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Southern Roots
Margaret Brownlee
Former SVP &COO, Business Travel Customer Service, American Express
You might call Margaret Brownlee a "steel magnolia." She's definitely a Southern lady born in Hapeville, GA, a suburb of Atlanta. Her life and career have allowed her to become well-traveled (no pun intended!). Currently, she calls both Atlanta and Scottsdale, AZ "home."
Along the way, Margaret established an impressive resume and achieved a high level of success in the travel industry and in the world of business. Among her achievements are an Emory MBA; the first female RVP appointed in Business Travel at American Express; the recipient of her company's Quality Leadership Award and membership in the Worldwide Travel Hall of Fame; YWCA Outstanding Business Women in America Award; and she was named as one of the Top 200 most powerful women in travel.
What can we learn from this most unassuming yet accomplished leader's life and career? A lot about leadership development and other things, including what it means to "share."
As one of five girls in a large Catholic family, Margaret said, "You had to share in a family like ours and you had to vie for attention." A close-knit group of siblings, Margaret and her sisters had good role models in both parents including a father who worked in merchandising at Rich's Department Store and a stay-at-home mother. Even though her mother didn't work outside their home, Margaret considered her a leader in her own way, in PTA, community organizations, etc.
After graduating from Catholic school, Margaret attended college at Georgia State University, as did all of her sisters. But Margaret was anxious to get to work and had her first "real job" at Southern Airways. During this time, she also married a man in the military and given the era that it was (the Vietnam war), Margaret followed him to Ft. Rucker Alabama where he was stationed. Later, the couple moved back to Atlanta where Margaret continued her work with the airline. This was a precursor for what would soon be her new career in the travel industry.
Express to senior leadership
The company Margaret worked for was acquired by American Express and thus began her journey there. Margaret's hard work, strong results, and management skills earned the attention of her superiors. She began to move up the corporate ladder into positions with increasing challenge and responsibility; from general manager to regional vice president to senior vice president. In 1995, her SVP promotion took her to Phoenix, AZ where she was charged with the massive reengineering and restructuring of the Card Operating Center.
A year later, Margaret was appointed SVP, COO of Business Travel Customer Service and became responsible for 900 offices, 10,000 employees, budgets of $10 billion in sales, $1.2 billion in revenue, and $600 million in expenses. Under her leadership over the next six years, the organization would successfully transition through massive financial, technological, and industry change. Perhaps more significant to Margaret than her impact on the design of the first customer feedback system or the design and implementation of the first call center management strategy was her influence in instituting leadership programs for team leaders, managers, and directors that were adopted throughout Corporate Service's division.
Developing leaders at all levels
From her own experience as a woman in leadership, Margaret learned how and how not to develop others. When she was coming up in the corporate structure, women needed a sponsor and she herself had a number of them - mostly men - along the way. She wanted to return the favor by helping to ensure the bench strength of leadership in her company and by helping identify and develop the best talent in the organization.
"I felt that it was actually easier to develop males because they typically had the right image already and they had greater exposure. For women, I knew I needed to increase their visibility and help them develop strong presentation skills in order to earn credibility," she said.
Working from the bottom up in her own organization, Margaret started with a development program that targeted the travel counselors who answered the phones. This program was intended to introduce them to first level positions, or team leader roles. In turn, team leaders were also looked at for manager positions, and managers for director level positions.
Margaret realized that there was also a downside to these development programs as well. She was actually preparing more talent for the pipeline than could be absorbed or promoted in her own department. Then, Margaret did the unheard of, i.e., she began helping some of her associates get into key positions in other divisions. She knew that if she didn't, the company could and would lose some of their most talented people to the outside.
Reflecting on this aspect of her career today, Margaret says, "I think I was pretty successful. At director level, three out of five people I helped develop went on to become vice presidents. What got them there was a combination of individual coaching they received, the development program they participated in, and their own hard work and capacity to learn and deliver results in whatever roles they were in. "
At the end of the day, this modest leader knows she had tremendous personal success in her career at American Express as one of only twenty women out of 250 executives in the corporation. (Now, that's grown to 25 or 30% of all senior vice presidents). She also knows that she influenced the careers of hundreds of people including many of the women who were promoted after her. As a testimony to this before she retired, Margaret was recognized with a standing ovation in an international corporate forum for her leadership and contributions to the business that she loved.
For Margaret, these career memories along with her board work for a woman's shelter in Phoenix, seem to be all the reward she needs these days. That and the opportunity to share her leadership development experience with others who share her passion. What's next for Margaret? Well the first is spending more time in Atlanta, but beyond that, we'll have to wait and see.
By Susan B. Hitchcock
Creator of The Age of SHEroes
VP-Client Services, Turknett Leadership Group
October, 2002
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