American Express is a company that operates on relationships and while this can be very positive from a team, cross-functional aspect, it can be nebulous when moving up in a promotional sense. It quickly becomes the who-you-know game, who has tagged you as a future leader or someone they know and want on their team now and/or in the future. Leaders often choose people they know to be on their teams and these individual often follow them throughout their career at Amex, getting promoted as their 'sponsor' gets promoted. What's challenging is that there is not always a correlation to that person being the best, most suited talent to get promoted and so you find some really smart people who despite having the chops, never reach the level in the organization that would truly mirror the value they bring. Naturally many of these people eventually leave the company out of this frustration, though primarily they enjoyed the work and the challenges that working at American Express can bring from an enrichment standpoint.
The other major challenge is that while there are a bevy of really smart, talented individuals, the quality of leadership is lacking. Many leaders simply don't know how to inspire their teams, enhance their employees' strengths, and set the tone for a collaborative, positive working environment. Likewise, the culture can vary greatly by business unit. It can be shocking, the variability in culture, particularly since recruiting is done from the same suite of schools where there is typically some uniformity in culture-type, it's not like most of these individuals come in as bad apples. The problem lies in the top down leadership, poor leadership behavior that is 'bestowed' upon employees to adopt and emulate. This is in stark contrast to Amex's CEO, who has charisma leaping off of him and recognizes, celebrates, and inspires people at all levels. He's an individual that you immediately feel genuinely welcomed and respected by...but it doesn't trickle far past him (by and large) to senior leadership, which is quite a disappointment. People leave Amex either because of the challenges of moving up or a leader who makes what could be a cool gig if you will, miserable or a chore to come into every day. A change up in senior leadership, many who have been with the company for far far too long, could bring in some new blood that welcomes Amex's storied history in a forward looking, game-changing, and inspiring leadership way.
