An interview with Laurent Siebert, senior VP of internal audit at Schneider and EVE participant.

 

EVE Programme: Hello Laurent. You’re in charge of worldwide internal audit at Schneider. What does that mean in practical terms?

Laurent Siebert : Hello. The main assignment of the department I lead is to make sure that processes are effective and risks are measured properly across the whole of the Schneider group. That means auditing entities, auditing the main acquisitions, auditing processes and piloting transversal audits to make sure the group’s strategy is being rolled out properly throughout the world. These are very global assignments, encompassing all the various job areas, in all countries, at all levels.

 

EVE Programme : You have a remarkably diverse team to help you carry out this assignment…

Laurent Siebert : Yes. Teamwork is fundamental for this kind of work. And choosing diversity makes a difference. I recruit on four types of diversity.

The second type is nationality: in my team of 16 people, there are 12 different nationalities, because a multicultural environment is very important for our fundamentally international assignment. The first type is the female/male balance and I’ve almost reached 50/50.

The third type is education and qualifications: my staff come from the best universities in their countries, but they have varying academic backgrounds, I have engineers, lawyers, people from business schools and also liberal arts people.

The fourth type is the diversity of career paths: 1/3 of my team are internal hires, from all kinds of jobs, global supply chain, marketing; 1/4 come from strategy and the others are from external recruitment. I’m definitely on the lookout for diverse profiles.

A fifth type of diversity is emerging from our recruitment in the audit department: the mix of generations. In the past, audit has attracted people in the 30-35 age range, but today I’m trying to bring seniors into the team to bring another perspective, other ways of doing things, the long view. But the nature of the work certainly doesn’t make it easy to hire people between 35 and 45, because with over half the year spent traveling, the job isn’t very compatible with a balanced family life. But I should say that you don’t spend your whole career as an auditor; it’s a career springboard.

 

EVE Programme : Do you see your department as a talent greenhouse ?

Laurent Siebert : Exactly! Global audit at Schneider spots and trains up the future leaders of the group. For a long time the image of the audit department was of sharks, young ambitious managers, totally devoted to their assignment, working morning, noon and night, sometimes lacking the big picture, in a way which some people described as almost military. These days, it’s a practical leadership training ground. We look for people who have broad vision, who know how to cope with stress, who understand different job fields, who are good at listening, and who will be able to spread good management practices.

That’s also the reason why I insist during this period of their career, even though having a family life is difficult for auditors, that they have a private life and they know how to balance it with professional life. The atmosphere in the department is very important for me and I encourage the auditors to take time out, even when they’re on assignment, here or abroad. I’ll show you, we have a really fun photo gallery of the team’s time-out moments. It’s a long way from the caricature of the auditor, the austere, ruthless and humorless individualist! (Ed’s note: after visiting Laurent Siebert’s department and meeting his team, we can confirm that there is a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere and that the various auditors we were introduced to were friendly, pleasant, open and liked to laugh!).

 

EVE Programme : How do these very diverse and mixed teams work together ? 

Laurent Siebert : I always make the deliberate choice of putting people where they aren’t expected to be, to mix up the roles, to take people out of their comfort zone. I take people out of their field of expertise, out of their “box”: it strengthens creativity (people who aren’t experts in a subject ask good questions, which may be naïve but which are certainly relevant), mutual help and team spirit.

This way of doing things creates positive emulation which goes beyond the various personalities, all of which are extraordinary in the first place, and allows them to go beyond themselves.

 

EVE Programme : Is that where you bring out the leaders in these men and women ?

Laurent Siebert:  Yes. To hone their leadership skills, we also put a lot of emphasis on communication. I want to teach my staff to communicate effectively, with both the spoken and the written word, externally and among themselves.

We have “platinum rules” and one of them is especially important to me: “feedback is a gift“. It’s a real cultural change and it’s an effort for each of us, but it’s essential. We debrief every day and we train two weeks a year in a “leadership & communication” seminar, with traditional workshops such as coaching or 360°, but also more unusual workshops like last year we did theater classes which were very successful, in spite of some initial reticence.

I also decided to suggest individual coaching to some team members, especially to deal with issues of self-confidence which are unfortunately, as we know, more common among female staff.

 

EVE Programme : You attended the last EVE seminar in Evian, in December 2012. Did you get fresh inspiration to develop self-confidence and leadership for women ? 

Joanna Barsh, speaker at EVE. Her message: “Ask for what you want!”

Laurent Siebert : Yes, I shared the various things I learned at EVE with my team. First and foremost, the session led by Joanna Barsh, from McKinsey. That “Ask for what you want!” which is the message she aims to put across, is very simple but very powerful. Right after talking about that session with my team, a woman came up to me and said, “I never dared to say this, but I want to change, I want to move to solutions.” I contacted the boss of solutions who was obviously delighted to come across that kind of profile.

I also shared the testimony of Franck Riboud with my teams. I think what he said about freedom being the temperament of the leader is very important: it’s freedom which helps you to take risks, to dare to go beyond yourself. Leadership really is a state of mind.

 

EVE Programme : So how do you identify that “state of mind” in a future leader ?

Laurent Siebert: When I talk to a person, for example during a recruitment process, I am attentive to how the person organizes their own life, how they talk about their teams, how they talk about themself and about others … I look for a certain humility within the self-confidence. I also want people who are able to have convictions and who can really understand. Those aren’t gifts, they’re values.

Sometimes I have said after an interview, “OK, so he’s got a good, resume, he’s a strong candidate, he answers questions well. But I don’t think the team would like to work with him!” It’s important, for example, for a leader to have some humor, that they know how to relax, important too to be able to fit in, to know how to be a “good work buddy”:  these are things you simply have to feel.

 

EVE Programme : You say you “feel” those things. Does that mean that you leave a lot of room for intuition in your management ?

Laurent Siebert: Yes, intuition is not only a female trait! (laughs) It’s good to let that quality speak up when you’re a man. I also leave a lot of space for talking, for exchanging views. Maybe that too is seen as a traditionally female quality. But things change! (laughs).

In my view, three qualities are essential in management and they are three human qualities: listening, respect and helping each other. 

 

Interview by Marie Donzel, with the help of Emmanuelle Jacquemot.

 

Article translated from the french original version. (c) EVE PROGRAMME