Yesterday I had the privilege of spending the morning with about 70 members of the mallowstreet community at the Inaugural Culture in Investment Management Conference.

 

We started the morning with the following hypothesis: there is sufficient empirical evidence to support the view that good culture leads to greater investor returns, higher employee engagement, and a better client experience, we then took a closer look at what good culture looks like and why is it important to investors.

 

We were joined by an excellent set of speakers: Tim McEwan (Fellow in Management Practice at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School), Colin Stewart (Citibank UK Pension Fund), Emily Bateman and Claire Harcup (Quietroom).

 

Tim opened the morning by helping us ‘unpack’ culture, and outlined how culture and leadership are inextricably linked. Colin then picked up the discussion and shared his experience with the Citibank UK Pension Fund, explaining how he helped build a diverse board of trustees, and how this has improved their performance of managing the pension fund. Emily and Claire gave a masterclass on language and communication, showing us how the words we choose can support a dynamic and healthy culture within an organisation and a wider ecosystem. 

 

We wrapped up the morning with a lively discussion focusing on identifying the hallmarks of bad leadership and great leadership, i.e. what does amazing look like?' 

I found myself furiously taking notes, actions on what not to do, and what I should be doing!

 

Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday. If you were there yesterday, what were your main takeaways? What did you learn, and what are you going to start doing differently? I know I’m certainly going to watch my metaphors (thank you Emily and Claire).

 

To the wider community, how are you addressing and nurturing the culture in your organisation?