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Servant Leadership—The Wachovia Experience of Employee Engagement
By Vina R Sy Santos
“We want to be the best most trusted and admired company
in the financial services industry”
Ken Thomson,
Chairman, CEO and President
The Wachovia Corporation
In a recent message delivered during a John Clements conference, Kirk Bare (Senior Vice President of Wachovia) spoke about the success brought about by servant leadership, which involves removing the obstacles to your team’s success. Wachovia is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and is the fourth-largest bank holding company based on assets.
Mr. Bare has been with the bank for 27 years and has held a number of positions in merger and acquisitions as well as retail lending. In response to the question, “Why the Philippines?” he graciously replied that this was due to how respectful Filipinos are and the fact that they have a good understanding of the American culture.
The audience felt the surge of pride that Kirk felt in describing Wachovia—it’s the second-largest brokerage (after Merrill Lynch), ninth-largest automobile lender, and has been number one in Customer Service (Financial Services) over the last six years. The bank has received a lot of recognition for being an employer of choice for diversity, being a great place to work, a well managed and inclusive company. Mr. Bare attributes this to the fact that they make strategic business decisions based on the Corporate Values.
What Works
Mr. Bare commented that success starts with a company’s employees, he stressed that happy, engaged employees treat customers well. This eventually impacts financial performance. He added the importance of shared successes, and making a big deal about them and being thoughtful enough to appreciate the team. Such a focus has helped Wachovia become best in class for employee loyalty.
He also spoke of servant leadership, and how removing obstacles to the team’s success has a significant effect. Mr. Bare pointed out that this could start with something small—such as paying attention to the needs of new employees, and shared an experience of making sure that new team members had materials in their work station for displaying photos of their loved ones so that they would feel at home. This should be complemented by the successful management of various processes.
Asked what he felt were drivers to their success, he replied that these would be growth and leaders that live the core values (diversity and employee engagement). He mentioned that having culture surveys are also helpful.
What It Means To Be With Wachovia
A slide in Mr. Bare’s presentation that made a significant impact on his audience; it indicated that the culture of an organization is made up of the vision, values, beliefs and attitudes of its employees. At Wachovia, it read, the work culture strives to provide superior customer service to the clients and communities that it serves. It ends with “Wachovia’s visions and core values are more than just words. They are the foundation on which we are building the best financial services company there can be.”
The group was impressed with how Wachovia aligns its values with its business priorities. Its strong commitment to customer satisfaction and loyalty and delivering a meaningful and distinctive customer experience is the key to its success. As such, their employees focus on “Delivering the Wachovia Experience.”
Next time you go to your favorite place, Kirk Bare suggests, look at how the people working there interact with each other and see if this has an effect on your experience as a customer. Do they deliver?
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