What is it that sets a good leader apart from a mediocre one? As part of the Optus ‘Things I look for…’ series, I asked Jude Rajkumar, Head of Product at next-generation online mortgage broker uno Home Loans, for her perspective on leadership and the traits she’s most drawn to.
Compared to other career moves, there’s an obvious risk involved in joining an early stage start-up. In Jude Rajkumar’s case, when she took up the post of Head of Product at uno Home Loans she already had a 20-year track record in digital. Uno, on the other hand, had just launched its MVP and was looking to tackle a system dominated by big banks and mortgage brokers.
Fortunately for Rajkumar, her gamble appears to be paying off. Since being hired by founder Vincent Turner in June 2016, she has helped oversee a period of rapid growth. Uno is believed to be facilitating mortgages worth tens of millions of dollars each month and has an ever-expanding team, which currently stands at 72 staff.
Rajkumar says it was largely her faith in the leadership team that compelled her to take the plunge. And in the latest ‘Things I look for…’ Q&A she reveals what it was that inspired her and the qualities she feels a leader should possess to help their staff reach their full potential.
On first meeting with uno’s executive team, what was it that motivated you most about their approach?
I was really impressed with the initial meeting with Vincent and Kirsty Davison, uno’s chief marketing and strategy officer. Vincent didn’t really ask me much about my technical capabilities or skills, it was much more behavioural – in fact, his first question was something along the lines of, “Ok Jude, so tell me, what do you love in life?” That was really refreshing and personal and goes to the heart of what we’re trying to do here at uno.
I was very much drawn to his vision for the company, and everything has to start with what it is you’re trying to achieve – that’s what you’ve got to buy into. From my perspective in the product world, everything that follows is just mechanics.
The broad remit was also one of things I loved about the opportunity, and I still do. I’m responsible not only for the user experience guys, but also the designers and the product people who make it all come to life. This ability to drive the full end-to-end lifecycle was absolutely the thing that brought me here from a job responsibility perspective.
What is it about the leadership at uno that continues to motivate you to come into work each day?
Vincent and Kirsty provide the right level of guidance around what we should be doing strategically, while also letting the team operate with a good level of autonomy – in terms of balance, that’s the holy grail.
Vincent’s ability to inspire on an ongoing basis is also fantastic – he brings high energy into the office and is constantly buoying people up and getting them to go that extra step. There’s definitely an urgency around this as well – I think being a founder in this kind of business you’ve got to be action orientated so you just don’t talk about things, you actually ‘do’, and that’s when you learn and you move forward.
I learn from everyone here all the time whether it’s something tiny or a novel way to approach a thorny issue and another good thing about Vincent is he reads, a lot – he’s really curious about the world so he’s always reading and sharing that with the team, he wants to lift all of us and getting that kind of insight from someone like him is really valuable.
What else is important, particularly in this context when the landscape is constantly shifting?
I think refusing to entertain the idea of failure, which is distinct from having a fear of failure, is the first thing. We don’t really use the word ‘mistake’ here – we’re trying a million things all the time and some things won’t be successful but we still learn from them so in one way they still are. Vincent is confident in the fact that if we try enough things it’ll work. I think as a leader you’ve got to bring that sense of confidence to the table.
Bizarrely, even though we’re trying lots of different things, you’ve also got to have focus. You need to focus on what it is you’re trying to accomplish and break that down into achievable chunks. It’s a bit like the expression, ‘How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.’
We’re constantly looking at not just what we do but how we do things and I think as a leader you’ve got to be good at driving change. Right now we’re in the middle of transitioning to something called a ‘squad’ model where you create these agile, cross-functional teams that can attack a particular customer problem or area of your offering. This initiative was Vincent’s idea and I guess that’s on the back of the fact he reads, he investigates, he constantly looks for better ways to help all of us achieve our goals. He discussed the idea with all of us and got our feedback and when we were all onboard we jumped into it together. He’s collaborative about everything, which is important as everyone here feels they’re heard – ultimately, I think this makes the difference between success and failure.
Lastly, passion. Vincent is truly passionate about improving the lives of our customers and this authenticity is key. If you want to win the trust of the empowered customer in this new digital world – a challenge that we relish – you need transparency and honesty. You actually can’t do it any other way.
This article was first published on the Optus Yes Business hub in June, 2018.
