Business Experience
Regions Bank (4.5 years)
In 2007 right before the financial crisis hit, I started working at Regions Bank. They hired me to be a branch manager, but since I had no banking experience, I was put into their Retail Leadership Development Program. Six months into this Fourteen month program, I was given my first branch. It was the Oxmoor Valley Branch. For a long time this office had ranked at the bottom of the list of the 2,500 total branches in the company. It was my mission to turn it around and quickly.
The branch environment in the banking industry is a sales focus. And at Regions, it was a high pressure sales job. I had to take a team that ranked the lowest in the company in both sales and customer service and turn them around quickly. Within the next twelve months, Oxmoor Valley became one of the top ten offices in the company. I led that office for two and a half years, Each year they reached Chairman’s Club, the highest award in the company given to those performing in the top fifteen percent.
From there, I was moved to a much larger office, the Greensprings Valley Branch, and within a month I was given the Greensprings Carr Branch also. Both branches had been performing poorly. My approach to leadership and strategy to turn things around had been honed at my previous branch, so we were able to make the turn around much quicker at these two offices. Both offices became Chairman’s Club branches, and I was soon recruited to a higher position at a competitor bank.
Cadence Bank (4.5 years)
I started at Cadence at the beginning of 2012 as the Regional Executive for North Alabama responsible for eleven branch offices. Within the next few months, my region became the top performing region in the company. Eight months into this role I was given a new mission. Because of my success training and coaching my managers to serve small business, which is where the bulk of our growth had come, I was tasked to start a new line of business in the bank focussed on small business banking. My responsibilities were to coach and train the other regional executives and their branch managers to serve small businesses. Additionally, I was to build small business sales teams in all of the metropolitan cities in our footprint (Houston, Birmingham, Memphis, and Tampa) that would report directly to me.
Over the next few years, this small business emphasis would have a big impact on the retail side of the bank. The sales team grew a portfolio of a hundred and fifty million in assets, 150% percent of our goal. And sales growth for the branches increased by 40%.
One year into my time in this small business role, the leader of our Mississippi and Tennessee branches moved to another bank. I was asked to take this responsibility in addition to my current job. Mississippi and Tennessee, a total of twenty branches, had been performing poorly for quite some time and were in desperate need for a turn around. Within the next year, we were able to turn these branches into a much higher level of performance and consistency.
Lessons Learned in Banking
The whole time I was in banking I was praying and asking God to please put me back in full-time ministry. Although I knew the Lord was using this experience to equip and prepare me for the ministry to which He had called me. It is obvious that this time helped to grow key business skills, but the major learning was in the area of leadership, strategy, and people development. This growth began at the small level in an individual office, and grew to a very high level across six states and several hundred people.
The Lord taught me to invest in people, to see their potential, and to help them achieve much more than they might have ever thought possible. It is the mission of a leader to have a clear and communicated vision, then to build and develop the team to achieve that vision. It is not just about that singular vision. A Godward leader is investing in their people, seeking to lead them deeper in their walk with the Lord, helping them clarify the real passion in their heart and gifting on their life, and then working with them to be on a path to reach their fullest potential for their life and the Kingdom. This is true in the business world and leading the local church. In the business world, it is a missional mindset, in the church it is a discipleship mindset.
I’m thankful to the Lord for this invaluable experience, and I look forward to utilizing these skills and experience to help lead God’s people to abundant Kingdom fruitfulness.
