When faced with an unknown, one can either embrace what comes as an opportunity — or wallow in angst. Highland Bank’s Director of Operations, Sue Lee, prefers the former.
Lee had been branch manager at Ridgedale State Bank in 2008 when she learned it was being acquired by St. Paul, Minn.-based Highland Bank. “I was personally excited, because the organization was larger and I could have more opportunities to learn and get involved in things I hadn’t done before,” she reflected.
That time continues to inform Lee as Highland has pursued growth by acquisition, including most recently when it acquired Ely, Minn.-based Boundary Waters Bank, a deal that closed a few months ago. “I knew it was important to communicate that enthusiasm to the team at BWB,” Lee said. “To help them know that because Highland is a family-owned bank that truly cares about its employees, they weren’t going to just be a number. They were going to have a voice.”
In both cases, Highland brought customers of the old bank some new tech solutions along with that high-touch service, something that excites Lee, one of several women honored this month as a BankBeat “Outstanding Woman in Banking.” The biggest additions? Real time transactions, cash recyclers and teller scanning.
“As far as I know, customers are responding,” Lee said. In fact, one customer recognized a customer service representative by name, commenting on the “courteous service and knowledge” with which he’d been provided.
With six direct reports and leading a team of 28 people, Lee oversees deposit and loan operations, wire and ACH, and customer service. The customer service team is particularly critical when it comes to onboarding new customers through acquisition.
Lee served as project manager for the merger transition plan, said Kathy Wachter, head of marketing and public relations at Highland Bank. “Sue and her team have worked through technical conversion mapping, testing, training and communicating,” Wachter reported. “The changes she has implemented have created possibilities for employees to learn and grow professionally and has enabled Highland to serve its communities with branch locations that are responsive to the way customers prefer to engage with their bank.”
Staying up-to-speed on customer preferences has led Lee, with a professional history skewed toward operations, to apply her project management skills to unexpected tasks, such as construction and remodeling. In 2016, her introduction to bank design and remodeling came as Highland modernized its flagship St. Paul office, which looked very much like one might expect a 1990s bank to look. “You’d walk through the front door and you had to cross this vast expanse of granite flooring to even reach a teller,” Lee explained. “We knew banking wasn’t conducted that way any longer.”
To gain insights into transaction technology and customer preferences, Lee relied heavily on banking peers, industry webinars, and Minnesota Bankers Association conferences. She also needed to learn the language of construction, since her experience with remodeling was limited to home projects, including how to best manage contractors (and teach them why banks are organized the way they are). For that knowledge, she turned to the bank’s commercial lenders active in CRE. What she did in St. Paul worked, and Lee was selected to spearhead a multi-year initiative that included extensive remodeling at the other Minnesota branches: An office in Bloomington and new construction in Minnetonka, Maple Grove and St. Michael.
Keeping it all organized requires Lee to take copious notes, communicate and meet deadlines, and be available to her team. “You have to be able to communicate with them,” she said. “And give them the tools and resources to succeed.”
Just like she was given what she needed when she was still a branch manager looking for new challenges. Lee was selected to be a participant in the selection and implementation of a loan processing tool called Decision Pro. “This was my first entry into a large project. I was able to see how project management plays out, from choosing a vendor to developing a system the way the bank needed it to work, to developing a training program,” she said. Whether learning by seeing or learning by doing, or both, Lee isn’t afraid to jump in.
But she’s also committed to the communications piece. “You can roll out any product you want, but you have to communicate to the customer why you are doing it, or why they need it,” she said. Putting all the pieces in place requires a team, and Lee is quick to credit hers. “I could never accomplish what I [do] without the support of my direct team members and other departments, as well as the president and CEO.”