Steven Fisher (Citi): "Commitment Is a Force That Brings People Together, That Moves a Business Forward, That Takes You from a Goal or an Idea to an Achievement or to a Contribution"
Steven Fisher, Managing Director, Corporate Bank Head, Citi Russia & C.I.S., is telling us about his strongest leadership trait and what in his opinion is one of the most important parts of leadership - the ability to be committed. According to Steven commitment is central for doing business and is central to succeeding in today's world.
1. What is your strongest leadership trait?
I think that one of the most important traits being part of a leadership experience, being leader is commitment; that's a commitment to organizing a common goal, communicating a common strategy, a common set of beliefs, a common commitment to each other. Commitment is a force that brings people together, that moves a business forward, that takes you from a goal or an idea to an achievement or to a contribution. Commitment to me is a very very important leadership trait and it's central to doing business, it's central to succeeding in today's world. I think that commitment requires in itself many qualities. There is a courage to state a belief and to be committed to it. There is an obligation to instill trust with your team, with your clients, with other parties that you work with in the course of doing business to work together because without trust you can't have commitment. It's a matter of perseverance: once you've decided to go down a road you must show commitment to continue that path because there will be many obstacles, there will be unforeseen changes. Unpredictability is part of our lives and when you have the strength of commitment you can overcome that challenge, the unpredictability. The way I see leadership, commitment is core to that and it allows you to achieve everything that you wish to set out to achieve.
2. Can you be more specific on how you do it?
Commitment is not a point in time; it's a continuing process, and it means that you have to be personally involved. You have to instill trust in your colleagues who work with you. Commitment is a commitment to each other, and that is something that does not happen at one point in time but what we must practice going forward. It's having a strong belief in what you're doing is right and it's worth fighting for, it's worth committing your resources, it's worth organizing a team about. Frankly, a commitment is a life-long obligation, you might say but it's certainly something that is not stated and then over with. It's something that we start with; it's something that we finish with; it's something that we take through the whole process.
3. Do you think that in Russia it's more difficult to follow this approach?
Commitment adds value. If you commit to a goal, if you are transparent about it, if you are a company your shareholders will recognize that in terms of greater value to your company over the long term. Commitment very often means a commitment to increasing the value of either your enterprise or your initiative or even the people and careers of these people around you and that takes time. Because as I said over time you will be faced with challenges, unpredictable events, and it's the strength of your trust in each other; it's a strength of your adherence to principles; be it transparency, or ethics or rule of law all of which are important for every country not just in Russia. Commitment to these common principles which over time I believe will add more value to the firm you work for, for your shareholders, and therefore for yourselves as part of this enterprise. It's proven through many business schools' studies: companies that are more transparent, their stock is more highly valued.
4. In your team, is it a challenge to build this atmosphere of trust?
The atmosphere of trust is the place to start. Without that you cannot move forward. To build an atmosphere of trust you have to have multicultural understanding. You have to understand that a typical Russian will perceive a certain statement perhaps differently than a foreigner from England or the United States, or perhaps Singapore or China; everyone has their own cultural attributes which sometimes do result in different interpretations of communication, and therefore communication is most important.
5. Can you give an example?
What we do is that we have meetings very often and we encourage everyone to speak but in some cases people do not wish to speak in a large open meeting. They may have ideas but they prefer to voice their ideas or elaborate on their ideas in a one-to-one session. So, we never close the door. The door is always open. One can communicate on a one-to-one basis or in context of a larger meeting but what is most important is that everyone knows that their voice is important, their voice is heard, and their ideas and comments will be taken into account. One must create many different avenues or opportunities to make sure that everyone who wishes to participate in forming a consensus or a belief, or a strategy, does participate. It's inclusion. It's diversity of opinion, and it's openness.
6. Can you be more specific about inclusion?
Inclusion means asking for the opinion personally of the youngest member on the team and not just the senior members. That gives a younger member the feeling that he can voice his own opinion that values his background, that offers him an opportunity by voicing his own opinion to actually develop his own career and develop his own skills. Inclusion means talking to everyone and showing that you are personally interested in what they have to say. You are not following a corporate guideline or a simple statement of inclusion but you are actually personally fulfilling what you said you would do. And I think people do understand when someone's approach is personal and when it is not. I think that's very important. Going back to diversity, if you are working in a very large multinational corporation like Citi we routinely have meetings with people of, say, ten different nationalities and therefore inclusion is paramount and you must find a way but you have to believe in this, to allow everyone to speak up because everyone through this diversity can add more value to the common goal.
7. You mean that you should believe that people can contribute some valuable thoughts...
If you believe it your colleagues will believe it too because they will see through action that you follow on what you said you would do. And over a long period of time I think this is the best guarantee. Perhaps in some cases in a short term it may not be evident but over a long period of time, inclusion of different opinions, benefiting from diversity rather than being scared of it or suffering from it, will benefit the common good and the whole collective team.
8. Have you ever been faced with the type of attitude "you are the boss you should express your opinion..."?
Perhaps but I think there is a difference between making a decision or having to make a decision and how you go about making the decision. I think the best decision is taking into account all the facts and as many relevant opinions as possible. Ultimately the leader or the business manager has to take all of this into account and make a decision which he or she feels is best for the team or the best decision that needs to be made in order to resolve a certain situation or move forward. I feel that there is quite a difference between making a decision be it an easy one or difficult one versus a collective participation process. I think they are part of the same process in the end.
9. Do you try somehow to influence this communication?
Well, in the interest of time and order, a leader should communicate how a decision will be made and how everyone can participate in that decision if possible. Or, at least always provide an avenue for people to speak up and not wait to be asked. I think that's important. Of course, every situation requires a different approach and you have tell or make your interaction with larger groups of people as required but I think the principle still stands that any good decision takes into account all the relevant facts, and sometimes the only way to understand all the relevant facts is to communicate with a broad group of people and make sure that you are not missing anything; that all possible opinions, if feasible are taken into account when one makes a decision.
Prepared by Liza Barzova, Good2Work Intern, on January 14, 2009
