Choudhry_CISI_Masterclass_May2015

Leadership and Teambuilding for senior
executives:
Seven Steps to Excellence
CISI
FCSI Masterclass, London
13 May 2015
Professor Moorad Choudhry FCSI FIFS FIoD
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Brunel University

CISI Masterclass Seminar May 2015 2© 2014 Moorad Choudhry
Agenda
 Leadership…what is it?
 Teambuilding…how important is it?
 Why do we need either? The Shareholder Value case for both
Please read and note the DISCLAIMER stated at the end of the presentation.

Leadership: what and why?
 How do you define leadership? And why is it necessary in a corporate
environment?

Leadership
 What about this:
 True leadership is more than managing teams and running organisations.
Our top-ranked faculty will empower you to inspire others through the
innovative thinking and strategic vision required to create a culture of
excellence. You’ll work alongside international peers to develop the
instincts and skills you need to become a true leader. --- Marketing blurb for
Wharton School Executive Education Programme
 Quote from Business News Daily
 Unfortunately, leadership doesn't have a one-size-fits-all definition. We all
have our own ideas about what it means to be a good leader. For example,
some people think leadership means guiding others to complete a
particular task, while others believe it means motivating the members of
your team to be their best selves. But while the definitions may vary, the
general sentiments remain the same: leaders are people who know how to
achieve goals and inspire people along the way.
 http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3647-leadership-definition.html

Some quotes
 Any of these?
 "Leadership is having a vision, sharing that vision and inspiring others to
support your vision while creating their own." – Mindy Gibbins-Klein,
founder, REAL Thought Leaders
 Leadership is the ability to guide others without force into a direction or
decision that leaves them still feeling empowered and accomplished." –
Lisa Cash Hanson, CEO, Snuggwugg
 Effective leadership is providing the vision and motivation to a team so they
work together toward the same goal, and then understanding the talents
and temperaments of each individual and effectively motivating each
person to contribute individually their best toward achieving the group goal."
– Stan Kimer, president, Total Engagement Consulting
 Leadership is the art of serving others by equipping them with training, tools
and people as well as your time, energy and emotional intelligence so that
they can realize their full potential, both personally and professionally." –
Daphne Mallory, family business expert, The Daphne Mallory Company
 Still not quite there…

The definitive one
 Recognise him?
 [Gene] Kranz is a leader. He is a man who gives others the feeling that they
are about to go through the door together into the stadium where they are
each going to play the best game of their life. --- Norman Mailer, A Fire on
the Moon, Boston: Little, Brown & Company 1970

And this one..
 There were two from the website I did like…
 Leadership is being bold enough to have vision and humble enough to
recognize achieving it will take the efforts of many people — people who
are most fulfilled when they share their gifts and talents, rather than just
work. Leaders create that culture, serve that greater good and let others
soar." – Kathy Heasley, founder and president, Heasley & Partners
 "My perspective of a leader is an individual who knows the ins and outs
about the business so they can empathize with followers. In addition to
being a positive influence on the people they are leading, leadership is
about setting the tone, motivating, inspiring, thinking big, and never [giving]
up when others feel like quitting." – Alexis Davis, founder and designer,
Hoo-Kong by Alexis Davis
 My personal favourite:
 What defines a good leader? Look at your management team sitting
around the table. Which one of them would follow you to your next job for a
cut in pay? If the answer is none, then you aren’t a leader

Leading a team of experienced professionals
 “Leadership” is an oft-used term but one that carries different meanings
for different people. In the corporate environment it necessarily has
different connotations when compared to its usage in say, the military or
the world of sport. Often in corporate entities senior management are
required to demonstrate not genuine leadership but adherence to a
stolid corporate identity.
 Platitudes abound, and beyond the salary cheque there is little ability to
build loyalty and commitment to good customer service. In the post-Big
Bang era where the bonus is everything and compensation packages are
used to buy loyalty, very few senior managers demonstrate any genuine
leadership ability.
 However genuine leadership is just that – inspiring people to want to
follow you. The best leaders:
 trust their subordinates
 eschew micromanagement
 treat everyone in the same way.

Leading a team…
 This builds loyalty far quicker, and far more genuinely, than consultant-
speak and empty PR sloganeering.
 Almost without exception the best-performing teams are those that work
together in an atmosphere of genuine team spirit….
 …Creating such high-performance teams requires skill, patience, an
open and trusting attitude, and sound judgement…
 …and no platitudes. Really do behave how you say, or else don’t say it
 Drop the manager’s tick-box guide on effective management. If it really
isnt you, its fake and pointless

Genuine teambuilding
 Are you building a team from scratch? Or inheriting one that you have
to lead?
 Do you get to personally handpick each team member?
 Does this make a difference?
 Yes….and no
 Principles remain the same…but then look at this chap

Corporate world teambuilding
 Remember we work in an office. Bringing in the combat-experienced
Army general or the gold medal-winning Olympic athlete isnt in the
same context…
 Rinus Michels:
 The collective dream [of the team] becomes a binding agent and is one of
the most important aspects of the… team building process.
 Contrast the office with an infantry platoon or a sports team in a final…
 Corporations have other binding agents. For example, workshops or
company parties [or evening drinks out]. The disadvantage of these is that
they only work temporarily. This is also true about pep talks by motivational
speakers. You can possibly (in the short term) achieve the goal that people
have more confidence in themselves, however (long term) it is not
successful in achieving the goal of making employees feel that they are an
important part of the way the company is run. And that is what it is all
about!
 Team building entails much more than spending a weekend camping in the
woods or canoeing with the group. And in the corporate world it entails
much more than a big party, an incidental workshop or an evening with a
motivational speaker…

One goal: genuinely, one goal
 Teambuilding:
 How business start-ups are described:
 You work in a start-up, either as founder or one of its first employees,
because you are on a mission in which you personally make a difference.
 So how much “leadership” and “teambuilding” is required?
 Company success is a direct result of you and your input. That makes it
easy to be wholehearted in your approach.
 On mistakes and failures: search out failure.
 The faster you find out what’s broken, the quicker you can fix it.
 AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE a blame culture or lack of openness to admit
errors or mistakes. Starts from the top and the culture is set from the top
down

Seven steps to success

CISI Masterclass Seminar May 2015 17© 2015/ Moorad Choudhry
Neil Cox
Neal Ardley
Not a football player…

1) Treat everyone as equals in the way one speaks to them and
communicates instructions
 Neil Cox didn’t vary the manner in which he spoke to individuals in the
team, whatever their ability or familiarity or position. He delivered
instructions in exactly the same way to everyone. This builds tremendous
loyalty and confidence.
2) Lead by example.
 This is nothing new. We’ve all heard this one. The difference was that
Messrs Ardley and Cox really did do it. They put in the effort and, what’s
more, it was obvious that they were putting in the effort. We could all see it.
This has a tremendous inspirational effect on team members.
3) Provide continuous encouragement.
 Everyone likes to feel appreciated, both when things are going well and
when they are going badly. Ardley and Cox delivered encouragement at
every possible opportunity, for both minor and major pieces of work. It
makes a big difference and would translate well in a corporate environment.

4) Do not dwell on mistakes, and do not apportion blame.
 When a player made a mistake, it wasn’t pointed out because the individual
concerned was aware he had made it, and it wasn’t dwelt on. That’s
happened, okay let’s move on and try again. This is tremendously inspiring
and makes everyone try harder.
5) Make everyone feel part of the same team. No cliques, no favourites, no
inner circles.
 Whatever the reality of the situation, it is enough that everyone feels that
they are part of the same team and that no-one is more favoured than
anyone else. Again, this is a platitude espoused by every office manager,
it’s just that in 9 out of 10 company offices it isn’t true.
6) Involve everyone, and keep involving them.
 This follows on from (5), but one way to inspire people to want to follow you
is by involving them and, by so doing, make them feel that you trust them to
do a good job. The modern office equivalent of this is “don’t micromanage,
and learn to delegate”. Again, we’ve heard this often enough but the
difference between most corporate managers and the Wimbledon
management was that the latter really did do this.

 7) Trust your subordinates’ judgement.
 It will make them want to do well and inspire them even more. This is a
natural trait of AFC Wimbledon’s management style.
 8) Act so everyone is aware they have the same objective.
 This is the easy bit in a football team. There are no individual winners
amongst the 11 players if the team loses. But by applying rules 1-7 above,
Neal Ardley and Neil Cox at least cover off the essential part of team
management first. After that, it’s up to the players…
 (The “Seven” not “Eight” is deliberate…)
 People define “leadership” in a number of ways. But really it boils down
to inspiring people to want to follow you. As long as they pay a higher
salary to attract staff, corporate management won’t ever truly be tested
on this. But there is an easy way to test it. Take a poll amongst those in
your team to determine who would follow you to your next job for a cut
in pay. If the answer is zero, then you aren’t a leader.

Checklist for effective leadership and teambuilding
 Minimise process and bureaucracy. Don't say 300 words when 10 will do. And if you are a
manager, and the so-called voluntary Monthly Barometer exercise doesn't get a response from
everyone in your team, don't send an email asking everyone to fill it in. Or don't you see the
contradiction in that?
 Being courteous, polite and respectful extends to all facets of your life. It should not stop in a
work environment. Beware the boss who speaks meekly to his wife on the phone and shouts at
his subordinates in a team meeting.
 It is important to treat others how you would want to be treated.
 Be yourself and be true to yourself, especially in instances where people are political or are not
overly transparent and open. Of course, if you have an aptitude and taste for office politics, and
not being open with colleagues, then you will ignore this advice.
 People skills and soft skills are essential. They are what make a really good team and in turn
this is what will make a really good Bank
 As a leader you should trust your team to get on with what they have been tasked to do.
Delegate meaningfully. And treat everyone the same, no cliques and no inner circles. These are
divisive and ruin team cohesion.
 Treat failures and successes in exactly the same way. Do not let success go to your head and
do not let failures stress you out.

22 22
Bluebird Treasury Doctrine
Everyone is involved in all tasks
No single-person dependencies
Staff can and do step in for each other as required
Open, collaborative and challenging environment
Effective upward and downward communication
Effective upward and downward delegation
Team answers each other’s telephones
Open access: no cliques, no inner circles
“Open door” policy is genuine and not platitude
Bluebird Treasury doctrine: Moorad Choudhry

Total Banking: the road to success
 Is there a Shareholder Value issue here?
 Is good leadership and teambuilding essential to deliver satisfactory /
expected / above-average Return on Capital?
 Issues today for banks are many and varied:
 Onerous and costly regulation
 High cost of regulatory compliance for capital and liquidity
 Competition within industry and without (P2P, Fintech, etc)
 The universal is customer service. Simply selecting and attempting to
implement a strategy is no guarantee of success or outperformance. In
essence, a bank needs to make every one of its customers feel as if he
or she is the only customer it has.
 Every bank will need to pay close attention to this requirement. The
emphasis on customer care, and the staff training requirements that
this will drive, is paramount.

The road to success…
 In effect banking culture needs to move to that of a service one. Culture
is set from the top and it is essential that senior management drive
change through personal example. My term is “Concierge Banking”, the
qualitative philosophy that states that each and every interaction with
every customer, however large or small, must be treated as if the future
of the company depends on it. This is a skillset that must be taught by
example, from the top downwards.
 Each customer must be made to feel as if it is the bank’s only customer.
 The way that senior executives deal with their subordinates, and they in
turn with theirs, is crucial to inculcating this cultural skillset. The way a
team operates in a bank will help drive this cultural change.
 “Total banking” creates a genuine team environment which then,
automatically and almost without thinking, drives great customer
service
 NOT fake PR- or consultant-driven campaigns (see over...)
 And that will drive RoC…

Sidebar: how not to do it
 Recently a company I know rolled out a customer service campaign to its staff. It
was very high profile: the walls of its offices, the inside of the elevators, even the
mirrors inside the staff washrooms – all available surfaces were plastered with
slogans designed, presumably, to exhort and inspire staff to do more, to do better
for the customer.
 But to be effective, a customer service campaign has to be genuine. Platitudes
convince no-one. It has to be plain language. And it has to start from the top.
 Avoid consultant-speak. Plain English is stated consistently by customers as
amongst the Top 3 attributes they desire from companies they buy products from.
So lets ditch the “think outside the box” slogans, the “enabling high-performance
teams” nonsense.
 Simply stating base platitudes doesn’t inspire anyone, customers or staff.
After all, one has to assume that employees know at least the basics, so simply
telling them what they already know is insulting and demoralising. Writing in large
letters on the mirrors of the staff washrooms, “Don’t see yourself, see the
customer” doesn’t motivate employees. (In fact, it’s faintly creepy).
 But the most important thing is to build the customer service culture internally,
from the top. With your staff. If senior management treat staff poorly, there is
little chance of said staff treating customers well…

Conclusions
 Intense competition makes it imperative that banks ensure
that leadership and tem building skills – of the genuine kind,
and genuinely effective – are developed and retained
 Effective leadership isn’t empty slogans and base platitudes
 Rather, it is an approach that places emphasis on the
individual, an open, trusting culture and an appreciation that
there really is one shared goal
 This is beyond the bonus culture and ultimately of greater
benefit to shareholders

Bibliography
 Choudhry, M., The Principles of Banking, Singapore: John
Wiley & Sons Ltd 2012, chapters 16-17
 Choudhry, M., “Future bank strategy: fewer choices, tougher
calls”, Intelligent Risk, PRMIA, July 2014
Email: mooradchoudhry@gmail.com

DISCLAIMER
The material in this presentation is based on information that we consider reliable, but we do not
warrant that it is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. Opinions expressed
are current opinions only. We are not soliciting any action based upon this material. Neither the
author, his employers, any operating arm of his employers nor any affiliated body can be held
liable or responsible for any outcomes resulting from actions arising as a result of delivering this
presentation. This presentation does not constitute investment advice nor should it be considered
as such.
The views expressed in this presentation represent those of Moorad Choudhry in his individual
private capacity and should not be taken to be the views of his employer or any other affiliated
body, including Brunel University or YieldCurve.com, or of Moorad Choudhry as an employee of
any employer or affiliated body. Either he or his employers may or may not hold, or have recently
held, a position in any security identified in this document.
This presentation is © Moorad Choudhry 2015. No part of this presentation may be copied,
reproduced, distributed or stored in any form including electronically without express written
permission in advance from the author.

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