Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The purpose of the IT Leaders Council is to bring together IT Directors and Managers for leadership training, educational content from guest speakers, and peer discussions in a vendor-free, collaborative environment. IT Leaders Councils are currently offered in Indianapolis, IN and Columbus, OH, with more cities coming soon!
00;00;00;16 - 00;00;30;06
Unknown
So I'm Stefan Flula. I'm the the chief information officer at First Merchant's Bank. What I'm going to do today is kind of just walk through my journey as a leader at first merchants. I've been there for 23 years. You know, when you think about 23 years, it's a it's a really long time. I have four kids, 25, 25, 21 and 20.
00;00;30;08 - 00;00;58;19
Unknown
And I will tell you that the time goes by pretty fast. So the whole idea today is I'm going to tell you one story. It's my story. What's got me kind of here? And then talk about where here is and where tomorrow needs to needs to be. And it begins and ends with my opportunity to be able to grow and meet the challenges being at this company for for this long.
00;00;58;22 - 00;01;22;18
Unknown
So I just want to be clear. There are no easy answers and anything I'm going to say. Okay. First off, I don't pretend to have the answers. I'm just sharing a perspective with you today. Doug and I have had a talk over the years about me participating in this. I'm going to talk with you, and I'm going to be vulnerable with you today.
00;01;22;20 - 00;01;51;12
Unknown
So I stand in front of you as an introvert. I had a little bit of anxiety coming in here today because I'm just not a public type speaker. When you get me talking about a subject that relates to the work, I love it. I am able to get things done. And I'm going to talk to you about the journey from what I did, where I come from and my unique perspective and story.
00;01;51;12 - 00;02;15;23
Unknown
But every one of us have a stories, a story, and every company is unique in and of itself. So again, today is not pretending to have a command of the answers. It's sharing one perspective. So when I talk about the company, because that's the context that I've been within. And then I'm going to talk about me, where I came from.
00;02;15;26 - 00;02;50;28
Unknown
I'm going to talk about my tendencies because the whole idea here is I didn't grow up through from a career perspective, through traditional doing I.T. things. As an 80 professional, I didn't come up through infrastructure, I didn't come up through data. I didn't come up through software dev. It's a pretty interesting story. And it's it's different. And to whatever extent that's beneficial, a great but every one of you have an opportunity to to understand who you are, how you affect others, and how you can lead change.
00;02;51;00 - 00;03;18;25
Unknown
So I'll talk about the company. I'll talk about me, my journey and some of the things that I've learned, and then we'll get to kind of Q&A. So this is the Vision mission and our team statement for our company. I'll talk later about in 2021, we had a long term CFO that migrated to be our CEO. And I'll be candid, that's probably when my leadership journey really began.
00;03;18;27 - 00;03;39;09
Unknown
And that's not too long ago. Up until that point, it was grit making it happen, using a business strategy that was low cost. And I'll talk a little bit about that. But I start with this only because our CEO, which is why I'm at the company, I believe in him. I think he's a character individual that I don't think it gets any better.
00;03;39;09 - 00;04;09;22
Unknown
And they say people stay with companies because they believe in people and people leave companies because they're leaving people right? Because companies are a collection of individuals. And that that collection of individuals, it's called a culture. So our start with us because he's very principle centered as a leader and therefore it's provided me with the discomfort of having to go through from what got me here to be able to make sure that I'm looking forward.
00;04;09;22 - 00;04;33;06
Unknown
And in 2021, I'm going to there's going to be a chart that I go over when he became CEO and we changed, quite frankly, our technology strategy to fit where the business was going. And we transition from a low cost internal provider to a stance of trying to optimize the business. And we're coming in at the end of a three year journey.
00;04;33;06 - 00;04;58;21
Unknown
And I'll tell you, it's really difficult stuff, but I'll I'll talk a little bit about that. But that's the strategic object imperatives right here is candidly what drives our company. And this is our company. We're a bank. We're about the 130th largest bank in the country. There's about 4300 banks in the country and put aside credit unions. It's a different kind of business model.
00;04;58;23 - 00;05;26;21
Unknown
We're across four states and we're 18 billion in assets. And, you know, we're headquartered in Muncie, Indiana, and we're traded on Nasdaq. So it's a pretty unique thing. And our our CEO, Mark Hardwick, is from the Muncie, the Muncie area. And so really smart guy. But this is our company, 118 banking centers. And as you can see, where all the little dots are.
00;05;26;23 - 00;05;50;11
Unknown
And over the course of time, we've been highly acquisitive. This is our strategy. We are a commercial bank. We have 118 banking centers. We have a pretty big mortgage operation. We generate about 1.5 billion of mortgages a year. And as you know, with rates going up, that business has kind of shrunk a little bit. And then we have private wealth advisors.
00;05;50;18 - 00;06;31;25
Unknown
And the way I think about that is as we serve businesses generating value in a community, there's wealth that's generated and the true relationship connection between the owners of those businesses and a positive financial institution focused on the communities that we serve. Wealth is accumulated and therefore the relationships that you have with the principals of those businesses, you want to also then be able to help them curate that wealth, grow that wealth, and in some cases help with the philanthropic nature of of of what occurs as you kind of go up that stratosphere.
00;06;31;27 - 00;07;07;17
Unknown
So I'm going to sit here for a minute. So it's kind of interesting. I'll talk a little bit more about this, but I joined the bank on June 29th of of 2000. I'll talk a little bit about where I came from and who I am. But I walked into this and I had a primary role in the M&A execution, created the playbook.
00;07;07;19 - 00;07;37;18
Unknown
This Apex event right here turned into a career opportunity. I was a part of the company here in a underwriting role, not really in a leadership role in I.T.. I then migrated into the I'll talk about this in a minute, but this is really important context. This this event right here was an apex event where we had a change in in technology leadership.
00;07;37;20 - 00;08;00;19
Unknown
We came out of that and I had the opportunity. The CEO provided an opportunity. So I had created the project office, the PMO. And he said as we came out of this, it could have gone a little bit better. He said, Hey, the only thing we're going to change is technology. So either you go run technology or you don't have an opportunity.
00;08;00;19 - 00;08;21;23
Unknown
So I guess I'll go run technology that I know how to run technology. No, I had I had a leadership position prior to that. There was anywhere near that opportunity. No, but he believed in my ability to be able to take the company to the next level on what it needed to be able to to help make technology better.
00;08;21;23 - 00;08;46;09
Unknown
And that was the apex of how I got into really the technology business. So and I'll talk a little about the journey there, but then from that point, my role as a owner of the PMO and of technology and I'll just talk about it functionally, was I was I was instrumental in all of this playbook up until now.
00;08;46;11 - 00;09;20;27
Unknown
And so I'll talk a little bit more about some context there. But when you think about that heavily acquisitive company and then you look at the growth and in the banking business, you're measured by your your assets, your total assets. So we were when I joined the company in 2000, we were 1.8 billion. Now we're 18. The technology team is about 100 and the technology team is about 130.
00;09;20;27 - 00;09;49;03
Unknown
The PMO is about 13 people, so it's about 150 folks, roughly primarily in technology. But when you're part of a company like this and you're having to do a job to be an individual contributor, to be a manager, to be a leader in the in the middle of what I would say is a fixed cost, best effort, low cost strategy.
00;09;49;06 - 00;10;16;22
Unknown
Grit is created right? I have a couple of individuals that I gave really big opportunities over the years. One of them's Mike Butler. I'm really proud of Mike Butler plucked him. He was a he was an intern. He joined the company. He moved on last year down into this community and just recently took another opportunity. But he was one of the young folks.
00;10;16;22 - 00;10;38;00
Unknown
I gave a really big stretch opportunity and he's better for it. Love the guy to death, but he's one of the smartest people that I know. So I gave a ton of opportunity to younger individuals that didn't have the experience, and I had to make a bet on character and commitment and grit. And we move mountains in this time right here.
00;10;38;02 - 00;11;07;03
Unknown
That strategy worked until it got to 2021. And I'll talk a little bit more about what happened in 2021. But this growth of ten X over 23 years, there's not a day that goes by where I don't think about 23 years at a company. I think, Ken, you and I were talking earlier about was there there must have been a moment over those 23 years where I was like, I'd like a different challenge.
00;11;07;06 - 00;11;38;22
Unknown
And the answer is we had all the challenges that we needed to get through there. And one of the biggest ones that I kind of learned in 21 as we made a big strategic shift was that leadership is really critical and it's a little squishy. But my goodness, it's just significantly important. So about me, I was born and raised in Paradise, Saint John and the Virgin Islands.
00;11;38;24 - 00;12;05;03
Unknown
Now you're asking yourself why you. Why are you in Indiana? Well, I moved from from Saint John. My mom. My mom's a native. She still lives there. So I can at any time up and just move home and live in paradise. Retirement homes paid off, you know? So I'm just to the point where I don't have any yearning to think that paradise is a place because I was born and raised in paradise.
00;12;05;03 - 00;12;31;03
Unknown
And then I built a house in in Muncie, Indiana, back in 2010 or something. Right next to a field of corn. And people are wondering, like, why did you make that choice? Well, you know, from my perspective, it's really about what's important to you. And it's not about perception. It's not about any of that stuff. I wanted my children not to not to be raised in an island.
00;12;31;06 - 00;12;52;23
Unknown
And Saint John is one of three Virgin Islands, and it's a U.S. territory. But I came stateside and I went through them from Saint John to Augusta, Georgia, to Miami, Florida, to Tampa, Florida, to Saint Louis, Missouri. And then in June or in 2000, I ended up in Muncie, Indiana, at the small, sleepy bank. I couldn't get a job.
00;12;52;23 - 00;13;14;02
Unknown
I took a 30% pay cut in June of 2000 to go spread financial statements, which was a five year regression in my career. But again, back to what I talked about in terms of where I kind of came from is I have an undergrad, any kind of finance and a general MBA. I don't have not one certification, Not one.
00;13;14;04 - 00;13;34;22
Unknown
And what I learned when I took over I.T. is to be a manager or a leader. You just need to know who to hire, who to move on, and to rely on those individuals and their character. And the certifications are nice. I took the 5 to 5 day boot camp however many decades ago to get to PMP, and I never took the test.
00;13;34;24 - 00;14;57;04
Unknown
But I love project management is kind of what I do. Been here for 23 years, talked about the PMO leadership can be squishy, it's very valuable and to culture and productivity. It is very challenging these days because I've been doing this for so long to think that I have to do such simple things that are so critical to my role.
00;14;57;04 - 00;15;18;05
Unknown
And I'm sitting there going, I remember the days where I did the work. While the work is different now, you have to accept that journey and know you have to give your team what they need. For example, for the first time in 23 years, this is going to shock you. And I'm I'm just going to be honest. I brought all 150 people together physically and virtually last week and have to sit on the stage all day and talk about stuff.
00;15;18;05 - 00;15;42;18
Unknown
I think I enjoyed that, did not enjoy it, but I had to do it for them, not for me. And so I haven't done that in all those years. I've done it different ways virtually and whatnot, but my comfort zone is no longer work and set. I have to think about what my team needs, what the company needs, and then part of what I've committed to the CEO is we have 15 folks on the executive team.
00;15;42;21 - 00;16;09;28
Unknown
My role has to be central to creating the glue across the executive team. Relationships matter and you have to do that in a way that's authentic, collaborative and obviously driven. Do things that make you feel uncomfortable, discomfort thanks to facilitate growth. Does anybody know anyone that's won the lottery or won an inheritance? That's a better person because of that positive event?
00;16;10;00 - 00;16;34;02
Unknown
Nobody. Growth and evolution into a better human being comes from strife. And we won't talk about my divorces in that at all. Relationships matter and surely is the only thing that makes it worth it. I've been married to my wife for 13 years. She's made me better. My wife is smarter than me. She's a midwife at Community North and I love who she is.
00;16;34;02 - 00;16;58;11
Unknown
And we're on a growth journey together. And then I stand up here having mastered nothing. And the journey continues. Up at the right is a little Phil Jackson quote, Surrender to me for the week. I think it's really awesome. Doug, do we have time for questions? We have time for questions. Any questions first? Yes, sir. So you reminded me of what for the one person who needs to deliver that.
00;16;58;13 - 00;17;25;22
Unknown
I'm sorry, the 1% rule. I've heard it, but walk through it for us speaks to your topic. So 1% rule is about its mission, about your own need. Yeah. Have a group mindset. Yes. It's a simple mathematical formula that we are here to do good. So every day you do 1%? Yes. If you do the math, you no one needs to pay 65.
00;17;25;22 - 00;17;48;06
Unknown
You reach up to 3747, which means that I want to do better 1% per day, 37 times better after a year. Yeah. You know what? Let's be realistic. This is what I have. My team's unique or not that growth mindset so that you may feel and that's okay, but it made you better. So you know what you need to do for tomorrow.
00;17;48;08 - 00;18;08;23
Unknown
Maybe you'll end up in 50% better, right? Definitely better than that fixed mindset that you were born. That's the type of people you want in your team, not the one that's any idea how to do the same thing for 20 years because you're not feeling it does not exist. Yeah. And the one thing I would add to that is to say that it does.
00;18;08;23 - 00;18;30;24
Unknown
We have about six employee resource groups that covers various different components. We have a people are color, we have an LBGTQ hue. And remember, these are not political statements. It's about understanding that we want folks to bring their authentic selves to work. It does take a diverse team to be able to do that because you do need some of those steady eddies to be on the team.
00;18;30;29 - 00;18;52;18
Unknown
But your point is to be able to build culture. It's really critical. And the last thing I'll say before we get to other questions, leadership making a difference in people's lives is just like starting a workout routine. You go to the gym the first day, you see nothing, then you get down the road to X number of weeks and then you start seeing some benefit.
00;18;52;21 - 00;19;20;24
Unknown
Kind of like feels just like parenting, except when do you get the benefit anyway? What are the questions? Yes, sir. So on your left, like you had relationships matter? Yes. What tips that you have for improving a relationship with someone like a stakeholder who's antagonistic to I.T or your project? Great question. Have courage. Sit down and approach that individual.
00;19;20;26 - 00;19;51;14
Unknown
Put your ego aside and ask What can I do better? And listen and listen. We suck. We collectively. I'm not going to point out men, but we tend we tend to sit down and seek out constructive feedback and we don't really listen and we kind of get into rationalization. So I would just say, have an open heart. Listen, ask exploratory questions, seek to understand, not be understood and get that feedback and then make some commitment.
00;19;51;17 - 00;20;10;09
Unknown
Because the best way to growth is to make commitments to other people. Like I just was on the phone yesterday where I had to tell and one of one of the gentleman that runs one of our lines of business, I let you down on something. They got to make it right. You just have to be comfortable being human.
00;20;10;12 - 00;20;38;15
Unknown
So that's what I would say is just be authentic and be vulnerable and make some commitments and follow through. Any other questions? What what do you guys thoughts? I mean, you mean give me some feedback. Give me give me some perspective on does any of this resonate? This is very nice. If it resonated with me, that's kind of what I'm going through right now as a manager, taking over.
00;20;38;17 - 00;21;14;25
Unknown
You know, I I've been in IT support for a long time. I'm moving into operational support with network operations. The different caliber of talents and their expectations. They'll challenge you way more than Yes. And I've I've gone from being very careful and seem to know all the solutions I support to being kind of a fish out of water, but priding myself and being able to manage people but have been going from a fixed mindset to being one of growth, It's something I'm having to switch more and more to.
00;21;14;27 - 00;21;48;04
Unknown
Yeah, what I what I still struggle with is trusting others to do it, hoping that they'll do it to a level of satisfaction like I would do it. I'm still not good and I guess I've done it. And then there are times I have regrets, but I know the journey of where I'm at right now is I have to grow the people that I rely on and have to play the long game more than I worry about what I need right now, because that represents an opportunity for them.
00;21;48;08 - 00;22;13;29
Unknown
And then if you're fortunate, like me and over the years you've had, you know, Mike Butler was one of them. And I have another young and a younger individual that works for me. They constantly challenge me on stuff, right? And it used to be okay until it got to the point of like, okay, now let's talk about like, hey, I can help but their lines, let's talk about how you can help me better as you're trying to make things better.
00;22;13;29 - 00;22;35;01
Unknown
And you have to get into the validation of our role as leaders, managers, whatever you wherever you live in that echelon, you have to know your goal. You're there to support them because they're the ones closer to the work and they're people they got to do it. It's no longer about like what you need. It's about what they need because you have to multiply yourself because you're a leader.
00;22;35;01 - 00;23;09;13
Unknown
Now. So yeah. Doug, final questions. One last thing I want to say. Not yet, but earlier on in your presentation was shifting more into, you know, look at the person individually. You know, do they seem authentic or are they genuine? You know, you want to recruit people with a good personality. And early on I reported the shame for years, and I look for people with the best resume and hang out.
00;23;09;15 - 00;23;38;25
Unknown
Yeah. So I decided everybody in here has a story. Yeah. About like, who's the best fit, the cultural fit. And that's worked out really well. Absolutely. I will tell you. And so I have one role. I'm not going to say what it is. I have one role that I've been through the most number of direct reports, and it's simply because that role is critical to what I do.
00;23;38;25 - 00;23;59;08
Unknown
And I need a partner. And I had one individual that that that worked in an in a military type setting before I came to the group. But the great resume, a great story. And the challenge was he wasn't willing to be a partner with me. And I'm like, and the resume was awesome, interviewed great. And I'm like, I need a partner.
00;23;59;08 - 00;24;14;28
Unknown
Well, I'm the director of so and so, like, you know, And I'm and it got to the point you sat down with the other leaders and got feedback and refused to literally validate their feedback in any way. And I'm like, you can't go get the feedback and then not incorporate it because you think I have all the answers.
00;24;15;05 - 00;24;33;18
Unknown
You're not going to connect to them. You're not going to let them know that, that they matter. And so I continue to work on that. But cultural fits are really critical and I try not to look at a resume and fall in love with it because it's just the path of disappointment. So. Doug Fine, thank you. But.