Head of Relationship Management

Role Overview:

The Head of Relationship Director (Business Relationship Team) is a pivotal leadership role responsible for driving strategic initiatives, optimising performance, and fostering commercial growth within the organisation. This role requires a visionary leader with a strong commercial acumen, exceptional relationship-building skills, and the ability to deliver outstanding results through strategic thinking and effective team management. The successful candidate will be a key member of the SME Leadership team, guiding and supporting our UK client base.

Key Criteria:

Strategic Thinking:

• Develop and implement strategic plans to enhance the organisation's market position and achieve business objectives.
• Identify and capitalise on new business opportunities, market trends, and competitive insights to drive growth.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to align business strategies with overall organisational goals.

Commercial Delivery:

• Lead the team to achieve and exceed commercial targets and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Drive commercial success by developing and executing strategies that support client needs.
• Implement best practices and innovative techniques to optimise the commercial processes and improve efficiency.
• Monitor and analyse performance data to identify areas for improvement and implement corrective actions.

Service & Contact:

• Develop and execute a comprehensive contact strategy to engage with customers effectively and enhance overall customer experience.
• Utilise data analytics to gain insights into customer needs and behaviours, enabling more personalised and effective service.
• Drive a culture of service excellence by setting high standards for customer service and ensuring these standards are consistently met.

Leadership and Team Management:

• Provide inspirational leadership and mentorship to the sales and relationship management teams.
• Foster a high-performance culture by setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, and recognising achievements.
• Develop and implement succession planning to ensure the organisation retains and develops key talent for the future.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key clients, stakeholders, and partners to enhance business opportunities.

Purpose of the role

To manage relationship management initiatives and set the strategic direction. Provide support to the bank's senior management team, and to manage product development risk across the organisation. 

Accountabilities

• Development of strategic direction for relationship management, including the implementation of up to date methodologies and processes.
• Management of relationship management initiatives, including oversight of colleagues and their performance, implementation of departmental goals and objectives, oversight of department efficiency and effectiveness.  .
• Relationship management of relationship management stakeholders, including identifying relevant stakeholders, and maintenance of the quality of external third party services.
• Development and implementation of policies and procedures for relationship management.
• Management of relationship management risk, including identification of potential risks, development of strategies to mitigate those risks, and maintenance of alignment between the bank’s relationship management and compliance functions.  .
• Monitoring the financial performance of relationship management, including revenue, profitability, and cost control.
• Conducting thorough market research to understand market trends, competitive landscape, and regulatory changes to identify market opportunities.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
• Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
• Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
• Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
• Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
• Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
• Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.