeply ingrained in the culture of many organisations.

What can organisations do to address this issue? 

Think about the future leadership capabilities you need.

Too often, senior leaders recruit in their own image and are not always open to the benefits of gender diversity and different leadership styles. However, in our fast-moving, digital era every organisation can benefit from more diverse leadership at every level. We also need to rethink the type of leadership skills that we need in unpredictable times. This represents an ideal opportunity to engage more women with exciting development opportunities.

At Cirrus, we have carried out a great deal of research into modern leadership challenges and have identified the capabilities that will be vital for leaders now and in the future. This is a key aid in identifying talent, both externally and internally, and for encouraging more women into more senior leadership roles.

• One valuable skill is the ability to make sense of complex information, connecting the dots to help set the direction of the business and to stay on course.
• An entrepreneurial and creative streak is also key to take advantage of opportunities, whatever these may be.
• The ability to get others ‘fired up’ whilst collaborating with people across complex systems is also important: working with and through others to deliver results.
• To move beyond middle management, it is helpful to nurture talent that can take over your own role and help your organisation to get ready for the future.
• Finally, there is an ever-increasing requirement to be comfortable with uncertainty and navigate without the full picture.

Developing these capabilities will help, but it’s also vital to consider future potential for leadership. Here the notion of career aspirations and key drivers or motivators come in, which will be particularly relevant to explore with female candidates. We know it can be lonely at the top. Talk to the women in your organisation about the variety of leadership positions you can offer and explore how they fit with each individual’s career aspirations. Understanding what is important to women leaders can help you build a more diverse senior leadership population.

We know it can be lonely at the top. Talk to the women in your organisation about the variety of leadership positions you can offer and explore how they fit with each individual’s career aspirations.

Identify and develop your talent

Identifying potential at an early stage is a key part of encouraging more women into senior leadership. In line with the above capabilities, it’s important to ensure women with leadership potential are cognisant of their strengths as well as aware of areas for development.

Offer support in various forms to ensure women are focused on developing their careers – most people will benefit from a combination of work experience, coaching and mentoring as well as formal learning and development.

Through ongoing performance conversations, supportive managers can help women to build increased confidence in their capabilities. Providing access to a network of senior female mentors can offer valuable advice. One-to-one coaching can help to identify individual goals and work out ways to achieve those goals. More formal programmes of learning and development, especially those with a specific focus on women in leadership, can be invaluable.

Reach out to young women and girls

Many big financial institutions now have early outreach programmes, where senior women leaders visit schools to help shift girls’ perception of the finance industry.

Ensure you have women on the shortlist

If your organisation is not shortlisting women for senior leadership roles, you really need to ask yourself why not. If you work with external recruiters, be very clear about the importance of diversity. If internal candidates are not coming through, think about more creative ways of encouraging them. Women are not always quite so vocal about their aspirations as their male counterparts.

Create a culture of inclusion

Creating an inclusive and flexible working environment can help to embed diversity across your organisation. Ditch any ‘presenteeism’ mindset and encourage remote working and flexible working hours where you can.

Many women simply don’t aspire to traditional senior roles. Creating roles that appeal to women who may want to do things in different ways is vital.

Treat women fairly

Interesting research from the Bank of England found that women experience more severe repercussions for misconduct in the financial advisory industry than their male counterparts do. The research found that women are 20% more likely to lose their jobs – and 30% less likely to find a new one – following an incident of misconduct compared to men. The gap is even wider in organisations with few female managers. Researchers commented that: “The effects of the gender punishment gap are costly, long-lasting, and may ultimately contribute to the glass ceiling faced by women in finance.”

Appoint more women to board positions

The UK Government has introduced diversity quotas to help address gender imbalance at board level. The cultural impact of more women on the board can be significant. These women can be powerful role models for others. There is also evidence that women are less likely to take the sort of risky decisions that led to the financial crisis.