Logging on with…Stuart White
Organisation: Lloyds Banking Group
Employees: 120,000
Job title: Senior Area Manager
Describe yourself in a Tweet: A happy, driven, family man and team player, who works 427 miles from his house.
Career highlights: Being involved in building and shaping new teams over the last few years and seeing people I’ve worked with go on to have very successful careers.
What’s on your iPod? It’s a real jukebox – everything from 70s disco, to the 80s New Romantics and 90s Britpop. My three boys keep me in touch with more up-to-date music!
What has been your favourite/worst job? My worst job is an easy one. I used to be a keen ice-hockey player and worked in the local ice-rink’s skate hire kiosk between training sessions – not a pleasant job before the days of Odour Eaters!
My best job is harder to pick, but I have to say I’m really enjoying the challenges of my current role. It’s been described as ‘Chief Operating Officer for the Area’ and I love the wide overview of the region and the Bank that it gives me.
Who is your ideal dinner guest or which public figure do you admire most and why? I’d love to spend an evening with fellow Scotsman Billy Connolly. I’m sure it would prove a very entertaining evening and with any luck he’d bring his equally witty wife Pamela!
Are you worth what you’re paid? Why? That’s really one for my boss to answer but I hope I’m good value!
What has been your biggest business achievement? I am most proud of qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 2001, after three years of balancing my studies, a demanding job, and a young family. A lot of hard work, but well worth the effort.
What is your pet peeve both in and out of work? I’m not keen on people who aren’t willing to work hard for the things they want. As a football and golf coach for young people, I love it when parents take time to play an active role in their children’s lives – I find it frustrating when they don’t.
Who has had the biggest influence on your career? My family. My wife has always been a great source of support, as my job has taken me around the country, my mum instilled a great work ethic in me, and my father-in-law, who was also in banking, has always been a great source of advice. I have also benefitted from some great line managers over the last few years.
What do you enjoy most and least about your role? I love that I get to work with some really talented and enthusiastic people and that I have the opportunity to help them develop and progress. I’m less keen on the logistics of commuting weekly between the office in Birmingham and my family home in Aberdeen.
What’s the key to managing people? Getting to know them and understand their drivers and motivations.
What are the biggest barriers to your organisation’s success? Current economic uncertainties are still very much front of mind for our customers. However, we’re working closely with the region’s businesses to provide the support they need whatever the economic climate.
What would make the West Midlands an even better place to live and work? As a relative newcomer to the region, I’d have to say the traffic volumes. I don’t do a huge amount of car travel around the West Midlands, but when I do, it takes a lot longer to get from A to B than it should.
If you weren’t doing what you’re doing now, what alternative career would you choose and why? I’d either like to be a professional golf or football coach or perhaps indulge my passion for cars by working in the motor sports industry – I’m a frustrated racing driver!
