Geraldine Haley’s career in HR spans 30 years - the last 20 of those with Standard Chartered Bank. Now the bank’s Group Head of Leadership Effectiveness and Succession, Geraldine has a huge passion for developing people and a fierce pride in the ground-breaking work her team has achieved. Here Geraldine talks to Catalyst editor Lesley Griffiths about her life in leadership.

Does leadership differ in good times and in bad times?

I think in good times, when the business is growing, average leadership can get by, but when the going gets tough you can really differentiate those with outstanding skills or capacity for learning to adapt to difficult circumstances. Now is a real opportunity for us to do the right thing - to coach, support and provide feedback - and enable a whole generation of leaders coming through to really learn and grow from this experience.

Does recession impact the ‘softer’ sides of business such as engagement and corporate values?

There’s a lot of movement in this sector with banks letting people go, so talented people may be less discerning because they’re keen to get a job. Once the market picks up again the likelihood is  they will re-evaluate their options and make another move. In our experience of a diverse group of international graduates, they are much more discerning about the sorts of organisations they want to commit to - of course they look for challenge and growth and development, but they are also very interested in what the company stands for, its ethics, and what kind of person leads this company. If you’re going to be a survivor long-term in the war for talent, your brand proposition needs to encompass all of those things – what does your company do that goes beyond creating shareholder value?

What can organisations do to better position themselves for the future?

It’s vital to focus on the current challenges for leadership and engage leaders to ensure difficult conversations are not avoided: ‘Am I spending time on the right thing? Am I giving my people enough authority to get on with it?’ Our management development programmes all include modules on Leadership in Turbulent Times. On top of that, there’s the whole arena of having people with the right strengths in the right place at the right time to deliver outstanding performance - that is what is going to differentiate you.

Also, talent management tends not to be given priority focus in difficult times but for Standard Chartered it absolutely is a priority. In a recession economy you can’t afford to take your eye off the ball in identifying, developing and retaining your best people. Do it now so that when the upturn comes they don’t want to walk away from you.

Why is Standard Chartered Bank so enduringly successful?

Our consistent strategy has held us in good stead. That is underpinned by our performance culture and a really strong focus on our core values which are well embedded in our structure and provide people with a  behaviour ‘compass’. We focus on the fundamental HR premise of enabling managers and leaders to build engagement focusing on strengths. We have literally doubled our size since 2005 and put in place rigorous selection and induction processes and very good performance management. Our results speak to the strengths that we have and the way that we are performing through these difficult times.

Your team provides support to SCB’s businesses all over the world, have you found many cultural differences in business approach?

There are some cultural nuances, but the fundamentals are the same:

• Being conscious of communication, context and people’s understanding of the part  they play in the bigger picture.
• Recognising the scenarios that can’t be predicted, being comfortable with that unknown and able to respond to unprecedented events.
• Thinking about a broader world than the countries in which you serve. Appreciating your role in people’s  lives - not only your colleagues but customers who in turn have an impact on their community and the world.
• Resisting the ‘command and control’ instinct. Trusting and empowering your people to make the right decision, freeing you to look up and not spend all your time managing downwards.

One of the huge challenges, but for me wonderful opportunities, of working in an international organisation is deciding from a leadership and HR perspective what is global-global, what is core-global with no room for manoeuvre, what has a global essence but with some local nuance that can be applied to it, and what should be local-local with no interference. That tension is a very important consideration for businesses.

What are your leadership lessons?

• Whatever situation you find yourself in just reap the learning - you can learn as much from a bad manager as a good one in what you would do differently.
• No matter how hard you work on your weaknesses, you will never be outstanding in those areas. It is your strengths that will enable you to be world class so seek feedback and build your self awareness to develop those strengths into something that you can leverage as you go up the leadership ladder.
• Thirdly, leaders need to rely on their people leadership skills much more than their technical skills. Work on your people skills early in your career and balance your learning agenda between your technical needs and your maturity to develop relationship building skills.  

What does leadership mean to you?

I feel very responsible for the role model that I’m creating; my values are very important because people will look to me and say ‘she’s made it in the bank, is that a person that I want to emulate?’ It’s also about being courageous and bold. Sitting around waiting for everyone to get comfortable with an idea takes too long in a large organisation, you have to go and get those stakeholders on board and be prepared to sell. For me, leadership is about enabling people to do things that they never imagined they could do. I’m not a sort of incremental leader – I want to strive for something transformational. What’s the big hairy audacious goal that we can go for?!

I really want to enable my team to make a difference and to be recognised by the organisation for our ‘wow’ factor. 

© Caret, 2009. All Rights Reserved

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