COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns have presented huge and intricate development challenges for individual leaders and their teams. The Treasurer spoke to three group treasurers about their own leadership journeys, their perspectives and experiences around leadership and then asked them what 2020 has taught them so far.
Here’s what our interviewees – Brendan Boucher, group treasurer at Compass; Lynda Heywood, group treasurer at Tesco; and Alexandra Lewis, group treasurer and director of pensions at National Grid – had to say…
BRENDAN BOUCHER: There are several things I would point to: firstly, around job moves. That’s when your learning is at its greatest. You’re coming into new organisations and new roles, and you’re having to establish yourself quickly.
I was in public practice to start with at PwC. Then I moved to GlaxoWellcome (now GSK) – so, a big, blue-chip corporate. I then went to Austria for three years working in the oil and gas sector. From there I moved to the United Arab Emirates for five years – also in oil and gas, but in a treasury function start-up – then back to pharma, and now into hospitality. For me, those job moves have contributed hugely to my leadership journey – getting experience and exposure to different people in different environments, different countries and companies at different stages of their evolution.
LYNDA HEYWOOD: In my early career I was an auditor in an accountancy firm, and was leading audit teams on-site, and I was also the lead manager for a number of client relationships.
When I moved into treasury, my first role was as treasury accountant, but it was a role that hadn’t existed before. I established the role alongside learning about treasury and studying for my Association of Corporate Treasurers exams. The idea of leadership in that context is slightly tangential, but you’re having to lead inasmuch as you’re creating a role and liaising with parts of the business that aren’t used to dealing with treasury – building a partnership.
My next role was as assistant treasurer at Kingfisher, and after a few years I decided to go part-time. I was the first part-time professional at corporate centre, and conscious that I was setting a bar for part-time working. I was determined to show that I could be part-time without compromising on professionalism and reliability. Later on, I became group treasurer (full-time) and took up perhaps a more classic leadership role.
I joined Tesco as group treasurer four years ago. I had a large team, but one that had been without a group treasurer for a time, so the task became refocusing them around a treasury transformation and around Tesco’s strategy to strengthen its balance sheet. I wanted to help them work collaboratively and to experience other treasury disciplines outside their own specialisms.
ALEXANDRA LEWIS: I would say a couple of roles ago at National Grid when I went in and became head of insurance. It was the first time I had led a team where I hadn’t or couldn’t have done their jobs because I didn’t have the technical knowledge. That really made me think about what leading looks like. How should I go about setting parameters for the team so that they could come to their own conclusions and judgements?
I went from insurance into an HR role where again I didn’t have technical HR experience around compensation and benefits. It was a case of working out what we needed to deliver and how that translated into leading the team. Your role is to question, prod, unblock, set parameters and make decisions. You don’t need to be a technical expert to lead.
BB: Looking back, you’re definitely picking up leadership attributes from working with different people in different places. I can still think back to the very first people I worked with. I can remember how they treated me and how I felt with that. Every single job that I’ve done, every single environment, I’ve picked up different things from people.
I don’t think my leadership was really tested until I made the step up to group treasurer level. I had a bigger diverse team and a diverse set of individuals – and some with a lot more experience than me. That’s when you have to develop the fastest.
LH: There are a whole range of aspects to leadership. Some qualities and competencies come readily, and some require more conscious development. I think early on I had the ability to build relationships; I understood the importance of communication and of honesty and integrity – I think those are integral. But other aspects – such as agility in decision-making, resilience and tenacity, influencing and networking – required building on.
Importantly, not everything has been a success and I’ve had to learn from mistakes along the way.
AL: You could argue that the leadership piece around ownership and communication, and
bringing people with you using your ideas probably doesn’t need to happen at the earliest stages in your career – but it could.
We’re working in virtual teams at the moment, but you could be a junior treasury accountant sitting on a project team bringing the technical knowledge from your area. I think the means by which that moves from contributing to starting to develop leadership happens when individuals look at what the team is trying to achieve overall and begins to understand how they communicate that and keep the team up to speed. Those kinds of things can be hugely valuable from someone who isn’t necessarily a leader and could be quite junior.
BB: First of all, I would always aim to be myself. I think you’re going down the wrong track if you try to be somebody you’re not. You have to recognise sometimes that your personal style may not be the most appropriate in all situations. The current situation is probably a good example of that. Where sometimes you can afford to be more laid-back and just let things go along, in this environment, things have moved very quickly to having to be very directive, with a laser-like focus on the key issues and problems at hand.
So, I think you have to be yourself, you have to set a clear expectation of what’s required – both functionally, and more importantly in terms of how people interact.
Be prepared to have a robust debate. Different views are welcome. But what’s important is not to let things fester. We put issues on the table and then we align, and we get on with things.
Beyond that, it’s important to give responsibility and accountability, and change things up from time to time – change reporting lines, try different things… It keeps us all motivated, and if something doesn’t work, let’s not be too critical. We tried it, and it hasn’t worked; we’ll go back to Plan A.
LH: One the things I try to do is to encourage each head of treasury to be a leader both of their team and within their specialism. I believe it is important to give them space to work, but to be there to coach. I also encourage learning and development conversations around their aspirations and what their next role might be. Identifying gaps in their development and encouraging them to take up opportunities for training and for broadening their experience – that might translate into taking part in cross-functional work or interacting in treasury projects that are broader than their own specialism.
AL: People often think that with development you go on a course and you nail that – and there is a place for that approach.
National Grid uses what it calls the 70:20:10 rule. Courses and formal learning are the 10%, while 20% are elements like coaching, mentoring, peer review, observing other people and getting feedback. And then 70% of development is learning that takes place on the job, actually putting things into practice.
In a stable state you can operate virtually, but for more junior or new members of the team you need the interaction to set the context of what they are doing. I think I forget how much learning – how people get things done and what their leadership style is – is done by virtue of being around others in the office. You can’t pick up as much operating remotely.
As a technical competency you might have learnt how to pull together a profit and loss or cash-flow balance sheet, but it’s not until you’ve done that in context that it becomes embedded.
The same is true of leadership. Once you have that opportunity to take hold of a whole project and own it end to end – it is at that stage when you learn that you need to communicate with stakeholders and you need to communicate context to the team or begin to appreciate that you might not be making decisions quickly enough.
When people show enthusiasm or keenness to learn, giving them a project, letting them run a team or become the owner of some element of a project is crucial. Owning something end to end is really important when it comes to developing leadership. You are accountable, you are responsible for communicating it, for getting the technical knowledge in to help you deliver it.
BB: I would encourage people to do lots of different jobs. It takes you out of your comfort zone. Sometimes the easy thing to do is to stay where you are. But I think if you want to develop quickly, getting variety of experience is key.
And then: take responsibility. In this environment, there is a good opportunity to do that. Show real commitment. Step up when the going gets hard.
LH: The first thing is to form a view on what good leadership looks like by watching and experiencing other leaders. Make a personal assessment of what’s happening around you and ask: ‘If I were leading that project, what would I do the same or differently?’ That kind of habit can be very powerful. Sometimes we learn a lot from seeing how other leaders respond to different situations.
I would also say find a mentor you like and trust – one who will help you develop your own brand and style of leadership.
I always encourage people to have a plan for their own learning and development, and to keep track of their own progress against that plan. Take advantage of personal development training opportunities both inside and outside your company.
Finally, be the author of your own destiny. It is important to own your own career.
AL: Inevitably, people get noticed by delivering. Whatever it is you’re working on now, feel like you’re taking ownership of it, even if it’s part of something bigger. Think broadly. Ask the bigger questions or ask your boss about the broader context. They should be taking five minutes out to give you the bigger picture.
Offer to take on responsibility.
Seek a mentor. Mentoring via a videoconference is not as easy, but it’s still doable.
BB: Adaptability, sticking your hand up, getting involved and then being accountable – those are the ways that people can be the most helpful. And also, for me, demonstrate that commitment, determination and willingness to get involved – skills you’re going to have to have from within when you’re setting your sights on a leadership role.
LH: By being present and putting as much into things as possible. Being visible is key, so taking a bit of initiative is crucial, especially at the moment.
AL: We have a lot of people working from home actively thinking about their career at the moment. We are in this reflective moment. So, think about that and ask people around you where they think you could be heading. And have a personal development plan that is actionable. A development plan that says: become more confident or develop more gravitas isn’t actionable. One that says, ‘lead a team meeting regularly’ is.
BB: It’s demonstrated that we’ve got some very talented and capable individuals, who are able to adapt quickly, have been able to work calmly under significant pressure, volume, stress and uncertainty. Which is great, because it tells you you’ve got good people in the key positions in the team.
We have to understand the organisation is also under considerable pressure, so the things we’d normally ask for, the nice-to-haves – maybe those can be put to one side. That ability to focus with absolute clarity on the key issues and be supportive around the group when there’s a lot of ambiguity has been impressive.
Across the corporate team, whether it’s treasury, tax, financial control, legal or investor relations, there has been an extraordinary team effort. There was a good collaboration before, but this has been a real bonding exercise, which will stand us in good stead going forward.
And frankly, it’s been really good fun to work in that crisis project team. So, I think a lot of positives have come from what has been a very challenging period, actually.
LH: My first reflection is that we’re more resilient and adaptable than we realise.
Having the right tools and mindset has helped us a great deal in lockdown. The team has risen to the challenge of working flexibly while staying focused, and we have issued bonds and landed projects; lockdown hasn’t held us back, and I’m proud of what the team has achieved.
Contact has been really important. Lockdown has underlined that aspect of team working – one that perhaps we take for granted. It has also highlighted that it is important to have some fun and get together as a team. We’ve had virtual drinks, quizzes and team meetings not focused around work. Time hasn’t stood still, and we have had to adapt.
AL: Expect and plan for the unexpected! A couple of years ago, my risk team introduced some surprise business continuity plan days, which involved telling everyone to work at home with no notice and then learning what the pinch points were. Then last year, one of the team suggested we should do this for three days in a row to make sure we could handle more than one day out of the office.
Having done that, when we actually went into lockdown, we felt pretty confident. When I think about the billions of pounds of debt the National Grid team has issued, managed risk around and taken receipt of from kitchen tables and bedrooms, what it’s taught me is that presenteeism has been pretty much killed off. Allowing people to deliver during their own timeframe – it’s hard to imagine ever going back to not doing that.
I think I have also learnt that operating face-to-face is hugely valuable, but it can be very costly as well. In the future, I suspect we’ll make fewer business trips and maximise those we do make with more catch-ups and face-to-face meetings.
Our interviewees spoke to Liz Loxton, editor of The Treasurer, and Matt Packer, freelance business, finance and leadership journalist