Its Saturday November 25th, 11:15 am in Fort Worth Texas and I am
interviewing Mike Pavell the president of Bank of America Fort Worth.What part of your personal biography or background led you to this position?
Well, really, it was just a number of circumstances or events that led me to the
position. I had moved from Dallas to fort worth for a new role with the bank and a few months after being here, the then current president announced that she was retiring and they needed a new market president for fort worth, and given my background of being a TCU graduate and being involved in Fort worth it made sense for the bank to consider me for that role.What experiences have most shaped you as a leader?
I think the experiences when there's difficult or unknown situations are the
ones that shape us most as leaders. One that came to mind recently was when we had the attack on the police officers in downtown Dallas after the back lives matter rally in which it happened on the doorstep of our Dallas headquarters for the bank, and our Dallas market president was unavailable so I had to step in and help make some of the decisions on the fly about our associates and about who would have access to the bank, what our backup plans were and that was something that we weren't really trained to do but had to make quick decisions and lean on the expertise of others that were there to help us and I think those are the experiences where we really learn the most about ourselves and about our organizational styles.Were you called into leadership or did you seek it because of held convictions?
I think the leaders that are the most successful are the ones that are called
into leadership because I think if you're seeking leadership then it tends to be from a selfish motivation. But if you're called into it, it tends to be that others see value in you and see potential in you and think that you can do something beyond what you're currently doing and that was certainly the case for me. I didn't seek the role of being Market president but others thought that I would be a worthy choice and would be able to step up into the role and grow into it over time, which is what I think I did.How have you learned from obstacles and challenges faced?
I think that every time you face an obstacle or challenge or even a failure that
you try to look back on it and try to see what you could have done differently or how you could have prepared better or decisions that you made that you may have made differently if given another opportunity. I also like to evaluate and see what information would have been more helpful prior to being in that situation so that you could see if in the future theres more preparation you could do or you could be better prepared to face a certain challenge. But I think we can learn from every obstacle or challenge that we face.What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership means to me just the ability to relate and communicate to those that
you are serving with and being able to articulate what the goals are in the organization and to organize people around that to meet those goals. I think that effective leaders are ones that take more of a servant leadership role and don't necessarily just give orders or delegate all responsibilities but will serve side by side with those they are working with and demonstrate what it means to put others before you and put a larger goal before your personal goals and work together to achieve those.How would you characterize your leadership style?
I think that the leadership style I try to display is that of a servant leader
like I said and one that is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and actually get his hands dirty to help the cause. I'm not a huge "rah rah" kind of football coach type of leader where you're yelling and motivating and that sort of thing, I think motivating comes from demonstrating how to do a good job and empowering people to do their best and being there and supporting them when they need help but I do think it's the servant leader model that makes the most sense.What are your professional strengths/weaknesses?
I think my professional strengths are that I'm compassionate and conscientious
and I think of others and try to put others if not first I try to put them on equal footing as myself and to treat everybody fairly, I seek to do that in all relationships and I think that serves me well from a professional capacity. If there's a weakness id say that could be considered a weakness at times and that in business often times you're faced with situations where its win at all coasts, or where there is a winner and a loser, and there's folks that see it that black and white. I don't necessarily see it that black and white all the time, I try to find ways that everyone can be successful.What/Who has been your greatest influence?
When I look back it's been teachers and professors that have been my greatest
influence, weather that was teachers I had in high school that encouraged me to learn more about the arts and to understand people better or an accounting teacher in high school that gave me the interest in pursuing a business degree, or it could be professors in college that would take the extra step to get to know me and what my interests were, and to cultivate those. Or it could be business leaders that were there early in my career that helped to shape my values and demonstrate the right way to lead an organization but I think at every level of my education and career I found mentors or leaders I could learn something from.Leaders help to turn ideas into action and empower others. How do you accomplish this?
The best way to do that is to listen to those that you are leading and working
with and when you hear someone that has a good idea you do whatever you can to empower them and encourage them and give them the right tools and support so that they can turn that idea into something that is tangible and meaningful for the organization and then find ways to support them in those endeavors. Empowering others is probably one of the biggest areas of success that a leader can have because your ultimate goal should be that you're developing the next generation of leaders that can come up behind you and keep the organization moving forward.Do you feel it is important to delegate? If so why? When/how do you delegate?
I believe it is important to delegate I don't think that you should delegate
everything and leave nothing for the leader to actually accomplish or solve for the group, but it is important to delegate because that's how people learn. You give folks responsibility so they can stretch their leadership skills and they can grow in their skillset and once they have demonstrated that they can handle a certain level of responsibilities then you find more responsibilities and more opportunities for them to develop, so delegation is really important. It's also a way you can get diversity and opinion and engagement because everyone brings their own view of the world and their experiences to the table and by delegating to many members on a team you are able to participate in that diversity of thought which is important to an organization meeting its goals overall. When and how do I delegate, it's really just finding opportunities to do it at all points in an organization or project and clearly communicating what the expectations and the goals are and checking in on those folks and making sure they are making progress and if they need any help or support to get the job done.How do you measure success?
The best way to measure success is if you can look at it and say that everyone
involved has been treated fairly and that everyone involved is compensated for what it is that they brought to the table, weather that's financially compensated or recognition or whatever the measure of keeping score is at the end of the day, but I think it has to be a balance of people being rewarded for their actions and how they do it, but also for the way they do it. So it's the "what" meaning the score or the financial rewards, but also the "how", how they went about accomplishing the results.How do you learn from failure?
I think failure is a great teaching tool because it's a mirror on our actions
and we can look at them and see what worked and what didn't work and when it didn't work it's an opportunity to examine all the steps that went into a particular project or a particular opportunity and what we could have done differently. In our teams at work we often look back on times when we've experienced failure and try to see where the breakdown occurred, and how we can do differently next time, how we could prepare better, how we could learn more, who we could reach out to to help gain the result we were looking for, but really using it as an opportunity to look back on all the pieces in the process and figuring out what we can do better the net time.What are two or three action steps you believe are essential to enable others to
be successful?I think enabling others to be successful is really the key there, I think that
one is good communication, so no matter what the project or the opportunity is that you communicate it clearly to whoever it is on your team that your looking for participation and make sure they understand what the steps need to occur and how we're going to define success and timeline and what the expectations are and I think that's clear and I think another way to encourage success is to constantly provide learning opportunities for them weather its through formal training that's specific to their job or through mentoring where younger associates can learn from older or more experienced associates and fostering that sort of an opportunity. And then I think another area where we can enable our associates to be successful is by providing opportunities for them to get to know each other better and experience their different backgrounds and cultures and learn from each other in that sort of an environment because that's a reflection of what society is today and I think we've got to reflect that in our organizations and learn from each other so that we can best address the opportunities that are out there in the market place.What advice do you have for building relationships and trust in an organization?
I think there's a couple of areas that are fairly straightforward and common
sense that we can apply in our organizations in this regard. I think one is to treat people fairly, I think that's the key to any relationship but certainly in a business context. People want to be treated fairly they want to be respected for what they bring to the table and that's one of them. I think another one is just clear and concise communication because no one can effectively do their job when they don't know what it is they are supposed to do, or if they don't know how they are going to be measured at the end of the day, so communicating clearly and then providing clear and concise feedback on a regular interval, weather that's annual reviews or quarterly, or at the end of a project. But giving everyone good feedback on what they did good, what they could improve on and some areas of focus for the next time. I think those are all ways that we build those relationships and build trust in each other because it goes hand in hand with all the delegating and everything else, that you have to trust each other to be able to delegate and count on that person and expect them to get the job done so you have to foster that trust with every interaction that you have along the way.What do you want your legacy to be?
I'd like it if my legacy was that when I leave that position that Bank of
America is in a better position than it was when I started and that people viewed me as a conscientious leader that respected everyone that came through and provided opportunities for everyone that worked for us and to help the to further their career.What leadership skills have you learned from one leadership position that have
helped you in others?I think the skills around good communication and clear expectations I've been
able to apple those in other leadership positions weather it's serving on boards or non profit organizations because I think that's a key no mater what that we have to be able to communicate what our goals are and communicate what the expectations are and how we need to go about achieving those goals and I think we need to apply that in all kinds of settings not just in the context of Bank of America.How does your faith and being Christian affect your leadership?
I think when we look at it from a Christian perspective, look at how we interact
from a business engagement standpoint and how we treat others having Jesus Christ as an example is a great leadership tool because he was such an effective leader in that he empowered his disciples and he communicated his message extremely well to both his disciples and to large crowds, in one on one settings and he was always consistent in the message that Jesus delivered through all of those and I think we can apply that in the business world that treating people fairly and treating people with respect, not getting hung up on titles or on pedigrees but treating folks for who they are and what's in their heart and what motivates them. I think these are all ways that as Christians we can be effective leaders and really it just gets down to that servant leadership model again that Jesus was a servant and He put others in front of himself and you know you can learn from that and emulate that and at the end of the day the golden rule that comes into rule in the work place you want to treat others in the work place the way that you would want to be treated and I think that if you can keep those things in mind then I think you will be successful as a leader.What cultural identities/experiences are most salient for you?
I would say that a couple come to mind, One I grew up in west Texas in Abeline
and I think that shaped my perspective and my view on the world quite a bit you know in a small town you tend to really embrace relationships and connectivity to others and I think that's served me well and its something I draw on in the business world and in relationships with people here in fort worth that there's just that small town identity and culture that I think is appealing in many ways and then the other aspect that comes to mind is I spent some time in Uganda and south Sudan on a mission trip a couple of years ago and that was the first time I had ever really spent a meaningful amount of time in that kind of a setting and I think it helped to reset my view of what people really need to be safe and comfortable and just the plentiful nature of our society and what we take for grated and how others around the world live and how they can be satisfied with much less from a physical standpoint but draw more on their relationships to each other and their family and their experiences for their happiness and their satisfaction and I often times draw back on that experience when I feel myself getting consumed with the prosperity and all aspects of that that we experience in our culture and I think that's an experience that many folks should have at some point of their lifetime to help reset their values and their expectations.What other leadership positions have you had and how are those different from
the position at the Bank?So I've been involved with several different non-profit boards from large ones
that are well organized with a lot of structure, to smaller ones that don't have much by way of structure or by way of governance, and I think those are the ones where I've really been able to apply what I've learned at the bank and brought that to bear for those leadership roles. But one of the key aspect for a non-profit board is really making sure that the controls are in place and the governance is in place and that all the board members have a common vision about what it is that they're seeking to accomplish and that's not always that clear when you're dealing with a small non profit so there's been times I've had to draw on my experiences from the bank and the organizational tools that we had there and been able to use that in a nonprofit context. Another area where I had to draw on my leadership skills is in leading a small men's group at our church and that was more of a unique experience because that was more of a leadership role that wasn't as clearly defined or one that came with a title or a hierarchy of position but its one where someone wad required to step up and organize the group and provide some structure and some motivation for folks to come and join, so I along with a partner of mine took that on and organized the group and provided the context for us to get together and arranged all the details so that's an are where the leadership skills I learned in one area were able to apply in leading that small group.What responsibilities does your role as a leader at Bank of America entail?
As market president for Bank of America there are a few key areas of focus or
responsibilities, the primary one is just communicating to both our internal constituents and to those in our community. So what the bank stands for, where our motivation is, where our focus is, what we are trying to accomplish for our community, these are all key areas of delivering the message that Bank of America is about responsible growth concerning our clients and serving our community. Another key area of our responsibility is communicating strategy with all of our lines of business in Tarrant County. So making sure that we're working consistently across those lines of business making sure those teams are working well together to meet our clients needs and providing the resources for them at the end of the day to help them accomplish their goals Another key area of being market president is part of managing and determining how and where we are going to spend our financial resources in the community. Weather it's providing support for non profits through grants and supporting some of the good work non-profits are doing here where they align with our principles or through sponsorships or various organizations here in the community and making sure were aligning our business opportunities with these sponsorships those are all a part of the role as well.