J.-J. H. : C.: In my view, this is essential. We had to work on ourselves, within our company, to tackle an issue that is often associated with specialist fields of expertise: difficulty listening, which naturally starts with listening to the customer. Managers who sell products without really putting themselves in the customer's shoes aren’t really doing their job. The same holds true when you’re talking about teams. Managers spend a huge amount of time in meetings and travelling, but they should also be able to set some of their limited time aside to invest in listening and talking to the employees on their teams. This morning I'm with you in Paris and I'm going to spend a lot of my time today talking to our local team. Being a manager means maintaining a balance between consulting with others and making decisions i.e. between the moment he or she opens things up for discussion, the questions he or she asks and encourages people to ask themselves, and the moment that all this leads up to: making a clear decision. This approach is highly prized by teams and I believe the balance between ambition and humility is particularly important in this day and age. E.-M. H. : An approach based on listening requires a modest form of leadership. In today's corporate world, the leader is not necessarily someone who "knows" but rather someone who can bring that knowledge to the surface. This explains the importance of operating as a network, with relationships that are not exclusively vertical. This HUMILITY is something we are developing at Societe Generale through our Corporate University and leaders' circles. J.-J. H. : What we expect from a manager is results but also a certain kind of behaviour. This involves a performance evaluation process that is based on more than just numbers. In the past, our company was focused solely on financial indicators. We are now aiming for a more balanced approach that considers results in terms of management and team feedback. Their feedback is, in itself, an indicator of their managers' performance. E.-M. H. : We use the same approach. Societe Generale's 1,000 top managers will take par t in a 360° evaluation process. This demonstrates t h a t wh a t counts is not o n l y t h e financial objective, but also how this objective is achieved and the example set in aiming for consistency between principles, financial performance and management style. MODEL BEHAVIOUR J.-J. H. : This issue is particularly important given that what management style really means is putting the company's values to work. If this is compromised, the future of the company may be at stake. Integrity, for example, is one of the key values at Swiss Re. A manager who sells well but lacks integrity can be detrimental to the company's reputation and bottom line, as many examples from around the world have shown. Therefore, we cannot compromise on values in terms of management style. 50 I SOCIETE GENERALE 2013-2014 ATTENTIVENESS What we expect from a manager is results but also a certain kind of behaviour
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