In insurance and financial services people leaders sit at the exact point where compliance, customer outcomes and staff engagement meet and it's often the role left to work itself out. Promoted for technical strength, handed a team, and expected to figure the rest out on the job.
This session examines what leading a high-performing team actually requires in 2026, and where organisations are quietly getting it wrong. Sara Elmstrom and Maria Stavrinides of CXO2 draw on national benchmarking research covering more than 200 Australian operations to unpack the findings: the duties people leaders rank as most important, and how differently their time is actually spent; the confidence gap between self-assessed capability and the 53% of leaders working without any structured development program; and the new demands AI is placing on the role. They also introduce the Six C's framework for high performance - Connection, Clarity, Communication, Capability, Constructive Leadership and Care as a practical model for building teams that perform consistently.
The session closes with a candid case study from Steven Mason, Insurance Sales & Service Manager at Beyond Bank Australia, who leads a 16-person team across three states. After 19 years in the role, Steve openly didn't believe he needed further leadership development. He shares what changed his mind, the two coaching tools he now won't work without, and how his team's staff engagement score moved from 55% to 90% - against a bank average of 75%.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Benchmark their own team's leadership workload and development provision against national data
- Identify the structural causes of team leader overload and the practical levers available to address them
- Recognise the risks of relying on self-assessed leadership capability in the absence of formal development frameworks
- Describe the emerging capability requirements arising from AI adoption in frontline operations
- Identify some practical coaching techniques - including the SBI and GROW models - to performance conversations
- Construct an evidence-based business case for investment in frontline leadership development
Speakers
Sara Elmstrom - CEO, CXO2 and Partner, The Bridge International
Maria Stavrinides - Senior Associate & Practice Lead, Culture, Leadership and Capability, The Bridge International
Steve Mason - Insurance Sales & Service Manager, Beyond Bank