written by Gina Buckle

Walking the walk

Authentic and emotionally intelligent leadership at BNY Mellon

Our collective need for a more authentic type of leadership has given forward-thinking organisations such as BNY Mellon the opportunity to rise to the challenge and provide their people with the support that they need to thrive in the face of adversity. In order to spotlight other organisations who have shown commitment to an inclusive culture, BNY Mellon are sponsoring the Large Organisation category at the Northern Power Women Awards 2022.

To find out just how vital authenticity and emotional intelligence are to the BNY Mellon ethos, we spoke to Louise Hosker, VP of Portfolio and Programme Management at BNY Mellon, who talked of her experiences over the last twenty-four months in particular.

“I do truly believe that the leadership of this company are actually the role models for the way it should be done, because they have been so supportive during these uncertain times”, said Louise. She detailed the various support structures available to herself and her colleagues at BNY Mellon, such as Employee Assistance Programmes, Virtual Sessions, Mental Health First Aiders, that cover different aspects of mental health and wellbeing.  In addition, BNY Mellon offers back up child and adult dependent care and digital resilience tools demonstrating further the emotional intelligence required in difficult times.

“BNY Mellon is also very conscious of people taking their holidays, people having a break when they should have and when they need to which is supported by an automated tool that reminds you that you’re not a machine, but human beings, and we need to have that time out”.

“Throughout the pandemic we have seen a much higher degree of emotional intelligence across BNY Mellon globally”, she said, underlining that “there was always a good degree of that prior to the pandemic”. This heightened emotional intelligence goes hand in hand with the authenticity that Louise has seen in everyone she has come across within BNY Mellon, which she defines as “someone who is true to life, who is genuine and who is real in what they do. There’s no facade about them, what you see is what you get”. Expressing how this authenticity is conducive to a collaborative workplace, Louise expressed how “we’re missing something if we don’t allow people to be truly who they are. We’re not getting the complete offering, or the skill set or the individual’s views and opinions. I do think it’s extremely important and we are very good at that at BNY Mellon”.

It’s clear that BNY Mellon is an action-led organisation, eager to offer the right structures and programmes which will support their people. As Louise said, “there’s been a lot of discussion on this topic across many organisations, however talking about it and doing it are two completely different things […] what makes me proud to work for an organisation like BNY Mellon is that they don’t just say it, they actually do walk the walk”.

Ahead of spotlighting the other organisations who are walking the walk towards creating inclusive workplaces, Louise also spoke of what she is most looking forward to about the Northern Power Women Awards, “I’m really looking forward to hearing the inspiring and incredible insights of people who are going to win or have been shortlisted, and just bringing together such a powerful group of women is such an incredible opportunity and a worthy opportunity to highlight what individuals and organisations can do.”