Kelvin: We have Sekou Kaalund, who is the Managing Director, Head of Consumer Banking for the Northeast, for JPMorgan Chase. But not only that, he has over two decades of experience on Wall Street. On top of that, he has client relationships that are from the start up stage, he’s taken people to scaling their business and even some turnarounds. And he’s just overall a great guy. 

He’s the one who started Advancing Black Pathways, at JPMorgan Chase, and he’s a friend, an INROADS Board Member. The guy is amazing. I was just telling him earlier today, it was like in the middle of a pandemic, this guy had one of the best years I’ve ever seen.

Sekou Kaalund, you are a Modern Revenue Leader and you have our attention.

Sekou: Well, you know, I feel like I should take a couple minutes to find this person you’re describing. But if I can’t, I’ll just try [Chuckles] to fill in. No, thank you for the generous introduction. 

I want to begin by thanking you and your team even, for having the vision to create this platform, Thought Exchange [aptly named? 00:01:17] to really give the opportunity for people to share ideas and best practices. 

So, since we have such a distinguished group of panellists – I actually went to college with Thomas. We have Filipe and Michael. I’m going to save the most profound insights for them to cover. So instead, I’ll just warm it up. I’ll be the advertiser. They’re going to give you all of the truly thought-provoking stuff. 

What I wanted to share is really three things. And, I think, they apply in a new normal and old normal, in the hybrid, whatever scenario we’re in. And so, as I think about leadership, as I think about the ten thousand employees I’m privileged to manage, as I think about the millions of customers that we serve, in order to do that, there’s some simple things that I feel remain pertinent today, as it did yesterday.

And the first I would say is, again, this shouldn’t be some great epiphany, but it might be I’ll give my twist or insights on it, but just one, know your customer. Their behaviours. The trends in your markets in your – and your employees – given that we’re in this, again new normal. And we could spend this whole hour describing what a new normal is because it impacts different businesses in different ways.

But understanding like, what your customers want to do differently, as a result, will also influence how your employees will need to engage differently or how you need to empower your employees. What investments do you need to make, right? What training do you need to have? So the first, again, quite simplistic obviously, is recognize what changes have occurred in those buying behaviours, whether it’s how people want to shop? How they want to show up? How they want to engage?

And then recognize, what’s that pull through? What are you doing differently to show up as an organization to meet the needs of your customers? How have you evolved with basically with what I just said?

So that’s the first thing. And the way I look at that just to, you know give an example, you know we have – we have almost a thousand Branches in the Northeast and the majority were open during COVID, right.

So we had to think, you know quickly, how do you – for customers that still want to come in – how do you ensure that they feel safe and that your employees are also safe, right? 

So that ability to try and anticipate, to do – recognize what challenges are overlaying local regulations, et cetera, I’m just glad we’re not in that period anymore, I’ll just leave it at that. But the bigger point is, you know, you have to be flexible and able to adapt quickly, so you don’t miss the moment. 

The second thing I would say – again, these are very simplistic notions – just leading with empathy, right. So, as you look at numbers and numbers matter, right, numbers are important. But what’s the human overlay, right? Because my data may tell me that I should or shouldn’t do something, right. And based on the data, that may be supported. But if I do a human overlay and recognize, what are other nuances that may be at play, that can’t be picked up in the data?

So for instance, let’s say I’m building a new location to serve, you know clients. If I only went by, you know 20/20 data on housing prices and commercial developments, et cetera, in March they just announced a new, you know development that’s going to be multidimensional, businesses, offices, et cetera. My older data may have said, “Don’t do it,” right.

So, again, that’s a simplistic example. But even in some of the things we want to execute, whether it’s you’re calling campaigns, et cetera, where are your listening post? How do you ensure that you’re translating, you know what you want to actually achieve to your employees and that it then reaches [Chuckles] the end customer in a way that is consistent with their needs, right?

So, so that becomes a big thing, because sometimes, you know you can think of these, you know grandiose incredible ideas, but then the actual implementation or execution misses the mark, because you didn’t have the right listening post to recognize that, while it sounds good on paper, you know the actual implementation of it is an entirely different thing.

And that leads me to my third – I’m mindful of the time, so I don’t want to take too much time. So, again, I’m a simple country boy, so hear my three simplistic things. That third piece is how do you just ensure that your strategy – your update, your innovations are communicated clearly to your employees and your customers, right?

So, if you’re going in a different direction, right – it’s not to say that you’re going to say, “Here customer. Here’s how we’re evolving our entire business.” But if you’re not talking to the customers and bringing people on the journey – if they’re coming in for X and now you’ve pivoted to Y, what are the implications for your business, right?

And so, that’s why it becomes critical that it’s not just a pronouncement from on high, “Here’s what we’re doing,” but that you actually going back to the listening post, you know have your focus groups that you test out the ideas that you telegraph in advance, right.

If I decide that I, you know want to expand in some markets and, you know, you know we tweak in other markets, if I don’t communicate that and people show up and I put all my investment in another market, you know that makes unintended messages, right.

So, the thing, I’ll say before I pass it on, is as you think about leadership, whether it’s yesterday, today or tomorrow, you can’t be disconnected from what people are feeling and thinking. You have to be both employee obsessed and customer obsessed, right.

And without listening and having empathy, it makes it difficult to actually execute on the strategies, no matter how brilliant they are that you come up with, right. Like simple things I do is you have to make sure you’re giving people permission. So, obviously, we run a bank – the largest bank in the country. One thing that was important to me coming out of this pandemic – again hopefully more out than we are in – is how are the people doing? What are your mechanisms to ensure that people are mentally, physically, OK?

Like I tell our Branch Managers, “Have you taken vacation?” Because when you take vacation, not come back in, but as you take vacation, you give people permission to do the same. You give people permission to focus on self-care.

And while that may not be the hybrid strategy in a calling campaign, et cetera, what it is, is the fact that if your people are worn out, you’re not going to be able to keep them in this incredibly challenging and tight labour market.

So, I will again end by just thanking you for allowing me the platform to speak. Again, hopefully some of these tidbits will be helpful as you think about your businesses. But if they weren’t, don’t you worry, because Michael’s coming up and he’s going to give you more than I could even imagine.

How’s that for a tee up Michael?

Note: The following text is transcribed from the event audio. It’s largely accurate, but in some cases it may be a bit off due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It’s intended as an aid to understanding the event, but it shouldn’t be treated as an authoritative record.