Teams matter. Nothing we do we really do on our own.

July 13, 1987—my first day at a new job. I remember walking into the Wells Fargo office at 525 California Street in San Francisco wearing a stuffy suit with an uncomfortable tie and equally uncomfortable dress shoes, not really knowing what I was about to get myself into. Clearly, it panned out well, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here writing to you all.

In that office three decades ago, I started doing white collar work. Something completely different from managing a tavern or working in a restaurant. When you prepare food or fill pint glasses, you can see your work. When you forecast the balance sheet or try to enhance a business process, success is not as easy to define. I figured the best way to learn was to ask a ton of questions and listen to everyone around me. Over the next few years, I came to the realization that, just like in the tavern, success at work required working as a team and focusing on the customer, and that change was relatively constant.

Over the next few years, I went from an individual contributor to a manager of small groups of employees. Managing people was somewhat of a new experience. No lessons in a classroom really prepare you for people management. At the beginning, I did most of it from a ‘common sense’ point of view. 

A few years later, I began reporting to a new person, Pat, an accomplished manager and a true leader. That first day, she came in and asked me what I did and how I did it. No problem. The second day, she came in and asked more questions. Now I began wondering if maybe I wasn’t doing something right. No one had ever asked me to explain exactly what I was doing. The third day she came in, and before she could ask more questions, I asked her why she had so many. 

Her answer: I want to understand what you are doing so I can make sure I’m doing everything I can to help you succeed.

Best leadership lesson I ever received. It’s not about me, it’s about everyone around me and how we all make things happen together. The true leader knows we all do important but different things, and it is all of us together that deliver exceptional experiences. 

I tell people all the time that nothing we do is ever really done on our own. From the beginning, it has been the collective efforts of all the richly diverse team members I’ve worked with these past 31 years that have spawned some of the most game-changing innovations in the financial services industry. Be it online banking (yes, Wells Fargo did it first, not a startup), or the CEO Portal for commercial customers, or CEO Mobile, the next iteration of the CEO Portal for mobile. It took teams of talented people, who all believed in challenging the norms, in order to create an incredible and lasting customer experience.

As I look into my next journey – the retirement one, I have rich memories of all the folks I have interacted with, and I know my team will continue to make each other better by challenging one another and lead innovation on behalf of the bank. Teamwork is about building connections that not only help you reach an end goal, but provide support and guidance along the way.

The most valuable part of our business—our people—is what I’ll miss most.