Name: Laura Omero

Title: Head of Risk Measurements

Organisation: Standard Chartered Bank

Laura Omero is currently an Executive Director at Standard Chartered Bank, leading Risk Measurements for Consumer, Private and Business Banking globally.

Before this role, Laura was the Treasurer for Europe, the Middle East & Africa at Mastercard for 4 years, and before that, she spent 17 years in various roles at General Electric. Laura has international experience, having worked in Italy, Germany, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Laura is married to a funny, caring, and supportive husband and both have been blessed with two wonderful teenagers.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Laura's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

When I see a suboptimal process or situation, I tend to be wanting to fix it, however it is important to recognize that we cannot fix everything, some "fights" are more important to pick up than others.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

My first experience as a leader was when GE entrusted me with the role of Credit Leader for EMEA for its Healthcare division in 2015. Above me I had a great leader with a vision: to connect the ERP system with the Customer Relationship System and with an external credit bureau to automate and bring upfront the credit decision process.

I had to interface with IT to develop that vision and at the same time build and develop an offshore team of credit analysts, whilst managing a budget, all within the constraint of time zones, as the HQ was in the US, my team in India, whilst I was in London. After my successful implementation, a peer was hired to do the same in Asia, so the time zone management stretched even further.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I wake up at 6.40 am so that I can still have breakfast with all the family before everyone gets busy with their day. On the days that I go to the office, I like to commute early so I get my day organized during the quiet time before everyone comes in. On the days that I work from home, I like to go for a 5km run as it gives me a great sense of achievement (no matter what happens that day, I feel I have already achieved something for the day).

I can't properly function without a coffee, so I make sure to get one at some point in the morning. My calls or meetings usually start after 10 am, and generally, I spend a considerable amount of time talking to people, influencing the direction of travel on the topics under my purview.

I never skip lunch, I become very irritable otherwise, and I like a proper lunch of at least 30' with my two legs under a table, preferably talking to other colleagues to know what is going on in their departments and their lives. I never eat fast food or soda nor do I have coffee with milk at lunch (I am Italian after all, some customs have to be maintained!).

I try my best to go home by 7, a maximum of 7.30 pm, to dine with the family and do some personal admins. Sometimes after dinner, I go to the gym or go for a walk, especially on the days when I do not run. I am a Duolingo maniac and I would do at least one lesson every night, then I would pick up my Kindle and read. Lights are usually off by 11 pm, sometimes earlier if I manage.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

Not necessarily recent, but when I joined Mastercard my manager spent a considerable amount of time just teaching me everything he thought was important for my role: he printed the policies and procedures, highlighted the part I had to know by heart, brought me into calls where he thought I could learn from him, traveled for a week a month to be in the same office where I was until he felt confident he could let go and let me alone to manage.

That gradual deep knowledge build-up boosted my confidence and led me to the fastest promotion I ever had, just 11 months into the job. What is the lesson? A leader shall teach and develop others the best he/she can so that everyone elevates.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

I have been fascinated by the philosophy of Immanuel Kant since a young age. Thus morality is in my view the centre of true leadership, as the capacity for rational thinking enables the human (the leader) to do the right thing.

A good leader ought to respect and enrich the autonomy of the followers, so a leader turns followers into leaders. I can't recall if these concepts were in his book "Critique of Pure Reason" or in which other of his books.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

"Do" but then make sure you communicate frequently both upstream and downstream (but especially upstream) what you have been working on and what are your next steps/visions. Only "doing" but not being visible won't bring you far, no matter how good you are.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

On one occasion in my experience, the company I was working for had a very successful "shooting star" company as a customer, yet there were some rumors and articles from third parties that such a company was hiding some wrongdoings.

Their leadership, however, seemed to be very transparent and professional, so they gained good internal support at all levels of the organization I was in. I took the initiative to read several articles, and auditors' reports as well as look at who was shorting them and why. After gathering my thoughts in a well-structured document I managed to convince the senior management to take mitigating actions.

They trusted me and gave me a strong partner from the 1st line to work with, together we took the right actions just on time. The moral? As we say in Italian "dove c'e' fumo c'e' arrosto", which literally translates into "when there is smoke there is roasted meat". Trust your gut, but speak with loads of supporting facts.