It is very much in my nature to want to do a job that adds real value and is truly impactful. For this reason, I have long been interested in a job in the Civil Service, where I feel any role from the top down brings tangible value to the country and the people within it.

This alone is a key reason for my interest in this role, but this interest is furthered by my belief that my skillset and experience makes me particularly suitable to this role. Alongside that, I am also hugely keen on joining an organisation that is undergoing such significant change. With decisions made in the coming months being so impactful to the longer term organisational strategy, it is hugely appealing to me to get involved and be part of that journey.

My background and experience is split across a history of people management and experience, as well as operational change and technology delivery. Most recently I am in a senior management role overseeing high volume transactional and client service delivery teams, leading a team of Operations Managers to ensure efficient and high quality delivery.

While at Computershare I have been heavily involved in extensive change management and process improvement initiatives that were introduced not long into my tenure at the company. I documented, designed and deployed solutions that saw significant operational efficiencies and cost reductions. This included a reduction in personnel costs of around £500,000 and an increase in customer satisfaction from 35% to 82%.

This continuous improvement mindset has always been part of my management approach and this has continued into my current role. I consistently challenge managers on their operation, asking questions and encouraging lateral thinking in the face of problems. I never accept "we have always done it that way" as an answer to a question, and believe strongly that as we grow and experience as a business we can contiue to develop our proceses and frameworks to improve our approach.

All of this done with the customer in mind. Whatever the organisation and whatever the population being served, there is a customer at the end of the processes and work that we carry out. This is central to my ethos and central to the culture I look to curate amongst my team. The question that must always be asked is not only "will this benefit the organisation" but also, "will this benefit the customer". Any improvements must translate into our delivery to the customer, and I strive to ensure that the operation I lead delivers to the customer efficiently without a degradation in the service that is so vital to everything we do.

The clients are the core of what we do and why we do it, but my focus above all has always been my people. As a leader, especially at a senior level, my priority is ensuring that our people are performing to high standards and given the tools that they need to do so. Having the right people in the right roles is vital to our delivery, and it is simply impossible to deliver to the high standards I expect without happy, engaged and motivated teams.

To that end I place a lot of effort into understanding and getting to know the people in my teams, certainly on a professional level but also on a personal level. It is important to understand their priorities, and motivations, and to adapt my management style and approach to those priorities. There is a line between the personal and professional that must not be crossed, but understanding someone and getting to know someone even at a superficial level has immense value. If your team value and respect you, they will always work harder to achieve your goals.

As an example, at Computershare I sit with my teams and 'hotdesk' between teams so that I am immersed and involved in the operational environment. I hold detailed one-to-one meetings with my management team on a weekly basis, and engage with them daily. The key here is that I engage with them extensively, involve them in decision making and value their input. This serves to motivate but also operates as a method to ensure succession planning, giving managers insight and experience into my approach from a more senior management perspective.

It is important also that teams have clear guidelines and expectations. I invest a lot of my time in setting targets and objectives, and work closely with my management team to understand our challenges and volumes so as to shape those objectives. These targets must always be achievable, but they must also be challenging, so as to give teams an aspiration to work toward. High volumes and challenging deadlines can be stressful, but if handled correctly and organised well they can be incredibly rewarding and motivational. I believe in pushing everyone to their maximum potential, because in my experience I have found that to be an effective way to motivate and develop people.

In order to do these things it is also vital that there is a robust management information structure in place to inform and help shape decisions. When bedding in any operational environment, one of my first key tasks is always to establish what information and statistics are available to me so I can begin to make cogent decisions about operational delivery. If it is not there, I work closely with my team to get this structure in place. It is on that basis I inform my decisions around not only longer term targets and objectives but also shorter term resourcing and priority assignment. At Computershare, I have worked hard to introduce this type of management information at a transaction level, so me and my management team can understand the pressures and adjust delivery accordingly.

More widely, I place value on networking out into the wider business. Knowledge is important to me, and while it is also important not to get hung up on the intricacies when you are managing a wider operation, it is important for me to engage with the teams and stakeholders who have a vested interest in the operational activity I am responsible for. I talk extensively to other managers, client relationship managers, as well as members of the executive management team including the Chief Operating Officer. In building these relationships I ensure that I have valuable insight into the wider business that can be tapped into in times of need, as well as ensure others have the same insight into my area of responsibility.

In summary, I feel I am very strong senior operational manager with extensive change management experience and an ability to inspire and lead teams through inclusivity, engagement and motivational management. While my background is not in planning, I do deal with high volume and high value transactional activity in a financial services environment and feel that I could apply this to the Head of High Volume Operations role very well.