American Express’ Monique Herena on Embracing Change at Work

“Embracing change is not a nice to do, it's a must do from a growth perspective.”

Monique Herena, chief colleague experience officer at American Express, reminds us how and why change and discomfort can be so powerful in the workplace on this episode of Better.

You'll learn strategies that help leaders navigate change and inspire their teams. You'll also hear how American Express has navigated flexible work and why it's important for everyone, including individual contributors, to model values and leadership behaviors.

How do you encourage leaders to embrace change?

Every colleague at Amex — whether you're an individual contributor or leader of others — is rated from a performance perspective on not just what you do in terms of business goals, but how you do it.

Everything that we do from a leadership behavior perspective is about having an enterprise mindset, being collaborative, making courageous decisions, having an external perspective.

The way we instill that mindset is through a lot of support, a lot of training and tools, and an expectation that we need people to push against the status quo, push each other, have respectful debate, and ensure that we are really instilling a spirit of creative thinking, continuous learning, and bringing people along from a change perspective.

How can we do this better, more efficiently, competitively? How can we get better? How can we learn?

We would not be around for 170 years if we have not innovated time and time again.

[Attend our annual company culture conference May 7-9, 2024, to learn transform your culture from good to great.]

How do you help identify leaders who are reluctant to change?

We spend an extraordinary amount of time on strategy and talent. We talk about it monthly, we're coaching people on the daily, and we set the tone around performance and leadership behaviors.

Are you demonstrating that change enterprise mindset? If not, how do you course correct? And if not, those people won't be here for the long term because you won't be able to perform at the level to sustain and grow at Amex.

It’s really important to set expectations and provide support, but also show what happens when you're not rowing in the same direction. Embracing change is not a nice to do, it's a must do from a growth perspective.

American Express has adopted a flexible work model, Amex Flex. How does that model work?

It is a flexible working model comprised of three work designations: fully onsite, fully virtual, and hybrid. The majority of our colleague base is hybrid.

I think we've done a really good job of listening and learning from our colleagues and not being afraid to evolve our thinking and pivot based on what we're hearing. This ensures that we craft the right solutions for our colleagues to meet their needs, but also that we meet the needs of our business and how we support our customers day in, day out.

We recently surveyed our colleagues, and 91% said they would recommend Amex as a great place to work, and that same percentage, 91%, feel supported by their leader in making decisions about their well-being.

American Express has been on the 100 Best list for 24 years, and is the No. 1 workplace in the financial industry. What is the secret to this consistency?

It’s a wonderful thing to be on lists where your colleagues are the ones putting you on those lists because it's really through their voices and experiences that give you those sort of rankings. We have a lot of pride in that.

We really believe that it's important to continue to have a consistent investment across the most important areas of your business. For us, our most important competitive advantage is our talent, and that's not sometimes. That's all the time.

If you could go back and give your younger self some advice, what would it be?

Today as an adult, I'm known as a change leader. I'm known as a courageous change leader. But I would go back and say, even though I took a lot of risks, upon reflection, I would take even more calculated risk. I would've pushed myself to do more of that because my career path was full of surprises. I pushed myself, and many times others pushed me way outside of my comfort zone. Looking back, those were the times that I grew exponentially and more so than I realized at the time.

From a research perspective, we learn upon reflection. Looking back at times when you had a little discomfort in the belly — not sure if you can land on your feet and deliver in the way you need to — those are the times where you're really learning and growing the most.

What book would you recommend to your peers?

I gave a copy of Adam Grant's most recent book, "Hidden Potential," to my team. I believe in the potential of everyone. I don't see our colleagues for where they are right now in this moment, but how we can invest in their growth and development over the long term.

There is a way to look at the world as a lifelong learner where no one really ever arrives. No one ever needs to be labeled as one thing or the other. We can all grow and change.

One of the insights I loved about Adam's book is that it's discomfort and getting out of your comfort zone that unlocks hidden potential, and there's no sort of person who has a unique ability to learn in a better, more efficient, more sophisticated way than another person.

Get more insights

Get more strategies from our workplace culture experts at our For All? Summit, May 7-9 in New Orleans.

Subscribe to Better wherever podcasts are available so you don't miss an episode.