President of Enterprise Shared Services, American Express
Search every verified Denise Pickett interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Denise Pickett, President of Enterprise Shared Services at American Express, has shared leadership advice in a 2016 interview. She stated that a leader fails when they prioritize their own success over their people's, and emphasized the importance of developing others, building followership, and empowering employees rather than micromanaging. Pickett defined success as balancing the expectations of employees, customers, and shareholders while staying true to one's values, and advised young professionals to focus on skill development rather than job titles. In a 2016 sermon, Rev. Denise Pickett discussed the cost of discipleship, referencing biblical passages about prioritizing one's commitment to Jesus over family ties and possessions. She contrasted "cheap grace" with a more demanding faith, describing discipleship as involving love for others and perseverance through trials.
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate even wife and children cannot be my disciple.”
“Therefore none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
“Which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough?”
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.”
“Whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
“Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is loving your sister and brother, loving God with your whole heart, loving even from trials and tribulations.”
“I need to be first; I need to be the priority in life.”
“I think the key to being successful as a leader is the minute you start caring more about your own success than your people's you really do fail as a leader — you have to have a real genuine care for developing people and wanting them to be successful if you expect them to be motivated.”
“My name is Denise Pickett, president of U.S. Consumer Services, American Express — I define success as the sweet spot between exceeding expectations of your employees, your customers and your shareholders, and staying true to your values.”
“The way to be successful is if all the really great people want to work for you — it makes your job that much easier because you've built great followership over the years, so for me it's all about building followership.”
“I think the way to motivate is first have a mission-driven culture — people have to want to get up every day and come in and know why they're doing the work for the company that they are.”
“You have to empower people — you can't micromanage and be in there making all the decisions, or frankly you won't grow leaders yourself.”
“The best advice I can give to young professionals is make sure that you chase skill development and not levels — move business units, work for different leaders, volunteer for the tough tasks and really develop your skills and the levels will follow you.”
Denise Pickett is a dedicated Educational Assistant who works at Gordon B. Attersley Public School, and she loves her job.
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