Leadership Lessons with…Robert Anderson, Group Head of Social Media Marketing at NatWest

Leadership Lessons with…Robert Anderson, Group Head of Social Media Marketing at NatWest

This month we interviewed Robert Anderson, Group Head of Social Media Marketing at NatWest. Robert shares his personal opinions on the importance of collaboration, vision, and why we need always to be looking to the future.

After the shift to hybrid working practices, what have you learned about virtual leadership? 

The big lesson I’ve learned is the need to work really hard to keep my team connected when we’re all in different places. Sometimes a bit of overcommunication is necessary – the way to keep connected is to make sure you’re open, accessible and have a good flow of information. In practical terms it’s about having meaningful, useful team meetings and making sure that you stick to those 1-2-1s because a personal link is more important than it ever was before. I’ve learned to prepare hard for team meetings and to make myself accountable to my team so they can see and feel our collective progress against measurable goals.

How is remote/hybrid working affecting your company culture and what can leaders do to sustain culture for remote teams? 

For sure we’re all working differently to how it was before the pandemic and each person has their own unique circumstances, preferences and general way of handling the remote/hybrid setup. My team is geographically dispersed so we’ve made a virtue of coming together in person once a month for a team meeting, a learning session and some social time as well. I keep these meetings focused on strategy and our roadmap so that we put aside time each month to think about how we’re pushing ourselves forward, both as a team and as a team of individuals. This keeps us focused on purpose, culture, vision and gives us better perspective on the day to day. We’ve also been on a learning journey together which has been brilliant – we’ve all taken Meta Blueprint certification, for example, and that’s just the first stage of my plan. We’re spending lots of time with the social networks to stay at the leading edge of what’s possible and also immersing ourselves in creative best practice. We’ve developed an appetite for experimentation and a curious mindset.

Employee demands are changing beyond salary and benefits. What changes are you seeing and how can leaders meet these evolving employee demands?  

I think in some ways this is where a hybrid working pattern has really benefited us. For example, having a hybrid virtual environment often makes it easier to access training because we can do that now through webinars and online sessions rather than having to take time out to join a meeting somewhere. We still embrace in-person training, though, and there’s lots of opportunities to get involved with things like volunteering and our community networks. Someone once said to me that you work for yourself first, then your boss and then the company – I see a lot of truth in that suggestion and so people leaders have to step up to the challenge if they want to attract, develop and retain great talent.

With an increasing focus on workplace mental health, how have you seen the industry supporting the wellbeing of its employees?

There has been a complete change. When I started my career there was little talk of mental health. I started out as a TV journalist 25 years ago when people could sometimes receive relatively little support – and perhaps we were even unaware of the seriousness of what was going on there. But bit by bit, quite rightly, it has risen on the agenda and now there are all kinds of initiatives that are run by employers and a host of fantastic organisations and charities. 

What challenges do you think leaders face over the next 12 months? 

I think the challenges we face now are in many ways the same challenges that we’ve always faced. Primarily, leaders need to share vision and get teams on board with it. If people buy into the vision, and if you can show them where you’re heading, they’ll join you on the journey. This is something I particularly feel in social media where things are always changing and we need to stay at the cutting edge. 

What do you think are the key qualities needed from leaders? 

Again, I would say vision with a big dollop of creativity. It’s so much about mission, problem solving and looking forward – ultimately thinking about what’s next. I would add that adaptability to different situations and agility is also very important, especially in the dynamic world of modern marketing. You’ve got to be comfortable with unknowns because the online world and associated technologies are driving change at a phenomenal pace. In my field, it’s essential to be curious about, and experimenting with, new tech. AI, dynamic creative, data and other tools are rapidly transforming what we do. It’s critical to start developing a plan about how we harness these powerful assets. I find change and innovation exciting but know others find it unsettling. Part of my job as a leader is helping people navigate that environment and feel confident they can explore it. 

What skills sets do you think businesses within digital will be looking for now and in the coming years? 

It’s all about delving much more deeply into the digital environment: looking at data and looking at consumer behaviour, then acting in near real time. This whole need has been accelerated by the uptake and normalisation of technologies. The role of digital within our lives as consumers has increased massively over the past couple of years, and so digging into the data and insight that underpins our behaviour is what we need to get further into.