An O Shaped Odyssey: How Helen Stivadoros has brought O Shaped to life at Santander

“I love that being an O Shaped Champion enables me to actively contribute something else of value to the team”

Helen Stivadoros, Legal Counsel (Shared Services) Santander

How did you hear about the O Shaped Lawyer and why did you choose to share it more widely with your team at Santander?

I first saw it mentioned on a LinkedIn post. I was curious about what O Shaped Lawyer meant so I looked up the website to find out. The O’s purpose and ethos instantly resonated with me. I’ve always believed that the most effective lawyers are those who have the well-rounded people skills that enable them to build strong relationships with customers and colleagues, which in itself also creates more value.

I thought the O approach would sit well with my wider team (Shared Services Legal at Santander). We were already very focused on many of the skills and proactively set objectives around creating value, but I felt that having the O Shaped mindset and attributes in one place would be a consistent benchmark we could work towards. I felt it would help us identify areas of self-development, which has proven to be the case.

How did you generate interest amongst the rest of the team?

I talked to my manager and Head of Legal about the O. They could immediately see that the O shaped mindset and attributes naturally aligned with our corporate behaviours and values.

I then talked to our wider team about it, and my Head of Legal was really supportive in endorsing it when I did so. I asked the team to share their thoughts – everyone engaged and the responses were all positive, so it was easy to agree that we could weave these skills into our team objectives and help us map out new ways to create value for our business colleagues.

It's been great to hear feedback from the team who consider the O Shaped Attributes as part of their personal development plans.

How have you kept it a priority for the Santander legal team?

One of the great things in our team is that we have ‘Champions’ who are empowered to drive different priorities, such as sustainability or pro bono. My Head of Legal named me as the ‘O Shaped Champion’, which is a great mandate to keep the O conversations active within the team. I update the team on the progress of the O Shaped workstreams so they can see the positive impact these have on a wider scale.

We’ve taken the following actions to embed the O into our team:

• We use the O Shaped Mindset and Attributes as a checklist to identify opportunities to add to our team priorities;

• We have incorporated the attributes into our personal development plans;

• We are arranging group sessions to focus on the attributes this year;

• We have included the O as a standing item on the agenda for our monthly team meetings;

• We have included the O shaped attributes in a welcome pack for new joiners to the team as a quick way to bring them up to speed and demonstrate that we value these people-centric skills;

• We are talking to one of our panel law firms about working together in a more O Shaped way, and invited them to share learnings from where they may have done so with other clients.

What tips would you give anyone looking to embed O Shaped in their teams?

All of the above! The most significant first step is to simply start a conversation about it within the team – so much can grow from there.

Anyone at any level can initiate the O conversation within a team, so don’t think you need to be the team manager to do so (I’m not). If you are the team manager and have a lot on your plate, don’t feel you need to be the person to drive this. You could ask someone to volunteer to be the ‘O Shaped Champion’ to take it forward. It’s a great development opportunity for the Champion and they’ll feel empowered.

The O approach can create value for any type of team (who doesn’t want to maintain strong relationships and create value?!), so once you’ve seen how it benefits your own team, think about knowledge-sharing with other teams. For example, a Compliance Manager expressed an interest when I talked to her about the O Shaped attributes which led to me joining her team meeting to talk about them. As a result, that Compliance team has now incorporated the attributes into their objectives.

It has also helped our respective teams build a closer relationship, embedding more of the O!

How has becoming an O Shaped Champion at Santander been for you?

Within my own team, I love that being an O Shaped Champion enables me to actively contribute something else of value to the team and our meetings. Being designated as Champion gives an ongoing endorsement to keep talking about the O within the team. It also enables me to get more involved in strategic conversations about the team’s development and training topics, and when it comes to recruiting, I feel empowered to share ideas about incorporating the O into that process. Having this kind of active involvement makes me feel valued and engaged in the team.

More broadly, endorsement from my Head of Legal gives me confidence to run with the O and think about how else we can build on the skills within the business. From a personal perspective, I’m passionate about supporting others and helping people develop (which is why the O appealed to me). Becoming and O Shaped Champion has helped me develop my own leadership skills and got me thinking about how I can influence positive change on a wider scale within Santander through sharing the O shaped skills with other teams and getting wider engagement.

To learn more about how you can bring O Shaped to life in your own team, contact us at info@oshapedlawyer.com or Helen on Linked in at Helen Stivadoros | LinkedIn