Suntrust Banks Chairman & CEO Bill Rogers' passion and success helps his team and clients by lighting the way to financial well-being.
CNN
Published on Feb 22, 2016
URL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGE6nsnzXLQ
Voice
00:05 I am so proud every day that I'm a banker.
00:09 I'm Bill Rogers, I'm the chairman and CEO of SunTrust Banks. And SunTrust is a purpose driven company. We define that as Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being. We've got scale, you know so we've got 4 million consumers, 500,000 business clients, 24,000 teammates, more than 1,400 branches. And we're also nimble. And we're nimble enough to work as one team for our clients.
00:34 And savings made simple so...
00:36 Get to help people get into their first homes, we get to help people buy their first car to drive to their first job, we get to help a business owner expand her business, we get to help a couple plan for retirement, and the work we do is important and I think it starts with reminding people of that. If they do this then they're gonna be better advisors to our clients, they're gonna be better parents, they're gonna be better partners, and they're just gonna be more fulfilled in what they do.
01:03 I started my professional career at SunTrust. I've been here now a little over 35 years. I work for and with great people along the way, I mean I was really blessed in terms of having great leaders I could follow and learn from along the way.
01:20 Being a leader at SunTrust, for me, and thinking about what I have to do every day - I think there's a couple jobs. One is you gotta be the head cheerleader. I mean that's a key job. One of our executives has a great saying; he says 'Our job is to catch people doing something right'.
01:37 They were engaged, they were loud, they were rowdy.
01:40 But then the job is also to be the head challenger. So a different challenge, right? That's not something we've asked each other yet to do.
01:50 Being here 35 years it's an incredible asset but it could be a liability, you know. So it's important to surround myself with people who come from diverse backgrounds. Earlier in your career you're more focused on you, you're more focused on what you need to achieve; and I think as you get later along in your career you certainly expand that vision you understand that it's really part of a team and the we becomes a much bigger part of the dialogue.
02:12 And it was just fun because I've been able to watch their evolution.
02:17 A person that I worked with gave me a great piece of advice early on. He said 'the job of CEO is to bring purpose to the work, and bring clarity from complexity'. And I try to keep that in mind every day so it's purposeful.
02:28 We want to thank you for joining that call on Monday.
02:33 Be open and invest. You know, spend time and look at what others are doing, read a lot, if someone, if any CEO invites me to spend time with them the immediate answer is yes. And then after you do all that is be authentic. It has to be who you are.
02:49 Yeah, who's this guy? Thanks guys.
02:54 Staying focused on what you're doing is the best way to get to the next step. You know, rather than thinking two steps ahead on the chess board, do what you do really well. And do it with passion. And let people see the passion and success together.