Name: The Core Quality of a Leader, According to Ally Financial CEO
Uploaded: 2017-08-01
Duration: 4 min 5 s
Description: Ally Financial CEO Jeffrey Brown shares the best leadership advice he ever got.

JB in your first year as CEO, when you came on in 2015, you had to deal with losing a special leasing arrangement with General Motors. You had pressure from an activist shareholder, your stock wasn't doing so well. What's the most important leadership lesson you learned through all of that? My dad as a small business owner for 40 plus years and has always emphasized when you give someone your word, they depend on it. So being a credible communicator and constant communicator, critically important. Number two, surrounding yourself With great people. You gotta realize that success of a company is never gonna be driven by one individual, the CEO or anyone. And then number three is really protecting your boss at all times. And in this case for me it's now the board. And so being a frequent communicator, the board Engaging the board, helping the board really understand what's working, what's not, what's on my mind, what's on the horizon. I think are very important attributes so I try to keep it simple for leadership philosophies but it's really help guide me quite well. This is your first real CEO job did you have to in any way. Modify or tweak your natural leadership style to be an effective CEO leader? What i would say is not so much the person I am but I'm definitely a more shy individual and i think realizing when your the public face of a company you've got to be willing to get out more, be more of the extrovert And really connect with your employee base. So I think that's probably one change in behaviors for me, but I've always tried to be a good communicator, and a good person, and be very approachable. And I think that in my core has stayed true, and that's really worked well as my time as CEO. It seems like being a great leader in and of itself is not enough. You have to be successful You have to cultivate a mindset throughout the company of leadership. So, what are you doing to encourage that in ally on all levels, so that people are thinking about changing, experimenting, even taking risks? Constant emphasis of culture throughout every building, every site in the company with our motto, which is lead. And it's an acronym that stands for four things that we believe in in being very vocal about we're gonna have an honest culture, an ethical culture. We're gonna have a culture where every single employee feels empowered. And by the way, if they see something bad it's almost like the New York motto, see something, say something, halt the production line. Every single one of our 7, 600 employees has the opportunity to do that. So things don't always go as planned. So if someone sticks their neck out to try something new how do you deal Deal with mistakes and failure. To really lead to an innovative culture you got to get employees to understand that their jobs aren't at risk if they take a calculated and a thoughtful Approach to a new product, a new service whatever it is and realising it doesn't pay enough to agree that their jobs aren't at risk, got a environment where people feel comfortable sought of stepping out there in a different manner and they have trust. They have trust in their managers and the management team that mistakes are gonna be viewed poorly as long as there is a learning opportunity. And that comes back to really connecting what people do in their day- to- day jobs with a broader purpose of ally. JB, as you look back on your personal life, but also in the many years you worked at Bank of America, what's the The best leadership advice that you ever received? So the one leader that's probably impacted my career the most is Hugh McCall Junior and Hugh was really the creator of what's known as Bank of America. Tremendous leader in creating followership. And you always emphasize the importance of [ UNKNOWN ] People were willing to run through brick walls for that man because they believed in him. They believed in him as his as it's core, as the person more than the leader. And I think that followership is probably the one thing I've learned more than anything.

The Core Quality of a Leader, According to Ally Financial CEO

Close up of male hand holding Ally banking card

Leadership

Ally Financial CEO Jeffrey Brown shares the best leadership advice he ever got. 