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Considered one of the most powerful women in finance, Sallie Krawcheck, former Head of Global Wealth Management at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has had a career checkered with meteoric rises and devastating falls -- all of which have been feverishly played out in the media. Most recently, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan unceremoniously ousted Krawcheck in September, despite her strong performance successfully overseeing more than $2 trillion in client assets.
“I recognize I'm being watched, that I've left the company and people are wondering what I'm going to do next,” acknowledged Krawcheck. “I feel a responsibility about that, too. That it's not necessarily my last chapter, right. That I still have more to give back to our industry and to the business.”
In a conversation on the state of the financial industry and global leadership today, Krawcheck shared with her usual humor that she’s “had the most dramatic career” of anyone she knows. With her high-profile departures from both Citi and Bank of America, Krawcheck admitted that she's taken “the opportunity to learn every lesson the hard way” as she ascended Wall Street’s steep and often-perilous corporate ladder.
Krawcheck's stint at Bank of America though is certainly not the last chapter in what has already been an extraordinary career. For Krawcheck, navigating through recent times of utter volatility and turbulence on Wall Street - periods she joked were akin to taking a ride on Disney's "Tower of Terror' - marked "some of the most interesting leadership days and career days that I've had."
While most would take Krawcheck's sensationalized dismissal from BofA as a career-ending blow, Krawcheck is bruised, not broken. And those in the financial world are well aware of this given her reputation as a resilient and determined leader, known for defying expectations and stirring up the occasional industry controversy along the way.
The bottom line is that capable and effective executives like Krawcheck still remain a scarce commodity. Krawcheck has a proven track record – which is exactly why there is such keen interest in what the toughest woman on Wall Street will do next.
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously declared that “there are no second acts in American lives,” yet the business world is storied with setbacks and comebacks. No matter how bright and capable, effective leaders face real ups and downs, victories and failures. The differentiating factor for long-term success though comes down to how one deals with severe crises and life's inevitable curve balls.
Krawcheck doesn’t sugarcoat the corporate blows she’s faced. Nor does she shy away from sharing the ensuing difficulties one faces, both personally and professionally, when one's career-curveballs are played out on a very public field. At one point in our conversation, Krawcheck recounts, for example, the unique experience of taking her son to tour high schools "while the stock of the company I was working for at the time was down a double-digit percent. And not ten."
As we discussed Krawcheck's future career plans, I was struck by her genuine sense of enthusiasm and excitement toward the new possibilities that this challenging career moment has now afforded her.
“To be given a gift at this stage in my career - to be able to take the opportunity to step back and say: “Okay, this is what I've enjoyed. This is what has been a little bit more challenging. This is where the industry is going." To pull in different perspective is really about the most fun I've had in a decade….in a couple decades. It's really a terrific opportunity.”
Regardless of circumstance, top executives today find that they’ll be performing on many different stages over the course of their career, whether it be in business, politics, philanthropy and the like. Skeptics will always underestimate proven leaders, misinterpreting optimism in the face of adversity for something other than what it is. After all, judgement comes from observation versus actual experience.
Krawcheck faces many exciting, and no doubt unexpected, acts ahead of her. In many respects, she's just getting warmed up.
What is greatest leadership challenge in the financial service sector for 2012?
While there is always change, it's a lot easier to manage change when change is growth as opposed to shrinking. It doesn't look like, given what's going on with the broader environment, that next year and the next couple of years are going to be any easier. Within that there is a broad context of change overall and sweeping forces of globalization. And so executives need to make absolutely certain to be managing through this difficult period but noticing the broader trends that are occurring globally.
How do you do this?
I'm a big proponent of having very diverse teams working towards solutions across industries. And by diversity, I'm not talking about diversity of gender or diversity of color necessarily, but diversity of experience. Because running a small shop in the middle of my home state, South Carolina, and only looking at South Carolina, is very different from global industries, where bringing in a broad array of perspectives is going to be increasingly important regardless of the environment.
A purpose-driven culture is imperative for businesses to thrive in this new economy, regardless of industry. How do you instill a sense of mission when leading tens of thousands of employees in a corporation today?
Words are so important. [But] when you get to large companies, the words sound the same. What you see, though, is that individuals at the company watch the leaders to see how decisions are being made.
If you say you're putting the customer the client at the center, are you? Or are you putting something else at the center? Are you putting this quarter's earnings right there? Or is it doing the right thing over a period of time?
Make no mistake, if you're leading an organization, people are watching you day in and day out.
You've mentored many women as they navigate careers in what remains the notoriously male-dominated culture of Wall Street. Do you see women making any common missteps?
We are putting a lot on younger women. In order to be successful, you need to ask for more money in this way. You need to raise your hand in that way. You need to do things that you weren't perhaps brought up to do or may not be comfortable for you to do. By the way, you need to go into this woman's network and go into that mentoring program. We got all this stuff for you.
As some of the numbers of women in senior executive roles have flattened, we're not necessarily bringing women forward as much as we're making them busier. By the way, we're all doing three times the childcare and twice the housework at home so we're already busier.
We as leaders need to be asking ourselves what can we do that isn't demanding so much of women [that they] continue to sometimes contort themselves?
You’ve built a successful career in one of the most competitive and demanding industries. What gives you the energy and motivation to keep moving forward?
There's a sense of energy and almost a joy of competition, right?
I've got a sense of responsibility to that next generation [of women]. And I've had it for years, in part because in financial services there are not as many women in senior leadership roles as in corporate America overall. [And] the women who are in those senior leadership roles have attracted a lot of attention, whether they're successful or not.
Many of the most powerful women today are products of reinvention, charting their own unique career course as new opportunities presented themselves. What does the next chapter for you look like?
I recognize I'm being watched, that I've left the company and people are wondering what I'm going to do next. And I feel a responsibility about that, too. That it's not necessarily my last chapter, right. That I still have more to give back to our industry and to the business. And that I'm very actively looking for ways to contribute going forward.
How many successful professionals, and certainly professional women, go straight line in their career, right? I started as an associate, I made it to vice president, and so on.
What you're seeing because of changes in the economy and the dynamism of our economy, as well as some of the particular challenges and issues and opportunities women face, is that you have careers that tend to have many more twists and turns to them. I think it's unbelievable and exciting.
And the most interesting careers among women who I admire have had some setbacks and some right turns and some left turns. To be given a gift at this stage in my career-- to be able to take the opportunity to step back and say: “Okay, this is what I've enjoyed. This is what has been a little bit more challenging. This is where the industry is going." To pull in different perspective is really about the most fun I've had in a decade….in a couple decades. It's really a terrific opportunity.
