When Penny Dudley, former legal director of Bupa’s international health insurance division, was asked to move into the chief legal officer role earlier this year, it was an opportunity to reflect on the importance of non-legal skills. ‘We have a strong focus on leadership at Bupa at all senior levels, but it’s a big step when you go from one part of a business to overseeing the entire group. It brought it home that you need to make sure in-house lawyers have these skills at an early stage. It’s a bit late to start investing in leadership once you’ve put someone on the executive committee.’
The need for leadership skills is also playing a big part in the in-house recruitment process. ‘If I’m looking for someone to step into a senior role then I’m much more focused on their leadership skills and the interview process is designed to find out whether a candidate has those skills. From having a candidate speak to various business teams to working with consultants and conducting psychological profiling, the process we use is the same one they would go through for any other senior management role.’
