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Chris Davis

How they got where they are today

LINA CHENG

American Express Bank  vice-president and head of financial advisory services, Hong Kong

PASSIONATE IS A word I use a lot. I am passionate about my work, what I do and how I go about it.

I am first and foremost passionate about getting things right for our clients, but I am also passionate about helping my colleagues make the most of their life and career opportunities.

I am very hands on and make a point of personally interviewing every person who applies for a job in my department. This way I try to get to know the person beyond their professional capabilities. People join the company at different levels, starting from entry point to senior relationship managers with several years of experience.

A key point I always make is that this is a long-term business, and I will do everything I can to help my colleagues achieve success by setting the standards and leading by example.

Leading by example includes sharing my philosophies and the knowledge I have gained through experience and supporting my colleagues by spending as much time with them as I can. Our morning briefing sessions are useful for working through general areas and a time when staff can raise concerns.

I also make sure I have regular meetings with small groups of colleagues where we can go through topics. At least once every quarter I have a one-on-one meeting when we can go over topics in more detail.

Of course, sometimes there are difficulties, both work-related and  personal, but this is simply a part of life. When these situations arise, as a senior staff member I try to be as helpful as I can and reassure my colleagues that these problems are rarely insurmountable and if shared and worked through they can be overcome.

The goal is to make sure that clients are kept happy but this should not be at the expense of the relationship manager.

There is no point in dumping a workload on someone you know is not going to handle the pressure. That would be unfair.

Equally, there is little to be gained from spoon-feeding someone with the skills they should be developing themselves. The challenge is to strike a balance. To do this I try to inspire and motivate improvement, and also try to anticipate where things can go wrong.

I believe the key to success is to nurture and empower relationship managers with the necessary tools to meet these objectives. At the same time, they need the means to manage a larger number of diverse client types while ensuring that client individuality is respected and a high-quality service is provided.

Success can be measured in many different ways, such as growing the business and helping clients to achieve their financial goals, but this is only one aspect. I also measure success by the low turnover rate of our relationship managers.



Dollars and sense