She also believes that in any job, “You’ve got to care. There’s absolutely no point doing it if you don’t care about the outcomes.” Being a good leader is also about
expressing a genuine interest in people – a quality that Tracy, an only child, developed early in her life. “Sometimes people tell me I’m the classic only child because I notice loads of things about everybody.” Tracy learned to make friends quickly or she would have been “stuck at home” alone. As if to illustrate this point, Tracy strikes up a conversation with a waiter – we’re chatting in the lobby of a hotel in central London – who comes by to ask if we would like another coffee.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion In 2021, Tracy was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for ‘services to business and to diversity’. In 2004, she was the senior civil
servant appointed to a business-led review for the UK government, the Women and Work Commission, which looked at things like how “the choices girls made about their exams, whether they went into STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] subjects, whether they studied finance, really then influenced where they got to” in their careers. The commission produced some 40 recommendations that could help contribute to overcoming the gender pay gap and other kinds of inequality. She also continued this work during
her time at the FRC, where she worked on boosting diversity and gender representation on boards. The work involved research and testing to find out what techniques might help encourage more equal gender representation in the higher echelons of business – to see whether things like quotas, mentoring, and similar initiatives would lead to more women progressing to senior roles. As a mother of twin daughters, Tracy
says it is important to set an example. “The more women that stay in the workplace and take advantage of different flexibilities, and indeed are vocal about demanding them, the more we will see change embedded in organisations.” She adds that diversity shouldn’t just
be something organisations do for the sake of it. “Just look at the classic thing that every management theory tells you – that you must avoid groupthink. Well, isn’t diversity the answer to avoiding
CISI.ORG/REVIEW
groupthink? So, I’m always a little bit surprised when people say to me, ‘oh, it’s very difficult,’ or ‘we’d like to do more, but it’s hard,’ because I think, ‘what’s stopping you?’” She also volunteers time where she can
and tries to support small charities, including The Listening Place, a charity where people can get face-to-face help and talk openly about their mental health, and Speakers for Schools, which sees professionals help bright kids who might not get parental assistance to do things like file university applications or seek out work experience. She chooses to support these charities because “they’re issues that matter to me, the mental wellbeing of people, especially youngsters, giving everybody a stake and a chance is quite a big motivator”. That desire to give everyone a stake in
society feeds into much of Tracy’s work. Speaking again about the global economic, social, and environmental outlook, she knows full well how challenging the coming months and years will be. Nevertheless, she appears confident about the impact organisations like the CISI can have in challenging times, particularly by making financial services more accessible to wider society. “I think my motivation to make a difference might be quite well utilised.”
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// DIVERSITY IS THE ANSWER TO AVOIDING GROUPTHINK //
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