Rachael Faulkner, vice president of servicing cash management operations for U.S. Bank, transformed the course of her department from being process- and task-driven to customer-driven. Her team now sees a valued customer in front of them, not a task, when they process their daily work. Faulkner has held many roundtable sessions with her team encouraging them to speak up about outdated policies or practices causing inefficiency.

She has been able to end obsolete or manual processes, implement automation, streamline operations, improve performance and reduce errors and overtime by 85%. Faulkner and her team have worked closely with the consumer direct originations area to enhance a tool that allows them to obtain an immediate payoff quote.

WHAT’S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER RECEIVED?

The best advice I received is something I learned from playing golf in high school and college. Golf is a sport that you have no control over how your competitor is performing. You can’t block their shot, you can’t tackle them, you can’t fake a kick one way and kick the other way to score, you are simply reliant on your game and playing against the course. My high school coach used to say “play your own game,” which I think of when deciding on a banking product or career strategy. You of course want to know what your peers are doing in the industry, but in the end you need to focus on sticking to your company’s strategy and personal skills to be successful.