Standard Chartered Bank’s leadership development approach

Having specific capabilities is important, but the ability to constantly reinvent oneself is the true mark of a leader at Standard Chartered Bank.
By: | November 29, 2017
Topics: Features | Field Notes | Leadership | Singapore

Earlier this month, Ewan Clark Gordon (pictured below), Global Head of Leadership Effectiveness and Organisational Development at Standard Chartered Bank, gave insight into how leadership development has evolved in the VUCA world of today.

This week, he shares with us how his organisation approaches this.

What are some useful indicators that organisations can employ to identify talent with leadership potential?

I believe that the most important factor for leadership potential and future talent is the ability to learn and reinvent oneself. For today, we can look at specific capabilities, but for tomorrow, we need to look at the ability to be different from what we are today – that’s the only requirement that we can truly be sure about.

How does Standard Chartered approach leadership development and what opportunities are there for employees?

We have a suite of leadership development programmes at Standard Chartered, from new managers to the CEO of the bank. All managers and leaders are eligible for programmes at their level and are able to express interest in participating. Talent systems will prioritise certain people at certain times but the programmes are open to everyone.

We are working hard to increase the level of access of our leaders to what is required, at the time that it is needed. As a team, we want to be led to where we are able to respond to the shifting needs of the business.

You will be presenting at HRM Asia’s Leadership Development Congress in December. What will audiences take away from your session and the company’s case study?

I would like to tell the story of what we have been doing in Standard Chartered recently. We have had this amazing opportunity with the coming of our CEO a couple of years ago, which gave us the perfect conditions to do some really interesting, impactful work.

For the last 18 months, we have been undergoing systemic culture change across the bank, and using leadership and team effectiveness as levers for the change. We have been engaging our external clients and our employees at all levels to shape the desired culture and creating a movement of change in the bank. We have been using all of this architecture to build the leadership capabilities required to lead the change. There is definitely some pretty cool stuff in there and I look forward to coming to the conference to share our recent experiences.

 

All about leadership development

Join Ewan Gordon Clark, Global Head of Leadership Effectiveness and Organisational Development at Standard Chartered Bank, and more than 15 other senior-level speakers and experts at the Leadership Development Congress in Singapore next month.

Taking place on December 5 and 6, this exclusive conference is the leading leadership learning and development platform to help companies build more future-proof leadership programmes that address the latest organisational leadership trends and needs.

Delegates will get to hear cutting-edge case studies from LinkedIn, Standard Chartered Bank, DFS, Sony and Carlsberg Group. They will learn how these companies are revamping their leadership training to improve organisational bottom-lines.

For more information, visit www.congress.hrmasia.com.