Change Leader

Location Designation:Fully Remote

When you join New York Life, you're joining a company that values career development, collaboration, innovation, and inclusiveness. We want employees to feel proud about being part of a company that is committed to doing the right thing. You'll have the opportunity to grow your career while developing personally and professionally through various resources and programs. New York Life is a relationship-based company and appreciates how both virtual and in-person interactions support our culture.

Change Leadershelp to implement the Continuous Improvement (CI) system in partnership with the business across New York Life to drive improvements in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, productivity, quality, and sustained change and innovation. To achieve this, the Change Leader will lead a team of Change Agents, who will work with the business to identify opportunities to improve how we work, design solutions for these opportunities, and coach teams to use them.

• Supporting a department or functional area in a CI sustainability role.
• Transitioning back to the business in your original department or functional area (e.g., a position of greater seniority)
• Moving to a new role within New York Life.

• CI ownership:
  • Plan CI deployment for a department or functional area, and own implementation and deployment of that plan.
  • Lead a team of Change Agents (3-6) through CI adoption within a specific department or functional area.
  • Facilitate development of standards and practices, including codification of knowledge/ways-of-working to support CI deployment more effectively.
  • Personally role model and practice CI leadership behaviors on a day-to-day basis.
  • Lead your respective team of Change Agents and the business through the 5 phases of a deployment from Diagnose to Sustainability to assess current areas of strength and opportunity, design/refine tools to meet the needs of the business, as well as successfully implement and sustain them among teams:
  • Conduct diagnostic work within a deployment:lead your team of Change Agents through the process of working with frontline associates, managers, leaders, and other stakeholders to conduct diagnostic analyses that include walkthroughs, and interviews to assess current state strengths and areas of opportunity to enhance performance in a business unit or functional area. You will be responsible for working hand-in-hand with business leaders to quickly learn the ins and outs of the business, including key drivers of financial results, customer satisfaction, and employee experience.
  • Lead future state design work within a deployment:lead your team of Change Agents through the process of tailoring tools such as visual boards, standard work, skills matrix, balanced scorecard of performance metrics, etc. to the New York Life culture and the context within a business unit or functional area. Ensure the tools will be fit-for-purpose in that area and are able to be used effectively. Work with your teams through each of the top opportunities identified in the diagnostic phase (e.g., changes to processes, roles & responsibilities, and operating model) and develop solutions to address those opportunities.
  • Lead the implementation phase within a deployment:Conduct the implementation phase of a Continuous Improvement deployment. During this period, you and your team of Change Agents will provide extensive coaching to leaders on the implementation of tools and new ways of working, role model Continuous Improvement leadership behaviors, drive improvement to a cascading set of balanced scorecard metrics, and rapidly prototype changes to the operating model. You and your team of Change Agents will work closely to support the implementation of the future state operating model and management system, including root cause problem solving.
  • Lead the replication phase within a deployment:Lead the replication of the implementation phase of a deployment. This is similar to the implementation phase but on a faster timeline and with a broader set of frontline associates and team managers. During this period, you and your team of Change Agents will work with and coach many frontline employees and leaders to implement the Continuous Improvement operating model and management system. You will also role model Continuous Improvement leadership behaviors.

• Skill building:
  • Coach (on a regular basis) department and functional leaders, front-line managers, and Change Agents on the CI management system to support the deployment and ensure improvements are sustainable.
  • Provide deep CI expertise to the organization as a whole, and support ongoing development of the values and principles required to achieve cultural change.
  • Perform process and role confirmations to support direct reports and model for department or functional area leaders.

• Impact achievement and reporting:
  • Influence aspiration setting to continually raise the ambition, targets, and vision of CI at NYL.
  • Own leadership updates on CI deployment, as well as shared responsibility with the department or functional area leader for progress on KBI (key behavior indicators), and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), aligned to the CI plan.
  • Coach the business and Change Agents to set KBIs and KPIs and continuously measure impact.

• Continuous improvement:
  • Change behaviors at all levels of the organization by influencing key stakeholders and raising their awareness around current ways of working, opportunities to improve, and how CI enables these improvements.
  • Facilitate daily and weekly team meetings using visual management and performance management systems.
  • Support regular problem-solving sessions.
  • Lead training on CI as deployment occurs across the organization.

• Technical Knowledge:
  • Working knowledge of core Continuous Improvement concepts or fundamentals of Lean Management, is required.
  • Strong knowledge of Excel and PowerPoint is required.
• People Management:Experience leading teams of 6-12 individuals, including conducting performance evaluations, planning, and assigning work, and hiring new colleagues as necessary is required. While not managing leaders from the business, Change Leaders play a critical role in both supporting and driving leaders and teams they support to strive for stretch targets across a variety of metrics to ensure the CI system is driving positive business impact. This will include coaching leaders to help them understand the "why" behind the changes from the CI system and how it benefits NYL and its customers, overcome obstacles (e.g., mindsets and behaviors, team members who are struggling, etc.), helping leaders identify improvement opportunities to remove roadblocks, etc.

• BS/BA degree or equivalent.
• Track record of leading and developing others, with a passion for coaching.
• 6+ years of relevant experience in coaching and team management.
• 4+ years of group benefits experience preferred, with a specific focus on long-term/short-term disability claims.
• Passion for, and ability to drive change, in how we work at New York Life.
• Curiosity and openness to learn about new ways of working.
• An ability to thrive when faced with ambiguity; to lean into uncomfortable situations to see the opportunity for growth (in yourself and others).
• Ability to influence stakeholders, such as direct reports, front-line employees, and leaders in the organization.
• Low self-orientation, we need to help our leaders win and achieve results via CI.
• Impact-oriented, e.g., operates with bias to action, entrepreneurial spirit, and drive to pursue opportunities that lead to improvements.
• Strong problem-solving skills, including analytical thinking and analysis, e.g., able to synthesize data to draw conclusions and make recommendations.
• Ability to see opportunities from a systems-level; make connections across different processes (e.g., linkages and synergies across different organizations, routines, or procedures).
• A proven track record of successful project management, showcasing acumen in orchestrating complex projects and the ability to manage multiple deliverables against a timeline.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, tailored to effectively convey complex concepts to a variety of audiences, including ability to train adults using real life activities over delivering a presentation.
• While the role is remote, there is an expectation that you will need to travel to affiliated offices roughly once monthly for 2-3 days at a time (e.g., for trainings, side-by-side observations).