Head of Global Operations and Fraud Prevention and Chief Client Officer, Global Consumer Banking
Titi Cole has built a career on one success after another, but she credits the failures — including one in particular — as having strengthened her as a leader.
“In 2011, I led a team piloting a debit card usage fee that prompted nationwide criticism, client complaints, a Change.org petition, and even ended up as the punchline of a joke on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ” Cole said. “The fallout derailed the pilot a month before launch.”
Cole, who had been leading the debit product team at a different company back then, took away three critical lessons.
The first was to “be a leader who stands with the team,” a realization that came from witnessing how the reaction of senior leaders affected cohesion and willingness to take risks.
Second, the experience reinforced the value of listening to the customer and the need to “triple check” how new ideas may be received. “I underestimated potential customer concerns about our pilot,” Cole said.
“Power through the crisis” was her third takeaway. “I kept the broader team focused on immediate priorities and running the business, while a smaller group fixed the problem. A year later, the failed pilot was a distant memory that had made us stronger.”
The resilience forged then is helping Cole in her current role at Citigroup as head of global operations and fraud prevention and chief client officer for the global consumer bank. Cole leads Citi’s largest employee group, with responsibility for more than 54,000 employees and contractors in 19 markets. She is also focused on driving diversity and inclusion efforts.
Cole, who joined Citi in August 2020 from Wells Fargo, says the pandemic — another builder of resilience — allowed her to get up to speed in the new role in record time. “Prior to 2020, most of my collaboration and team engagement depended on physically visiting operations sites — and at Citi, that means about 80 worldwide,” she said.
With a global lockdown, she was forced to organize town halls, team meetings, and affinity group events remotely. Never one to miss a growth opportunity, she counted this as a “silver lining.”
“Technology enabled me to join Citi and lead one of the bank’s largest groups in the middle of a pandemic,” Cole said. “I met with my leadership teams, managers and key stakeholders around the world, all in my first 90 days — something that would have taken a year or more with travel.”
