September 10, 2025 • 20 mins
Advancing Diversity and Inclusion: Insights from Mark Lomas of Lloyd's of London
Join us on Inclusive Leaders as we sit down with Mark Lomas, Head of Culture at Lloyd's of London, to explore his inspiring journey and the impactful strategies he employs to foster diversity and inclusion across the organization. From meeting ambitious targets in leadership diversity to innovative initiatives like the Inclusive Futures program, Mark provides actionable insights grounded in evidence-led approaches. Tune in to learn how authentic leadership and a commitment to equitable opportunities drive cultural transformation and success.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello and welcome to Inclusive Leaders.
This is a show where I speakwith the most inspirational and
thought-provoking leaders oftoday and unearth their unique
stories of diversity andinclusion to help inspire,
educate and motivate others tomake the world a better place.
Today, I am absolutely thrilledto be joined by the brilliant
(00:29):
Mark Lomas.
Mark is the Head of Culture forLloyds of London.
He's had an enviable career,having worked for the likes of
HS2 for those in the States,that's High Speed 2.
Of HS2 for those in the States,that's High Speed 2.
He's also worked as a diversitymanager for the BBC and held an
(00:49):
array of other roles in hisformative career, such as
working for the Law Society ofEngland and Wales, amongst other
things.
Mark, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thank you, great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We go way back, Mark, don't we?
So I think, for those who don'tknow you as well as I do, it'd
be wonderful to have a littlebit of a run through about you,
the great work that you're doingat Lloyds of London and what
you're seeing in the market atthe moment.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Sure.
So my road to Lloyds was a longand windy one through a number
of different sectors In myexperience, all sectors,
particularly in the UK andmostly globally.
You retain that talent, how youprogress that talent.
And that talent might not justbe kind of the people you employ
, it might be how you engagewith communities, it might be
(01:50):
supply chain activity, et cetera, but essentially how you do the
best business.
I think that's what I focusedon in my career.
I came to Lloyds in January2022.
And it's been great to see theprogress that Lloyds has made
over the last few years.
So in 2024, Lloyds met thewomen in leadership ambition
(02:10):
that it had set a number ofyears ago, which was for 35%
women in leadership across themarket.
We met that in 2024 and beganto exceed it this year.
We set a one in three hiringambition for ethnically diverse
groups as part of our inclusivefutures work, our response to
Lloyd's history withtransatlantic slavery.
That continues to progress with2,509 hires this year alone
(02:36):
from that community and over7,000 since its inception have
launched our inclusive futuresprogram and have seen the market
as a whole go from belowfinancial services benchmarks on
the culture survey andbasically on all indices in 2019
to above on 25 out of 27 ofthose indices equal on one and
(02:57):
below one.
So it's a story of some reallygood progress over a period of
time.
I think a consistent approach,evidence-based approach and then
having a number of parties andorganisations pulling in the
same direction is definitely acontributing factor.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Wonderful and, mark, on the personal side of things,
you've done some incrediblethings on a personal note and I
think what's really fascinatingabout you being in this culture
role for such a well-knownorganisation is the fact that
you bring your personalexperience into how you then
(03:33):
lead with authenticity, you leadcultural change and ultimately
understand that full 360strategic approach to creating a
more equitable future.
Talk to us a little bit moreabout the personal and the
business.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Sure.
So all my training was in music.
As you know you've heard thisstory before All my training was
in music.
So I went to music school here.
I went to Juilliard School at16, finished university at 19,
and kind of came back to the UKready to kind of forge a career
in classical music, having madea good amount of money playing
(04:14):
concerts when I was younger.
And then I ran into a real lifelesson, which was network was
absolutely king, and thatexperience of kind of being
really highly successful andthen having future success
predicated not on yourcompetence or ability but on
your network and access reallywas a really difficult life
(04:34):
lesson.
After getting quite frustratedand quite broke to waiting for
things to happen, I went back toBermuda for three weeks, which
is where I'm from, got off theplane at kind of 6.30 and had
numerous job offers by kind ofnine o'clock that night.
And that experience over thenext week or so really kind of
led me to reflect what on earthis different about me?
(04:54):
And then the answer was nothing.
What was different was theenvironment, my access to
networking and opportunity.
And so when I flew back to theUK I started to do lots of music
, technology work and folks weregoing off on tour.
So I decided to work with adisability charity just to keep
myself busy and out of trouble.
Plus, my daughter was born, so Iwasn't going to get away with
(05:16):
going off on tour for a fewmonths with a newborn and I was
basically a pain in the backsideto that regional manager.
Why do you do things this way?
Wouldn't it be better if youdid this?
Or blah, blah, blah.
And so she sent me to thediversity committee and I
observed that meeting was verydirect with the CEO of an HRD at
(05:40):
that meeting and that oneopportunity to cut rather
differently.
And then from there I've had aseries of really interesting,
really interesting roles likedesigning the benchmarking
(06:02):
system, the Law Society,diversity and Inclusion Charter
for the legal sector.
Then going on to HS so they goto BBC sorry, doing lots of work
there on how they managediversity and inclusion in kind
of the media sector.
Then HS2 with the billionsworth of supply chain and
procurement and then on toLloyd's Market who had
(06:24):
particular challenges arounddiversity, retaining talent,
progression of that talent andtransforming really the
perception of the market andtransforming really the
perception of the market.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Oh, my goodness, it is an incredible story and it
doesn't matter how many times Ihear it.
I always reflect on that andthink, from arts and creativity,
which I do think does not getthe kudos that anyone
necessarily gives it in aprofessional context, it has
such a lot of power to enableother great things to happen.
(07:01):
And, as you've articulately saidthere, um, you know, going into
being very sector agnostic interms of the experience working
in everything from media throughsupply chain diversity, right
the way through to talentprogression, culture and even,
ultimately, sales and marketing,because we're obviously serving
our customers, who areultimately diverse, it just
(07:21):
shows that real golden thread,as we within this industry often
like to call it, and it is verymuch that golden thread that
you articulate throughout thepersonal career, but also within
the various skills, theindustries, the verticals within
(07:43):
organisations that you'veworked in.
So I guess, moving into some ofthe strategies that you have
taken and perhaps some of themore nuanced challenges of the
insurance sector, talk to us alittle bit about those.
Obviously, lloyds is doing very, very well when it comes to
(08:04):
meeting targets and increasingeverything from ethnic diversity
through to the great success ofthe Dive In Festival.
Talk us through how you'velooked at this as a business and
what perhaps otherorganisations and leaders can
learn.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Right.
I mean, I think one of thebenefits of the Lloyds market is
that it is a market, so it is agroup of organisations and, yes
, while that adds some kind ofstakeholder management
complexity and you have tolisten to views and take people
with you and organizations withyou, it also means when you move
in concert, you can makeprogress rather quickly, and I
(08:46):
think there are a number ofthings which have contributed to
sort of the increase inprogress or the rate of progress
over the last few years.
I think the first is alignmenton what we mean and where we're
going, so that's very important.
What does good look like?
What are we trying to achieve?
The second is being able toarticulate a very consistent
(09:08):
framework for companies acrossthe market.
So we have our cultureoversight framework, which helps
companies understand exactlywhat our expectations are in
terms of culture, diversity,talent, etc.
When you're working in theLloyds market, and that
consistent framework is very,very important.
And then we have the approachthat I've always liked to take,
(09:32):
which is this is a continuousimprovement game that we're all
in together, and that means wespend time ensuring that we have
really great data and insightsand we get that through our
markets, practices and policiesreturn on diversity and data.
We understand what it feelslike, via the culture survey, to
(09:53):
be an individual in our sectorand we have great routes to
engage and inspire people, likethe Dive-In Festival and being
kind of evidence-led.
So making sure that you havethat evidence base to design
your policy and interventionsmeans you can kind of aim and
shoot where you need to makeprogress.
Of aim and shoot where you needto make progress, and then
(10:14):
being able to work across amarket which is, you know, more
than 50,000 strong, has aplethora of opportunities, means
it's a convincing story thatyou can tell to people and
broadly.
We had to do better at that andwe started to do much better at
that.
You know, this year I think Idon't think our early careers
(10:34):
applications have closed yet,but the number of applicants
stands at 6,000 plus now.
Last year it was 7,000 plus for28 spaces at the corporation we
are attracting a hugely diverserange of talent and top talent,
so much so our early careersprocess could feed the entire
Lloyd's market by itself, andthat is a complete change from
(10:57):
three years ago.
So I think what it demonstratesis if you act on the evidence,
you act in concert and youengage people and have a
consistent framework for peopleto work against, you can make
pretty rapid progress mark.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Like me, you are as geeky about frameworks and data
um as I am.
Um.
It's the classic, isn't it?
What gets measured, gets done.
And evidence-based frameworksand diversity, inclusion,
belonging, equity, culture, allof those wonderful things are
the heartbeat of ourorganizations.
It's really those as commerciallevers to drive the economic
growth and prosperity that weare wanting to see, that we are
looking to see and hearing someof these statistics are.
(11:43):
You know, they're really agreat number of steps forward
from where you were a number ofyears ago, thanks to to yourself
, of course.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I wish I could claim the credit Certainly not any
work of genius on my behalf.
It's hundreds of people workingacross the market.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well, well done to everyone who is listening in
from Lloyds.
It does mean a lot for, I think, employees to hear and to feel,
because this is a hearts andminds thing as well.
As much as we love data and welove numbers and we love all of
these statistics, it's also ahearts and minds piece, and
(12:28):
employees who really connectwith their leaders, like
yourself, and they share some ofthose similar experiences
engagement goes through the roof.
A stat that you probably heardmany a time that still makes me
smile is that those who feelthat they don't fit in spend 30
(12:48):
percent of their time worryingabout how they do.
And I often think about thatwhen I reflect on the career, as
I'm sure you do, and as you areworking with early careers
individuals.
Wanting them to succeed is.
Think about the time whereyou're worrying about how you're
perceived in interview and inearly careers conversations.
(13:09):
Well, that could be going intoproductivity if you were less
worried about how you looked,sounded, all those kind of
things.
And so it really is thatcultural piece that's at the
heart of of what we do and whyit's so important to have
culture officers like yourselfholding and driving the mantle
(13:30):
forward.
So before we wrap up, mark, itwould be great just to ask a
couple of lightning roundquestions.
If I may, I'm going to give youabout 30 seconds to answer each
of these.
What's authentic leadership toyou?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So I think the best authentic leaders in gender
trust in their teams.
Number one, it is about beingyourself, but it's not about
just doing things the way youwant to do them.
I always think it's my job toget the best out of my team, and
(14:06):
if that means differentapproaches for different people,
then that's what it means.
So, consistent values,consistent approach, um, very,
very, uh important, and I thinkit's that, um, you know you, you
can, you can demonstrate what'smeaningful to you by the way
you act, and that kind of uhopen, honest and early, I think
is the absolute best way toengender uh trust with the, with
(14:27):
the team and who's inspired youmost throughout your career, or
indeed your life or do you knowwhat?
I've had so many?
Uh, I've had so many reallygood managers.
You asked me this last time andI uh and uh, or before, and um,
uh, so, um, a couple.
Number one that that regionalmanager that I mentioned from
(14:47):
shore trust with, without.
Without her, we wouldn't betalking in disguise today,
definitely, but I'm also acomplete Liverpool fan, so one
of the kind of leadershippositions that I really admired
was Jurgen Klopp and hisstatement, which was all I need
(15:08):
you to do is turn you fromdoubters into believers and
we'll be successful.
And that ability to craft acommon vision and get everyone
behind it is something that I'veoften seen in the most
successful leaders, whether itbe football or any other
industry.
So for me, I always think aboutthat.
If I can turn any team fromdoubters into believers, we're
(15:30):
going to get where we need to go.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And finally, any closing remarks or advice to any
other practitioners right nowwho are facing the dreaded words
geopolitical headwinds and youknow, of course, headwinds, and
(15:55):
you know of course this is arole, the role of culture,
inclusion of socialresponsibility, of business for
good.
It comes with it a lot ofresponsibility and it needs a
lot of tenacity.
So give us some great advicefor people who are listening in
thinking I've got to dig deepand find something, somewhere to
keep moving the dial in theright direction.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So I think for me it's, you know, it is alignment
to the business strategy.
What is it the business istrying to achieve?
And you know, when you boilaway the complexity, every
business is after the same thing, right they do a better job
with the customers or clientsthat they have.
They find new customers orclients, they innovate new
(16:39):
products or services.
They have the best people,talent, working for them,
attracting them, retaining them,and essentially that extends to
the suppliers they work with intheir wider ecosystem.
So you've got to figure outwhat is important to the
business that you work with andhow you help them achieve that.
(17:00):
And I always say it's not my jobto be an activist.
I'm a Black man.
I don't speak for every Blackperson on the planet, let alone
every black man.
It's my job to represent theentire organization and I should
be able to stand in front ofany group of staff or
stakeholders and answer a reallysimple question and that's what
(17:22):
have you done for me lately?
And if I can answer that foranyone in our ecosystem that
needs to ask it, then I can bepretty confident we're doing a
good job.
And that sometimes means sayingwe're not doing anything
because the data, the evidencetells us we don't need to and
things change.
(17:42):
So that evidence-led approachmeans that when you need to
pivot, you can pivot based onevidence, what's right for the
business, what's right for thewider ecosystem, and not
necessarily any fashionableheadwinds at the time.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Unbelievably wise words to finish on, mark.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Some of the things that reallystood out for me from our
conversation and I always learnsomething when we speak is to
really go back to some of ourinitial values and to remember,
for those that are coming up intheir careers, how important
(18:27):
having that strong network andcreating access to opportunity
is if you're a more seniormanager, because talent is
everywhere.
We've heard many a time talentis everywhere.
Opportunity is not and I knowthat's something that we share a
running theme to our, ourpassion to do this great work
(18:48):
but acting on evidenceabsolutely key.
Like any other businessstrategic imperative, this needs
evidence.
It needs that evidence-ledapproach that you've spoken
about and being able to liaisewith various different
stakeholders at lots and lots ofdifferent levels, and so
activism for the one,necessarily, but actually making
(19:12):
sure that we look at this as amore holistic business strategy,
from supply chain to wherewe're putting our pounds, our
black pounds, our pink pounds,our you know, our women owned
organizations and female ledpounds right the way through to
the employees and the customerswe serve.
Female-led pounds right the waythrough to the employees and
(19:32):
the customers we serve.
Mark, it's been tremendoushaving you, as ever, absolutely
brilliant conversation.
If you have been affected byanything in today's podcast,
please make sure you reach out.
Don't be a stranger.
You can check out Mark'sprofile.
He is on LinkedIn Search MarkLomas and also visit Lloyds of
London.
If you are looking for asummary of some of the learnings
(19:55):
from today's show, you cancheck those out as well at
wwwdialglobalorg.
Forward slash podcast and inthe meantime, we will look
forward to seeing you again verysoon.
Hello and welcome to Inclusive Leaders.
This is a show where I speakwith the most inspirational and
thought-provoking leaders oftoday and unearth their unique
stories of diversity andinclusion to help inspire,
educate and motivate others tomake the world a better place.
Today, I am absolutely thrilledto be joined by the brilliant
(00:29):
Mark Lomas.
Mark is the Head of Culture forLloyds of London.
He's had an enviable career,having worked for the likes of
HS2 for those in the States,that's High Speed 2.
Of HS2 for those in the States,that's High Speed 2.
He's also worked as a diversitymanager for the BBC and held an
(00:49):
array of other roles in hisformative career, such as
working for the Law Society ofEngland and Wales, amongst other
things.
Mark, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thank you, great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
We go way back, Mark, don't we?
So I think, for those who don'tknow you as well as I do, it'd
be wonderful to have a littlebit of a run through about you,
the great work that you're doingat Lloyds of London and what
you're seeing in the market atthe moment.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Sure.
So my road to Lloyds was a longand windy one through a number
of different sectors In myexperience, all sectors,
particularly in the UK andmostly globally.
You retain that talent, how youprogress that talent.
And that talent might not justbe kind of the people you employ
, it might be how you engagewith communities, it might be
(01:50):
supply chain activity, et cetera, but essentially how you do the
best business.
I think that's what I focusedon in my career.
I came to Lloyds in January2022.
And it's been great to see theprogress that Lloyds has made
over the last few years.
So in 2024, Lloyds met thewomen in leadership ambition
(02:10):
that it had set a number ofyears ago, which was for 35%
women in leadership across themarket.
We met that in 2024 and beganto exceed it this year.
We set a one in three hiringambition for ethnically diverse
groups as part of our inclusivefutures work, our response to
Lloyd's history withtransatlantic slavery.
That continues to progress with2,509 hires this year alone
(02:36):
from that community and over7,000 since its inception have
launched our inclusive futuresprogram and have seen the market
as a whole go from belowfinancial services benchmarks on
the culture survey andbasically on all indices in 2019
to above on 25 out of 27 ofthose indices equal on one and
(02:57):
below one.
So it's a story of some reallygood progress over a period of
time.
I think a consistent approach,evidence-based approach and then
having a number of parties andorganisations pulling in the
same direction is definitely acontributing factor.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Wonderful and, mark, on the personal side of things,
you've done some incrediblethings on a personal note and I
think what's really fascinatingabout you being in this culture
role for such a well-knownorganisation is the fact that
you bring your personalexperience into how you then
(03:33):
lead with authenticity, you leadcultural change and ultimately
understand that full 360strategic approach to creating a
more equitable future.
Talk to us a little bit moreabout the personal and the
business.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Sure.
So all my training was in music.
As you know you've heard thisstory before All my training was
in music.
So I went to music school here.
I went to Juilliard School at16, finished university at 19,
and kind of came back to the UKready to kind of forge a career
in classical music, having madea good amount of money playing
(04:14):
concerts when I was younger.
And then I ran into a real lifelesson, which was network was
absolutely king, and thatexperience of kind of being
really highly successful andthen having future success
predicated not on yourcompetence or ability but on
your network and access reallywas a really difficult life
(04:34):
lesson.
After getting quite frustratedand quite broke to waiting for
things to happen, I went back toBermuda for three weeks, which
is where I'm from, got off theplane at kind of 6.30 and had
numerous job offers by kind ofnine o'clock that night.
And that experience over thenext week or so really kind of
led me to reflect what on earthis different about me?
(04:54):
And then the answer was nothing.
What was different was theenvironment, my access to
networking and opportunity.
And so when I flew back to theUK I started to do lots of music
, technology work and folks weregoing off on tour.
So I decided to work with adisability charity just to keep
myself busy and out of trouble.
Plus, my daughter was born, so Iwasn't going to get away with
(05:16):
going off on tour for a fewmonths with a newborn and I was
basically a pain in the backsideto that regional manager.
Why do you do things this way?
Wouldn't it be better if youdid this?
Or blah, blah, blah.
And so she sent me to thediversity committee and I
observed that meeting was verydirect with the CEO of an HRD at
(05:40):
that meeting and that oneopportunity to cut rather
differently.
And then from there I've had aseries of really interesting,
really interesting roles likedesigning the benchmarking
(06:02):
system, the Law Society,diversity and Inclusion Charter
for the legal sector.
Then going on to HS so they goto BBC sorry, doing lots of work
there on how they managediversity and inclusion in kind
of the media sector.
Then HS2 with the billionsworth of supply chain and
procurement and then on toLloyd's Market who had
(06:24):
particular challenges arounddiversity, retaining talent,
progression of that talent andtransforming really the
perception of the market andtransforming really the
perception of the market.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Oh, my goodness, it is an incredible story and it
doesn't matter how many times Ihear it.
I always reflect on that andthink, from arts and creativity,
which I do think does not getthe kudos that anyone
necessarily gives it in aprofessional context, it has
such a lot of power to enableother great things to happen.
(07:01):
And, as you've articulately saidthere, um, you know, going into
being very sector agnostic interms of the experience working
in everything from media throughsupply chain diversity, right
the way through to talentprogression, culture and even,
ultimately, sales and marketing,because we're obviously serving
our customers, who areultimately diverse, it just
(07:21):
shows that real golden thread,as we within this industry often
like to call it, and it is verymuch that golden thread that
you articulate throughout thepersonal career, but also within
the various skills, theindustries, the verticals within
(07:43):
organisations that you'veworked in.
So I guess, moving into some ofthe strategies that you have
taken and perhaps some of themore nuanced challenges of the
insurance sector, talk to us alittle bit about those.
Obviously, lloyds is doing very, very well when it comes to
(08:04):
meeting targets and increasingeverything from ethnic diversity
through to the great success ofthe Dive In Festival.
Talk us through how you'velooked at this as a business and
what perhaps otherorganisations and leaders can
learn.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Right.
I mean, I think one of thebenefits of the Lloyds market is
that it is a market, so it is agroup of organisations and, yes
, while that adds some kind ofstakeholder management
complexity and you have tolisten to views and take people
with you and organizations withyou, it also means when you move
in concert, you can makeprogress rather quickly, and I
(08:46):
think there are a number ofthings which have contributed to
sort of the increase inprogress or the rate of progress
over the last few years.
I think the first is alignmenton what we mean and where we're
going, so that's very important.
What does good look like?
What are we trying to achieve?
The second is being able toarticulate a very consistent
(09:08):
framework for companies acrossthe market.
So we have our cultureoversight framework, which helps
companies understand exactlywhat our expectations are in
terms of culture, diversity,talent, etc.
When you're working in theLloyds market, and that
consistent framework is very,very important.
And then we have the approachthat I've always liked to take,
(09:32):
which is this is a continuousimprovement game that we're all
in together, and that means wespend time ensuring that we have
really great data and insightsand we get that through our
markets, practices and policiesreturn on diversity and data.
We understand what it feelslike, via the culture survey, to
(09:53):
be an individual in our sectorand we have great routes to
engage and inspire people, likethe Dive-In Festival and being
kind of evidence-led.
So making sure that you havethat evidence base to design
your policy and interventionsmeans you can kind of aim and
shoot where you need to makeprogress.
Of aim and shoot where you needto make progress, and then
(10:14):
being able to work across amarket which is, you know, more
than 50,000 strong, has aplethora of opportunities, means
it's a convincing story thatyou can tell to people and
broadly.
We had to do better at that andwe started to do much better at
that.
You know, this year I think Idon't think our early careers
(10:34):
applications have closed yet,but the number of applicants
stands at 6,000 plus now.
Last year it was 7,000 plus for28 spaces at the corporation we
are attracting a hugely diverserange of talent and top talent,
so much so our early careersprocess could feed the entire
Lloyd's market by itself, andthat is a complete change from
(10:57):
three years ago.
So I think what it demonstratesis if you act on the evidence,
you act in concert and youengage people and have a
consistent framework for peopleto work against, you can make
pretty rapid progress mark.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Like me, you are as geeky about frameworks and data
um as I am.
Um.
It's the classic, isn't it?
What gets measured, gets done.
And evidence-based frameworksand diversity, inclusion,
belonging, equity, culture, allof those wonderful things are
the heartbeat of ourorganizations.
It's really those as commerciallevers to drive the economic
growth and prosperity that weare wanting to see, that we are
looking to see and hearing someof these statistics are.
(11:43):
You know, they're really agreat number of steps forward
from where you were a number ofyears ago, thanks to to yourself
, of course.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I wish I could claim the credit Certainly not any
work of genius on my behalf.
It's hundreds of people workingacross the market.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Well, well done to everyone who is listening in
from Lloyds.
It does mean a lot for, I think, employees to hear and to feel,
because this is a hearts andminds thing as well.
As much as we love data and welove numbers and we love all of
these statistics, it's also ahearts and minds piece, and
(12:28):
employees who really connectwith their leaders, like
yourself, and they share some ofthose similar experiences
engagement goes through the roof.
A stat that you probably heardmany a time that still makes me
smile is that those who feelthat they don't fit in spend 30
(12:48):
percent of their time worryingabout how they do.
And I often think about thatwhen I reflect on the career, as
I'm sure you do, and as you areworking with early careers
individuals.
Wanting them to succeed is.
Think about the time whereyou're worrying about how you're
perceived in interview and inearly careers conversations.
(13:09):
Well, that could be going intoproductivity if you were less
worried about how you looked,sounded, all those kind of
things.
And so it really is thatcultural piece that's at the
heart of of what we do and whyit's so important to have
culture officers like yourselfholding and driving the mantle
(13:30):
forward.
So before we wrap up, mark, itwould be great just to ask a
couple of lightning roundquestions.
If I may, I'm going to give youabout 30 seconds to answer each
of these.
What's authentic leadership toyou?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So I think the best authentic leaders in gender
trust in their teams.
Number one, it is about beingyourself, but it's not about
just doing things the way youwant to do them.
I always think it's my job toget the best out of my team, and
(14:06):
if that means differentapproaches for different people,
then that's what it means.
So, consistent values,consistent approach, um, very,
very, uh important, and I thinkit's that, um, you know you, you
can, you can demonstrate what'smeaningful to you by the way
you act, and that kind of uhopen, honest and early, I think
is the absolute best way toengender uh trust with the, with
(14:27):
the team and who's inspired youmost throughout your career, or
indeed your life or do you knowwhat?
I've had so many?
Uh, I've had so many reallygood managers.
You asked me this last time andI uh and uh, or before, and um,
uh, so, um, a couple.
Number one that that regionalmanager that I mentioned from
(14:47):
shore trust with, without.
Without her, we wouldn't betalking in disguise today,
definitely, but I'm also acomplete Liverpool fan, so one
of the kind of leadershippositions that I really admired
was Jurgen Klopp and hisstatement, which was all I need
(15:08):
you to do is turn you fromdoubters into believers and
we'll be successful.
And that ability to craft acommon vision and get everyone
behind it is something that I'veoften seen in the most
successful leaders, whether itbe football or any other
industry.
So for me, I always think aboutthat.
If I can turn any team fromdoubters into believers, we're
(15:30):
going to get where we need to go.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
And finally, any closing remarks or advice to any
other practitioners right nowwho are facing the dreaded words
geopolitical headwinds and youknow, of course, headwinds, and
(15:55):
you know of course this is arole, the role of culture,
inclusion of socialresponsibility, of business for
good.
It comes with it a lot ofresponsibility and it needs a
lot of tenacity.
So give us some great advicefor people who are listening in
thinking I've got to dig deepand find something, somewhere to
keep moving the dial in theright direction.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
So I think for me it's, you know, it is alignment
to the business strategy.
What is it the business istrying to achieve?
And you know, when you boilaway the complexity, every
business is after the same thing, right they do a better job
with the customers or clientsthat they have.
They find new customers orclients, they innovate new
(16:39):
products or services.
They have the best people,talent, working for them,
attracting them, retaining them,and essentially that extends to
the suppliers they work with intheir wider ecosystem.
So you've got to figure outwhat is important to the
business that you work with andhow you help them achieve that.
(17:00):
And I always say it's not my jobto be an activist.
I'm a Black man.
I don't speak for every Blackperson on the planet, let alone
every black man.
It's my job to represent theentire organization and I should
be able to stand in front ofany group of staff or
stakeholders and answer a reallysimple question and that's what
(17:22):
have you done for me lately?
And if I can answer that foranyone in our ecosystem that
needs to ask it, then I can bepretty confident we're doing a
good job.
And that sometimes means sayingwe're not doing anything
because the data, the evidencetells us we don't need to and
things change.
(17:42):
So that evidence-led approachmeans that when you need to
pivot, you can pivot based onevidence, what's right for the
business, what's right for thewider ecosystem, and not
necessarily any fashionableheadwinds at the time.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Unbelievably wise words to finish on, mark.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Some of the things that reallystood out for me from our
conversation and I always learnsomething when we speak is to
really go back to some of ourinitial values and to remember,
for those that are coming up intheir careers, how important
(18:27):
having that strong network andcreating access to opportunity
is if you're a more seniormanager, because talent is
everywhere.
We've heard many a time talentis everywhere.
Opportunity is not and I knowthat's something that we share a
running theme to our, ourpassion to do this great work
(18:48):
but acting on evidenceabsolutely key.
Like any other businessstrategic imperative, this needs
evidence.
It needs that evidence-ledapproach that you've spoken
about and being able to liaisewith various different
stakeholders at lots and lots ofdifferent levels, and so
activism for the one,necessarily, but actually making
(19:12):
sure that we look at this as amore holistic business strategy,
from supply chain to wherewe're putting our pounds, our
black pounds, our pink pounds,our you know, our women owned
organizations and female ledpounds right the way through to
the employees and the customerswe serve.
Female-led pounds right the waythrough to the employees and
(19:32):
the customers we serve.
Mark, it's been tremendoushaving you, as ever, absolutely
brilliant conversation.
If you have been affected byanything in today's podcast,
please make sure you reach out.
Don't be a stranger.
You can check out Mark'sprofile.
He is on LinkedIn Search MarkLomas and also visit Lloyds of
London.
If you are looking for asummary of some of the learnings
(19:55):
from today's show, you cancheck those out as well at
wwwdialglobalorg.
Forward slash podcast and inthe meantime, we will look
forward to seeing you again verysoon.
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