Leadership Lessons Evolution

Two reasons that employees love WEX are the opportunities for personal growth and accessibility of senior leadership. So it only made sense last year for us to launch Leadership Lessons, a series of monthly sessions with the goal to help associates build their leadership repertoire and to increase connectedness between employees and senior leaders. In year one, some of the career development topics we’ve covered include:

• Being in Charge of Your Career: Senior VP and General Manager, North American Fleet, Ken Janosick
• Team leadership: Senior VP, International George Hogan
• Self-awareness and Breaking the Silos: CFO, Roberto Simon

Here’s a glimpse of WEX CEO Melissa Smith as she talks about resilience at her Leadership Lesson.

An Expanded Vision in Year Two

Feedback from WEXers is helping shape Leadership Lessons as we enter its second year. In addition to career development, people have expressed interest in learning about other areas of the company they may not be intimately involved in. This expanded vision gives us the chance to tap into the rich knowledge base of our subject matter experts throughout the organization.

To kick off this new approach, Kurt Thearling, VP of Analytics recently hosted “Analytics and Why it Matters to WEX.” Thearling’s session was so well received that we’re repeating it at other offices. This kind of engagement helps challenge people to think differently than they might on a day-to-day basis at work, raising questions such as “How will analytics play into what I do?”

We’re also excited to be adding live virtual sessions with participation from the larger WEX organization. Our first truly international Leadership Lesson was held from one of our U.K. offices in April via WebEx, with Malcolm Joyce, WEX Europe Services Limited who spoke about influencing through vulnerability, knowledge and flexibility. Questions throughout the talk helped keep the presentation interactive, reaching more than 60 WEXers in the U.K. and U.S.

As an increasingly global company, our people want to connect beyond geographic and functional boundaries. We’re excited that Leadership Lessons are one of the avenues available to WEXers. Stay tuned for future postings as we share the wealth of knowledge from future sessions.