What 2020 has taught me as a leader

If you would’ve asked me three years ago when I became President & CEO of Valley: What are some of the challenges you expect to face? I would’ve talked about the rise of FinTechs, the advancement of money center banks, the growing income gap affecting communities, and so on.

Pandemic? Definitely not top of mind. Yet, here we are.

I’m not going to rehash things we experienced in 2020. All of us faced different personal and professional challenges. But I certainly grew a lot this year as a leader, and I want to share with you what I learned.

1.    Trust is paramount to success

Back in March, when we had to make big decisions quickly to ensure the safety and well-being of our customers and associates, I’ll admit – I was nervous.

• Could we ensure the safety of our people and customers?
•  Could we pull off a massive overnight switch to remote working? 
• Would we be able to serve all our customers’ needs?
• Could we keep our workforce motivated while at home?

As a leader, you need to have trust in your people—and it starts right with your leadership team. Over the past few years, we’ve been working tirelessly to build an organization that’s more agile and nimble. We’ve updated our technology, facilities, and policies. We’ve evolved our culture to align with the direction we’re taking the organization. We’ve brought in new people with fresh ideas and perspectives. We’ve invested in training and ensuring our associates were up-to-speed on the latest technology and trends.

So, back in March, it was clear to me—we were ready. All the hard work done by so many people suddenly became invaluable.

2.    Confidence is a necessity

When the floodgates of Paycheck Protection Program funding opened for small businesses, we knew we had to be there for our customers and communities. None of this could’ve been handled by me or our leadership team alone. We had to have confidence in our workforce—many of which had never worked with each other before and were scattered at home across multiple states. But that didn’t matter, because they stepped up when they needed to.

When you’ve established trust, confidence comes easy. When that confidence is felt throughout your organization, you empower people to do amazing things. And that’s what our people did, helping more than 10,000 business owners, administering over $2 billion in PPP funds, and saving more than 200,000 jobs. What we accomplished was three times what our market share would have reflected, which is truly inspiring.

3.    Resilience leads to innovation

Innovation is not all about technology. It’s also about finding new, better ways of delivering an experience and designing new processes that can create efficiency. This year, when everything shifted and changed across the organization, we needed people to be resilient—and that resilience has manifested into a more innovative culture than I’ve ever seen at Valley.

I witnessed a new, more agile workforce born out of adversity; one that has led to new ideas that will change the way our customers engage with Valley, that have broken down silos across the Bank, and have opened the doors for new business opportunities. None of this could’ve been possible without first having trust and confidence in people. People drive innovation, and innovation powers organizations forward.

4.    Listening is what’s expected of you

As a leader, it’s easy to try and tackle big decisions by yourself—especially during challenging times. You feel that burden on your shoulders. But sometimes it can be more difficult to take a step back, listen to what people have to say, and remember that everyone is doing their best.

I learned that listening and being supportive was so much more important than any quick decision I could make. But then again, I’m the lucky one. Because I trusted our leaders, had confidence in our people, and believed in everyone’s resilience.

Time to move forward, together

We’re about to put 2020 behind us. But, 2020 is really just a number. The challenges we faced this year won’t disappear. We still have much to overcome in the new year—and we will. Because if we work together, continue to believe in ourselves and focus on doing what’s right for each other, we’ll turn a new page.

This time next year, I believe, we’ll be celebrating the end of 2021 not as a year we can’t wait to end—but as a year where we celebrate how we rose up and trudged a new path forward.