A glimpse into Manulife's leadership team

One of the most commonly heard terms in the hallways at Manulife lately is the mysterious acronym GLT – the Global Leadership Team.

That’s because the GLT, comprising 80 or so of our most senior Manulife leaders from around the world, came together in Toronto for its first meeting since the news of Roy Gori’s move to President, and eventually, global CEO.

The GLT often sets the tone for a series of strategies and decisions which have an impact on every single one of us in the company. As a member of the GLT – and as a member of our HR function in Asia – I wanted to give Manulifers a behind-the-scenes look at the latest meeting, and for those of you not within the company, a glimpse into how we do things here.

This is an incredibly exciting time for Manulife. We’re in the process of a transition from Donald Guloien, who has led and served the company with distinction over decades, to Roy – a truly inspiring leader who many of us here in Asia have come to know well over the last couple of years.

Many leadership teams in other companies have struggled with this sort of change. This GLT meeting proved to me Manulife won’t have those same difficulties. Donald’s integrity, evident in initiating the transition, and Roy’s passion for Manulife have helped the entire GLT align in strong support of this evolution. I was really struck by just how energized the whole team is by the process. We’re all behind it.

So, what were the big messages from the meeting?

For a lot of us in Asia, these messages will feel familiar enough – we’ve had two years of Roy already!

One big message was the importance of acting with integrity within our business and with each other. Roy challenged each of us to act as Manulife leaders instead of leaders of our individual team, department or market.

Another message was the importance of letting our people grow. We need to be vigilant about letting our best people master their current role within the company while also helping them develop and prepare for their next challenge within Manulife.

But the message that came through loudest for me was the value Roy and Donald place on our people. As leaders, GLT members are expected to do the same and I can only see that focus increasing in the future. Roy doubled-down on the importance of how we get things done – not just what we get done – and we can expect to see that value continue to spread everywhere around our company.

For those of you inside Manulife, you’ll likely hear more about GLT over the coming weeks. Curiosity is a great thing, though, and I encourage you to get in touch with your own GLT members and discover from them how they will role-model this evolution themselves. If you don’t know who your GLT members are, reach out to HR and we can let you know.

Exciting times for all of us!