Overseeing a team of 10,000 people is something Lisa Gray felt destined to do from an early age.
NAB’s group executive for its Enterprise Services and Transformation division began her studies in town planning, but soon found it was people, not buildings, that fuelled her passion.
“I knew then that I should be working in business and in the management and leadership side of it. It was a real turning point,” she says.
Prior to joining NAB in 2002, she was chief executive and managing director of Plum Financial Services and held various senior roles at AXA Australia/New Zealand.
She has acquired vast experience at NAB, from managing the organisation’s Retail Banking as its chief operating officer to working as the group executive of the Personal Banking division.
Gray is now responsible for NAB’s total technology environment transformation, including the NextGen core banking platform and simplifying enterprise-wide processes.
She also oversees all Australian-based technology, operations and service functions for the bank, such as fulfilment services, processing and payments and commercial network services.
Having worked in high–level roles for two decades now, has she, then, been on the receiving end of gender discrimination?
“I think earlier in my career there were many more examples,” she says.
“I can recall early on in my career being the only woman at a conference full of financial planners. I’d only recently gotten engaged at the time. Everyone was going around the table making introductions.
“Suddenly one of the men introduced himself, asked me quite clearly whether I was looking for company or a ‘broader perspective’ and finished by tossing his keys over the table. So yes, earlier on, there were those more obvious and crass encounters. And now, working at this level and decades later, I do still find discrimination exists, it’s just perhaps more unconscious bias that you experience.”
Consequently, a workplace that tackled these issues head on was the type of organisation Lisa aimed to work for, and she believes NAB are at the forefront of companies that embrace diversity and flexibility.
“NAB does this, absolutely. We practice diversity of thought, diversity of background, of gender. We have actively put in place policies and practices to make sure that’s a part of who our people are, that we embody these things.”
NAB aims to have a third of senior management made up by women, 50% of its graduate intake filled by women and 30% of group subsidiary board positions held by females by 2015.
“This really excites me and makes me feel inspired – it’s so close in the future.”
Lisa says one of her drivers is the team she works with – it’s the source of her energy and ideas when it comes to leadership styles.
“Another key part of my leadership philosophy is that I believe decisions should be made as close as possible to the point where they are going to be implemented. So that’s about creating organisations that are really self sustaining…so they’re not reliant on one individual or senior management.”
Taking risks has been what has taken her career to the next level, she says.
“Don’t stay in a narrow field, don’t continue to do jobs you know how to do. Move horizontally, move laterally into different spheres so you really build out a broad range of experiences and skills.”
She says every role she has tackled has had a significant risk element in it.
“Earlier in my career when I was with another firm, I moved from running a small team of specialist marketing people of about five to running a team of over 100 who were spread across operations, technology and call centres.
“Then I went through what I call the valley of death, where something went horribly wrong and I in turn had to stay close and manage that.
“At the time I questioned if I had done the right thing and had to think about why it all made sense, but what I learnt from that was that great things come when there is both courage and naivety.”
Gray advises women starting out on their careers to completely take charge of its course, to plan experiences and challenges – not necessarily about a particular role or job, but in the sense of what types of experience one needs and recognising the right and wrong opportunities.
“Be thoughtful and purposeful in your careers,” she adds.
Finally, she says it is paramount to remain authentic.
“Don’t try and pretend to be someone else or try to fit a box or a profile. Always be genuine and make sure that you bring both your personal and professional outlook to work and that they’re in alignment.”