Almost every morning, my day begins with a sticky note on the mirror.
Before I head to the office, I like to jot down a few of the most important things I’m working on. I keep a pad of sticky notes at home and one in my travel bag for use on the road. This habit began as an opportunity to remember what my next milestone was in my professional development plan, but over the years I've found it's a great tool to help maintain focus on delivering all kinds of outcomes for the Bank, too. At the beginning of another busy day, that little note is a powerful reminder to stay focused on my team’s key outcomes and think about what I can do to impact them when I go in to work.
In my role at TD, I work to ensure our technology and data across the bank are stable and secure and our customers are protected from fraud and cyber risk. Everything my team does is directed at one goal: delivery of exceptional customer and colleague experiences.
As a senior leader supporting the thousands of TD colleagues who make that happen, I know it’s important that I develop and empower them to do their best work. Whether it's recruiting new talent or preparing our people to step up into their next roles at TD, one of my core responsibilities is ensuring they are equipped with the right skills and tools to execute on our shared vision.
When it comes to inspiring teams and delivering results, I believe there are three key behaviors leaders at every level should practice.
Use outcomes as your "North Star"
As a leading financial institution that is investing heavily in technology and innovation, we try to implement the best practices of both the financial and technology industries. But no matter your industry, your actions and decisions as a leader, and those of your team, should always drive the achievement of outcomes that make a real impact on your business.
In the banking business, the main outcome we want is customer satisfaction. When you’re doing the right thing for the customer, business success will follow.
It's easy for teams to get distracted and lose track of outcomes. They can get very focused on process, for example. Don't get me wrong, process is helpful—but outcomes are what really matter. In the tech world, there’s also always a lot of noise and buzz around the latest trends and innovations—I call it "bling." Ensure your team doesn't veer off course. Big "I" innovation is critical, but specific technologies or innovations your team might get excited about will only drive value if they drive your outcomes. If what you're working on doesn't, then you need to rethink what you're doing.
Writing my top critical outcomes on a sticky note every morning is my way of cutting through the noise. It allows me to organize my thoughts and link my daily tasks back to the outcomes we’re trying to achieve, whether that’s supporting our customers, driving revenue up, or keeping expenses down.
Maintaining that laser focus also influences how you manage your team as a senior leader. Your role is to establish outcomes, provide guidance and oversight, and then get out of the way. Teams must be given autonomy to find the best way to reach those outcomes. We have a principle as a part of the TD scaled agile working model: those who are closest to the work are usually the best ones to determine the path to outcomes. And with that autonomy comes ownership and accountability.
Practice courageous leadership
With accountability comes a responsibility to advocate for the right solutions, and for doing things the right way. And sometimes that takes courage. Colleagues at all levels can show what I call "courageous leadership" by speaking up to identify what's not working, even if it ruffles feathers and impacts your brand in the short term. Sometimes you have to push boundaries to get to critical outcomes.
An example of this came to life earlier in my career, before I joined TD, when I had recently joined a new organization. I was advised not to comment on how the operation was running until I was least six months into my role. Just listen and learn, I was told. And then I saw a critical issue that was putting the business at risk. I ignored the advice I'd received, raised my hand about the issue, had a plan to fix it, and got the support of senior leaders to execute that plan. I stepped into the fray and got my hands dirty. I didn't sit on the sidelines hoping others would fix it.
Leading courageously means leading transparently, and true transparency means delivering tough messages when necessary, and without delay. Bad news doesn't get better with time. Courageous leaders lead in good moments and bad ones, and "run toward the fire," not away from problems. And they don't sweep things under the rug or look for someone else to make the hard calls. Leaning in to help solve the hardest problems not only drives outcomes for your business (and even can help avert disaster), it also opens up opportunities for your own growth and development.
Focus on talent acceleration
To attract and help retain top talent, leaders also need to commit dedicated time to engaging and motivating employees. High potential employees want to feel empowered and have ownership over their work. And as I discussed above, we as senior leaders should give them that ownership, not only to help drive retention and engagement, but also because that's the right approach to achieving outcomes.
They also want development opportunities. If you’re a leader, nurturing talent should never be a little sidebar alongside your "main role." I personally believe you should spend 30% of your time developing the people who work for you—not just your direct reports, but those at all levels within your team. I challenge you to set that as a goal, because as we know, what gets measured gets done.
If you think spending one-third of your time on talent development sounds like a lot, you might be surprised how much you can get done between meetings. Even on my busiest days, I try to make time for everything from structured team meetings to taking 10 or 15 minutes to get out of my office and walk the floor, get a coffee, and talk to people. When I talk to my colleagues, I try to keep it authentic and off the cuff—what’s going on in your world today? What are the problems you’re dealing with? How can I help make your job easier?
Knowing your team beyond your direct reports also helps to ensure that it is inclusive of diverse perspectives, subject matter expertise, problem solving abilities, and commercial acumen, all of which can help build your team's capacity for innovation and drive outcomes.
And don’t forget about your own professional development. To continue learning and expose myself to different perspectives to broaden my outlook, I have set the goal of reading a book a week. It's aspirational, and last year I managed to get to nearly 30 books, but what matters is that I measure it, and I challenge myself to improve.
The bottom line
While it’s important to build your domain expertise in whatever area you work in—whether it’s data, cybersecurity, finance, communications, or human resources—you also need to focus on the practice of leadership. As the saying goes, “A-talent won’t work for B-leaders.” You might be an expert in data, but leadership is a different attribute and characteristic that you need to build.
As leaders, it’s our job to keep pushing forward. By focusing on outcomes, leading transparently and prioritizing talent development, you can help drive value for your organization, no matter its size or your industry, while also helping to develop and retain its next generation of leaders.