Practical PS Interview Knapic

Ashley V. TwymanCase Study – Vicky Knapic

Interview with Recognized Leader

Introduction

KANZA Bank has been a family-owned, community bank since 1905. Originally

chartered as the Kingman State Bank, the name was changed in 2002 because of the

inclusion of new branches located outside the Kingman, Kansas area. KANZA Bank

currently has four branches located in Kingman, Anthony, and two locations in the

Wichita area. Vicky Knapic has worked at KANZA Bank since January of 2006. She was

hired in as, and currently serves as, the Retail Branch Manager for the Anthony location;

although she will soon be taking on the role of Commercial Lender for the branch as well

as retaining her current managerial duties. As the Retail Branch Manger, Vicky manages

tellers, takes care of customer needs and accounts, and is accountable for every aspect of

the branch’s successful operation each day.

Before coming to KANZA, Vicky graduated from McPherson College with a

Bachelor’s in Finance & Banking and Minor in Accounting. Her first year in college she

began working in the banking industry for Sunflower Bank as a drive through teller, from

there she became a lobby teller, then teller/CSR. After colleges she transferred to a

Wichita branch of Sunflower Bank where she started as a teller Supervisor/CSR, then

was promoted to Branch Manager where she managed 4 employees, opened accounts,

and processes Consumer and HELOC loans. She left Sunflower to work for State Farm

selling insurance. She continued to work there for 3 years and was licensed in

Property/Causalty and Life/Health. She then moved to American Family as an Agent.

There she managed one employee and sold all lines of insurance. While working for

American Family, she received her Series 7 & Series 65 licenses to sell Registered


Interview with Recognized LeaderSecurities. She left the Insurance business when she and her husband, Dr. Justin Knapic,

moved to Anthony, where she began working at KANZA Bank.

Vicky faces challenges everyday within her current managerial role, but none as

great as the difficulties on managing multiple people working within one ideally

cooperative environment, especially as a new member to an already established team. On

top on this, one of her future subordinates was also applying for the Retail Manager’s

position. Vicky said, “The first thing I had to do when I started my new position was

quickly build rapport with my staff. It all starts with communication. I met with each

person, had them fill out a quiz about themselves, and shared with them my plan for our

team and our branch. I also reviewed my expectations of them. I let them know we are a

team, and each person is important and has a part to play.”

She stated that within the first year of her managerial position she held a lot of

meetings. “This is one way I brought the team together and got to know each of them

more. I let them know of my expectations and asked for their input on what they wanted

to learn. I tried especially hard to let them know I appreciated their efforts, with

compliments, awards for jobs well done; goals met etc. and general feedback on their

performance.”

Vicky also understood that, as an outsider coming in, she has a long road ahead of

her. She had to be trained in every aspect of her branch. “When I first started, I did every

job. I had to learn it to be able to teach it and to find better ways of making it work. This

also allowed me to have a better understanding of what needed to be delegated and whom

to delegate it to. I knew I had to empower others to make my team stronger. I spent many

days, balancing the vault, balancing the ATM, working the teller line in the lobby and in


Interview with Recognized Leaderthe drive. I was showing them I was part of the team. I was learning with them and we

were building a foundation.”

Analysis of Leadership-In-Action

I. Challenging the process: Vicky is always finding a way to make current

processes and procedures better. Many times she encourages subordinates to

take initiative by challenging them to establish a new process. I myself have

come up with a new procedure for processing savings bonds. Vicky also

discussed how certain employees present difficult situations for her to deal with.

“You have employees who don’t want to change the way they do things when

there are new procedures, you have employees who want to challenge your

authority. You have employees who always want to push the limits of what you

can tolerate.” Vicky also presented her solution to a problem like

this. “Basically with those people you need to address the situation right

away. Let them know what they are doing, why it is not acceptable, and what

needs to be done to change it. Ask for input, and always follow-up to make sure

that you continue to keep track of that type of behavior.” It was interesting to

look at the “challenging the process” model in this way. Thus far, I have only

thought about how I can effectively challenge a process to make it better, but

Vicky saw this aspect of the model as how to deal with an employee that

challenges the process in a disruptive way.

II. Inspiring a shared vision: Vicky and I discussed the important of inspiring a

shared vision amongst your team members. “When you work for a corporation

it’s important to be able to inspire a shared vision. You have to get your


Interview with Recognized Leaderemployees to buy into a new change good or bad. It’s very important to have a

foundation of trust built to be able to effectively do this. Inspiring the vision

makes it not only about what’s happening, but explaining why, and how it will

affect them and how they can use this to be successful. At the end of the day it’s

not about what’s happening, it’s about your people trusting you and believing in

you and what information you are presenting. When you present it in a way that

can show the benefits for them, you have a vision that will be accepted.” We

mostly concentrated on discussion of how to get employees to buy into a vision

that’s already been created. I think this goes to show how managers typically

are able to get others to buy into a shared vision within a corporate environment,

but don’t always think about creating a personalized vision that encompasses

and includes each member of their specific team.

III. Enabling others to act: “You have to empower your team. You have to give

others what they need and I’ve found they will be more willing to give you what

you need as well. People respond to a manager better when you make them feel

important and show them how they can benefit and succeed.” We went on to

discuss the importance of enabling others. “I am a big believer in enabling

others. I want my staff to know how to do their job and do it well. I like for my

team to be diversely trained and knowledgeable about many different things that

go on daily at the bank. I am fortunate that I have people who are very

intelligent, who want t learn, want to grow and want responsibility.” She

concluded our discussion on enabling others with “Enabling others is as much


Interview with Recognized Leaderabout filling a need for someone to learn and take on responsibility as it is self

serving on my part by freeing up my time.”

IV. Modeling the way: “There’s a lot to be said about that. Modeling the way has

a lot to do with Attitude Awareness. You can change your world by having a

positive attitude. It’s all about your mind set. It’s important to be a leader, to

me. I try to bring a positive attitude to work, and it can be difficult some days

but it makes all the difference.” How does Vicky model the way? “I always try

to bring a positive attitude to work, and it can be difficult some days but it

makes all the difference. It’s different for everyone, but what I try to do is

provide guidance when needed, bring a positive attitude and work hard at my

job and making my employees happy. Always lead by example.”

V. Encouraging the heart: At first, Vicky wasn’t sure what I meant by

“encouraging the heart”. She said that although she always cares about her

employees, she’s never thought of motivating through encouragement of the

heart. She seemed interested in researching this aspect of the Leadership-In-

Action model, so I shared my book with her. But I told her that one way that I

notice that she encourages the heart is how she really listens. If you have an idea

or suggestion she always listens. She understands and respects the idea that

good ideas come from everywhere. She also always praises great ideas and

gives credit where it’s due. Once in a while she will send out a little email of

encouragement. Just today I received this email from her, “Ashley, I just wanted

to tell you over the last couple of days I’ve heard you giving great service and

being very helpful to the customers. Thanks for remembering Jerry needed a


Interview with Recognized Leaderbag, I know he likes to feel important and you do a great job of taking care of

that! You are always on top of things and I appreciate all you do!” She also

discussed how she does encourage the heart, although she had never thought

about it from that aspect. “I supposed I do that when I meet weekly with each

person individually; the meetings will range from 10 to 60 minutes. I have

found that some employees just want the facts; they want to get down to

business. Whereas other employees want to talk about their family, what they

did this weekend, etc. Whatever length of time that employee needs I give to

them. I think that when I provide for these needs they are more satisfied.”

Summary

Vicky ended our interview by saying “I love the quote, ‘Leadership isn’t about

job titles or positions. It is a way of carrying yourself and a method of influencing others

that can be learned. There are after all, lots of bosses who are terrible leaders and plenty

of leaders who aren’t bosses at all. The best leaders bring out the best in their co-workers

and colleagues by having high expectations for themselves and consistently meeting

those demands.’ I don’t want to be a boss who is a terrible leader. I hope that I help bring

out the best in my employees and I hope that I help them learn and further their careers

and become a better person in the process.” I think Vicky sums up the fears of all leaders.

We have such a strong desire to be great and we really care about what we do and the

people we do it with. After all, the greatest compliment a follower can give to a great

leader is to become a great leader themselves under their influence.

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Practical PS Interview Knapic