Leadership

The post

In early 2011, I had a personal work crisis.

I was good at my job and I didn't like change.

However, change was imminent and her name was Rosie Foster CFP.

My previous boss had left, Rosie was coming in to fill his shoes.

I didn't want to get on her bus.

I was happy cruising. I liked what I was doing and who I was doing it with.

We all carry a bias about how things should be done. I judged her against mine before she'd done a thing.

Rosie asked me to join her team. Not an instruction. An invitation.

"I want you on the team, but you have to want it."

Then she gave me the space to think about it. Most leaders don't.

I got on the bus.

In 2012 and 2013 I wrote more insurance than anyone at NAB.

Hollow victory. It was just a number.

What stuck was how it happened.

Rosie never told me what to do. She made me see what was possible and let me walk towards it.

Part friend, part mother, part boss. None of it the "do as I say" version.

Great leaders push you further than you'd go on your own, and you don't notice until you're there.

Not long after, the banks started backing out of advice. Then the Royal Commission.

I look back on that period fondly, and not because of the number. I learnt what I was capable of because someone who had my best interests at heart pushed me there.

People don't quit jobs. They quit the people they work for.

Rosie is the kind of person you'd go to war with again.

The photo is from our catch-up.

Rosie's had a couple of roles since NAB. She's stayed close to compliance and process, making sure things are done properly. It has always been her standout.

I asked her: are we in a more litigious environment than before?

"Absolutely."

Part of that is agency. Clients walk in having run their situation through AI.

The agency has gone up. The understanding of who owns the decision hasn't.

Advisers are accountable. Duty of care, best interests, the advice itself.

But the client signs. Whatever they're doing, they need to understand what they're signing.

AI is wonderful. It's also making us lazy about consequences, including the consequences of doing nothing.

Understand what you're agreeing to.

Then sign.