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Angie O’Donnell
Title: Principal and Founder, 3D Leadership Group
Age: 56
Experience: 20 years
Angie O’Donnell spent decades working at banks all over the world, from Hong Kong to Zurich. Now she’s on the other side, coaching executives as a principal and founder of 3D Leadership Group, a high-level, global coaching company. O’Donnell has coached leaders at Amazon Robotics, Biogen, Boston Private, Crane Currency, The Broad Institute, Charles River Associates, John Hancock, Kronos, McGraw-Hill, Novo Nordisk, Partners Healthcare and Progress Software, among many others. She was recognized as the New England Executive Coach of the Year in 2013 by her peers at the International Coach Federation. O’Donnell helps bank and financial professionals improve their leadership skills by encouraging “mindfulness” as a strategy. Banker & Tradesman caught up with O’Donnell to discuss what she is seeing in the industry and how executives can improve themselves as leaders.
Q: From your experience, what are the biggest challenges that leaders at banks and financial institutions face? Why?
A: One of the big challenges is doing more with less from the perspective of leading and motivating others. Financial institutions are competing for precious talent among the Gen X and Gen Y populations and often don’t provide some of the “cool” benefits and perks that appeal to this demographic. The leadership challenge is to communicate the opportunity in terms of the learning and growth that can serve as a stepping stone for exceptional career paths.
Q: What’s one area where leaders at financial institutions are doing well?
A: I’ve seen our financial clients being creative in many ways. One client is focused on building a wellness-related culture, where the wellbeing of all employees is a core belief. Besides the typical fitness related offerings, they’ve eliminated junk food vending machines in the cafeteria and replaced it with healthy alternatives. They offer a variety of clinics and seminars for employees to learn about managing an “always on” lifestyle, caring for elderly parents and cooking demonstrations.
Another financial client has invested in the basics – leadership development offerings that are practical and fun for early and mid-level managers. One client refers to this group as the “lost middle,” those critical leaders that are expected to do most of the people management with the least amount of development and support. Lastly, all of our financial clients have made sincere commitments to creating environments where women can grow and thrive. Formal women’s networks that receive corporate funding and executive level attention are key to retaining women at all levels, and there is strong evidence that financial companies are tuned into this need for explicit commitment.
Q: What does “mindfulness” look like for financial leaders?
A: There has been an explosion of interest in mindfulness and how to integrate mindful leadership approaches into leadership development initiatives. Financial institutions like UBS, Blackrock and Deutsche Bank have publicly shared their commitment to mindfulness and offer meditation programs to their employees. For financial leaders, the need to be sharp and focused in a 24/7 global working environment where markets shift rapidly is one good reason.
Meditation helps to build your focusing muscle, something that has lost its strength in our multitasking world. The ability to focus intensely on one challenge without letting distractions sidetrack your brain has become a critical leadership competency, believe it or not. Every time a distraction pops up – email, text or alerts – your brain can’t help itself and wanders to towards the bright, shiny object. It takes more energy then to re-focus and bring your brain back to the original challenge.
Q: In today’s work climate, there’s been a lot of issues with sexual harassment and sexism. What advice do you have for leaders of banks – often seen as very traditional institutions dominated by white men – for trying to tackle these issues and be more inclusive to women and minorities?
A: Earlier in my career, I worked on the trading floor of a global bank, so I’ve seen my fair share of less than mindful behavior. For any type of traditional, hierarchical environment, practicing inclusiveness is the place to start. It begins with entry level hiring and promotion practices that give men and women a level playing field. At the top, having two or more women on the board makes a strong statement, and when aspiring women look up, they see someone like themselves. And in the middle, encouraging women to apply for stretch roles even when they don’t think they’re ready, which is a self-limiting behavior that often holds women back. These are all programmatic approaches, and they’re fine, but we need to encourage men to be part of the solution and not back away from building relationships with women as mentors and sponsors. I hope to hear more c-suite conversations about how to pull women up, and see many women step up when there’s an opportunity in front of them.
O’Donnell’s Five Tips for Mindfulness:
- Build in a one-minute pause between every meeting specifically to re-center yourself.
- Eat your lunch half as fast.
- Listen to a colleague without interrupting.
- Create two hours of white space on your calendar each week for big thinking.
- Make Sundays email free days.
