Faith in the Faculty with Lloyd Naylor

Our Faculty’s Religion and Beliefs Equity Lead, Annouchka Sterling, has created a blog called ‘Faith in the Faculty’ where she asks staff members interesting questions about their personal relationship with their religion and beliefs, and how it influences their roles at UCL.

Lloyd Naylor, Customer Operations Director, ISD (& Mohammed’s line manager)

• Who is Lloyd Naylor? Three words to best describe you…

Curious, optimistic, consistent

• What life lesson have you learnt since the pandemic?

The more diverse the groups of people you talk and work with, the better formed and informed your decisions will be, you’ll have more impact as a collective.

• How would you explain your work to a young person?

To my kids, “lot’s of meetings on how we can make UCL better through tech”.

To people I meet “I work for UCL”. It’s the first time in my career that I felt an organisation did so much good that working there was enough description.

• Tell us something about yourself that would surprise us?

I love looking after bonsai trees, it’s restful, fulfilling and provides respite from looking after the kids.

Someone I told this to a few years back interrupted with “You even have to control what happens to trees” – very insulted!

• What’s your faith background, if you have one? How did you grow up?

My mother was a Christian, she didn’t go to Church very often, but did hold a strong belief. Surprisingly, she didn’t want to indoctrinate her 4 children, so didn’t have my brother and sisters christened, preferring to let them decide for themselves later in life. I’d have been in the same position as my siblings if it weren’t for a serious early childhood illness, the doctors told my mother there was a high chance of death, so she had me christened.

Though I was christened, I’ve turned out like my siblings, not aligned to any religion. All four of us put great value in doing the right things for other people and society, which is an aspect I see in most religions. I do spend time meditating, which helps me reflect, creates tranquillity, and helps me process things clearly.

• How do your values and/or faith impact your citizenship of UCL?

I try really hard to conduct myself with a high level of empathy, I genuinely want to know others’ opinions, thoughts and how they feel. This provides a real human connection which is valuable for me, and hopefully for them too. The phrase “walk a mile in their shoes” goes through my head often.

• What is your highest aspiration for interfaith cooperation at UCL?

For individuals that want to discuss their beliefs to have a forum and/or place where they feel able to do so with likeminded, caring and curious people for the betterment of everyone involved.

This doesn’t sound very aspirational, but I’ve struggled to do this, probably through some of my own nervousness, so small steps, right?!

• Tell us how being open to/open about faith and spirituality with your colleague/line manager has impacted your working relationship?

I’ve learnt lots about not only my colleagues’ faith, but also other faiths, as our conversations have tweaked both of our curiosities. I feel we can discuss many subjects, not only faith, at a far less superficial level as we have got the biggie under our belts already.

There’s a weight off my shoulders, as I don’t feel like I need to skirt around the subject of faith due to unfounded concerns about how he would respond or making him uncomfortable. I hope this makes me a better manager.