Ken sits down with Leslie Parnell, a seasoned treasury management professional, as she recounts her extensive experience in the banking sector, from leading customer service at Bank of America to heading treasury management at Simmons Bank. In this episode, Leslie discusses the pivotal technological shifts that transformed banking operations, the vital role of listening to front-line employees, and the profound impact of AI on the industry. Discover how Leslie navigates leadership challenges and why continuous learning is crucial in keeping pace with the evolving landscape of business banking.
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Ken Lorenz: So, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. My name is Ken Lorenz. I’m the vice president of global sales here at Riva, and happy to be the host of our Rev tech Revolution podcast. With me today is Leslie Parnell. She’s currently an independent consultant with a heavy focus on treasury management and strategic development. Leslie’s got over 25 years experience in the banking industry. She’s got a diverse background in treasury management, business banking, strategic development. She’s held leadership positions at major financial institutions like bank of America and Simmons bank, where she manages global client services and treasury service teams. Leslie, welcome.
Leslie Parnell: Thank you. Good morning.
Ken Lorenz: Very glad to have you on the show today. I’d love to maybe start out talking a little bit about your career trajectory and kind of what’s, where did you get started? What got you into the industry, and what’s taken you to where you are now?
Leslie Parnell: Thank you so much, Ken. I appreciate you having me. Thank you. Yes. So I have been in banking my entire career. I started at bank of America and started in sales at bank of America, working with us multinational, large corporate clients. Moved from sales into customer service and implementation, running different teams for bank of America, ran primarily us teams for large corporate, had some commercials sprinkled in there, and then also ran the canadian customer service and implementation teams for years. Once I left bank of America, I moved to Simmons bank and ran all of treasury management for Simmons. And that included sales, customer service, implementation, product and operations. And then from there, moved into business banking.
Leslie Parnell: Was the business banking sales exec getting a great opportunity to look at a different size customer and really be able to help with their needs, growing both customer service satisfaction as well as revenue. So lots of opportunities for customers, both large corporate and commercial, and happy to have gotten the opportunity to work with them.
Ken Lorenz: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. It’s always interesting how your career path changes. Sometimes. At some point, I’ll share a little bit of my career path, but we’ll spare the audience. They’ve heard that one before. When you think about the time that you’ve spent in the industry, what would you say is the, from a technology standpoint, what was the thing you were able to learn or had the most impact for you and the services that you were providing to the employer you were with?
Leslie Parnell: I think there’s a couple different answers for that. The one that comes first to mind was in when I was running customer service and implementation, and we had, we as an organization, had made the decision to implement a new technology that would take all phone calls and emails and auto generate a case within our system that would pre populate what the system thought it heard or thought it read in email. And I would say the biggest thing that I learned to, that we quite honestly, as an organization learned, was that taking the need that maybe a more senior level or c suite thought we needed, versus taking the time to work with our customers and our frontline associates as to what they needed. They were very different. Those needs and wants were very different.
Leslie Parnell: So we implemented for months, close to a year, this new system to only find out that it was not going to work and that it was adding more keystrokes and adding more time for our associates when they were on the phone with customers or when they were taking an email, they’d read an email, and it would erroneously create a case, or it would create a case that did not support what was being asked for by the customer. So we not only implemented it, but then we had to pull it back out, Rev. Revise what was really needed and what would work for our frontline associate and for the betterment of the customer, and then re implement. And while that took time and, of course, money, I think the greatest thing that we learned there was you can.
Leslie Parnell: You can never underestimate a customer’s true need, as well as your frontline associate. And that’s really where we needed to start, and that’s where we ultimately ended up.
Ken Lorenz: So that’s really interesting. Right? Because you see it all the time. You see the frontline employees that have a lot of experience in the industry, they know what it takes to provide excellent customer service or advice or whatever it is that they’re responsible for. And you’ve got folks in leadership that have their opinion or experiments that they want to do, and maybe they haven’t spent time on the front line. And that balance can be interesting, especially when you’re adding workload to the frontline folks with no perceived value coming back to them or even getting in the way.
Leslie Parnell: That’s right. That’s right, Ken. So not only did they have to change their entire workflow, but it was adding steps and adding keystrokes and adding difficulty. And so we, you know, when we stopped and had that conversation, and I was very impressed with the organization for realizing this and saying, okay, wait, we do need to stop, and we do need to pull this back out. Let’s get every, you know, let’s get all of our associates back to where they were while we worked through where we want to go. And so. Cause I think that’s a hard decision for an organization to make sometimes to say, we messed this up, let’s, let’s reverse so we can go forward. And ultimately, were very successful with what we created.
Leslie Parnell: And to your point, I think that is because the higher ups, as you said, took a moment to say, wait, we’re not the experts. Our frontline is. And that’s really who we should lean on and we should really use as a resource. And that’s what we did.
Ken Lorenz: Yeah, I think that’s a lesson a lot of organizations could benefit from. It’s just so easy being in a leadership position myself. A lot of times I’m recommending solutions to my frontline team that they’re not crazy about. And you’ve got to take that step back and really look at how is that helping them do their job, provide better service. But it’s always a balance. Let me shift gears on you for a little bit. So you’ve spent a lot of time in business, banking and treasury. Over the time you’ve been in the industry, what kind of changes have you seen occur? It’s certainly related to technology, but in general, the industry as a whole.
Leslie Parnell: Yeah, most certainly. I mean, I think, I don’t know that banking is all that different compared to other industries. When you really take a step back and look at technology right, where we have come and how far we have come as a society using technology, I think is probably pretty balanced. Of course, there are different industries that have seen more growth. I would put banking maybe in the middle to the high end of that. I have spent the majority of my career in treasury management and will tell you that technology has really grown. And the evolution throughout my 25, 27 years in banking has just been incredible. I think when I think, again, specifically to either the product set within treasury management, you know, starting out, it was, you know, wires and achs and maybe some control disbursement or depository plus type accounts.
Leslie Parnell: And now you are looking at what are we doing with real time payments, what type of collection methods and how much faster can we actually collect sharing information? You know, you think back years and years when you were in a lockbox operation and it was all this paper being passed around and I mean, you could hear the paper and you could hear staplers and you could hear. It was just a crazy environment. Now it’s exceptionally quiet and all you hear are clicks because everything’s imaged and moving information is all electronic. And so quite a bit of progress has been made there and we’ll continue to see that with AI and how that enters into the scene as well.
Ken Lorenz: Just thinking about that for a minute, I mean, I think across all industries, everybody’s looking for a tech for an advantage, a competitive advantage, and moving from, like you said, staplers and paper to digital. I think a lot of organizations think about that digital technology creating a competitive advantage. Would you say that in treasury and business banking, it did bring a competitive advantage, or did it level the playing field where it became more slippery? Customers could choose who they wanted to do business with more easily?
Leslie Parnell: You know, treasury management’s pretty sticky, as we say in the industry, in the sense that once you move your business to a bank, or a few banks, depending on the size of your organization, once you get there, you’re there because it is a little bit more challenging to move around. So you need to make sure as a customer, as you are selecting that financial institution, that not only are they able to meet your needs today, but do they have that forward thought, that they’re really setting you up for future success as well. And I have been fortunate in working with the organizations that I have in the past that they have been very forward thinking.
Leslie Parnell: So we talk a little bit about the progress within treasury management, constantly developing and growing products and services, but that also has to go to how do we support our internal associates. So what type of, you know, CRM system? Everyone you know wants to talk about a CRM system. And what. What system are you using? What system do you use, et cetera. But are you using the right one for your organization and for your line of business? And I think those are critical pieces to ask yourself, right. And not only is it just a tracking mechanism, but how can you track the incoming inquiries, say, within customer service and implementation to ensure you’re meeting your KPI’s so you can exceed customer expectations? Right. It’s not just about tracking it.
Leslie Parnell: It’s about tracking it to a metric and then constantly knowing where you sit with that metric so that you can continuously improve and drive that client satisfaction. So I think that’s where we’ve seen a lot of growth within treasury management, both, again on the product and service side. But then also, how do we support our internal associates to have that client satisfaction for our customers?
Ken Lorenz: It’s interesting you say that. I think about our clients, and we’re in the business of integrating things that we use to communicate with clients, like email and calendar meetings, back into the CRM. And the first thing that anybody thinks about is customer 360. Right? I got to get that holistic view of the customer. I wish I would see more companies take that information and leverage it to make better decisions about how they treat segments of customers. So if we know for this particular product line to move something from a to b, it takes these kinds of meetings and so we want to put these kinds of resources on that. But this other segment we want to treat a little bit differently. The answer to the customer journey or multiple customer journeys really lies in capturing those communications and the meetings.
Ken Lorenz: But I think it’s not being leveraged to the full extent. Do you see the same kind of thing I have?
Leslie Parnell: You know, I think the organization that can take a step back look at their client segments, right? Who are they serving today and who do they ultimately want to serve? Because it’s not always just about where you are right now. Right? It’s where you want to grow. But yes, I have seen that and I have seen wherever, both on the sales side, but then also on the customer service and implementation side too, where looking at that customer base and saying how do they want to be serviced? Right? So for a smaller customer, smaller in size and scope, they may just need an 800 number. They just need to call someone and get a quick answer. Right?
Leslie Parnell: But as you look at a larger customer, where the relationship both in product, service, scope as well as revenue is much broader, they expect to call and speak with Ken every single time they call in. They do not want a team. They do not want an 800 number. They want a direct line. They want to know that their emails and their phones are going to Ken. And they want to know that you can answer my question on the first shot, that this is not going to be a multiple phone call type resolution. So what technology can support that?
Leslie Parnell: Well, of course, you have your telephony piece, but you also have the part where if I call into Ken, I’d like to know that if I’ve got a question that’s got, you know, some issue that’s going on with my online platform that you can remote in and see what’s happening specifically to my online system. Right. I, that has been something that companies have started doing both in their customer service and implementation teams versus having the customer try to explain what they’re doing, where we can remote in and see exactly what that issue might be and how we can help the customer. That’s just some high level, non super techy, but examples of how you look at different segments of a customer base and really look at how do I need to service them differently. Products and services would be no different. Right?
Leslie Parnell: You’re not going to oversell a small business customer. You’re not going to oversell a business banking customer with a product or a service that you’re going to give to a us multinational. That’s not going to work. And so you do need to look at the associates that you have partnering and building relationships with those customer segments so that you are meeting their needs.
Ken Lorenz: So let’s take that conversation maybe a little step further, and let’s talk about the probably most hyped term in the industry right now is artificial intelligence. What’s your viewpoint on AI, specifically in treasury and business banking?
Leslie Parnell: I think that’s interesting, Ken. I think anytime you hear artificial intelligence, someone in the room is going to say, oh, that’s such a slippery slope. Right. But I think the slippery slope term can go back to any other cutting edge technology that has ever been rolled out. It’s new, it’s different now. Yes, it might be fair to say this was a little bit more different and can definitely be a little bit more challenging for everyone to understand. There’s a lot more regulations that will be associated with AI as we continue to move forward. But I do think that, quote, unquote, fear around new technology, again, can be said for so many other cutting edge tech that rolled out in the past.
Leslie Parnell: Now, that’s not to say that we should be a little bit more eyes wide open with AI, but I definitely think that there is room for AI within treasury management and business banking.
Ken Lorenz: It’s very interesting, and we hear the same thing from a lot of our clients. Financial services does tend to be a little more conservative and needs to be with those kinds of technologies within the industry. You’ve got certain banks that are maybe a little more cutting edge and others that are following or waiting to see what worked and what didn’t work. But the point that you made, I think, is exactly right. I am smarter with this in my hand than I am without it. And I think to a certain degree, AI has to be treated the same way. It’s an extension of us. It’s not a replacement for sales agents or advisors or bankers.
Ken Lorenz: It’s really we’ve got to look at how does it help us remove 20%, let’s say, of our job that can be automated or can be dealt with so that I can take that 20% and spend that with customers.
Leslie Parnell: Ken, I think you’re exactly right with that 20%. Treasury management is so heavily driven by relationships that even if we add in AI, you cannot take away the people. You cannot take away that sales associate, that treasury management relationship person, that is building that partnership with the customer. That’s how we learn about each other. That’s how, as an.org, as a financial institution, you can support that customer better. AI can’t do that. You still need customer service associates. You still need someone to help implement. There is still that relationship piece in each phase of your relationship with your bank. Now, can we be more efficient with AI? Most certainly. And to your point about banks being a little bit more regulated, a little bit more reserved in how quickly maybe we take on new tech?
Leslie Parnell: Yes, that is the case, but, I mean, I would want my bank to be a little bit. A little bit more cautious right before jumping in with both feet, but there’s definitely room for it.
Ken Lorenz: So let’s have a little bit of fun. I don’t know that I warned you about this, Leslie, but you get no warning. I like to do a couple of speed round questions, so we’ll start off with a couple simple ones. Are you a coffee drinker or a tea drinker?
Leslie Parnell: Water okay. Mm. I try to stay away from caffeine.
Ken Lorenz: All right. Thinking about artificial intelligence. Star wars or Star Trek?
Leslie Parnell: Oh, gosh, I have not. Oh, gosh. I hope this doesn’t offend anybody. Listening. I have nothing watched any Star Trek, so I think I’ve only seen one Star wars, so I’m gonna have to say Star wars.
Ken Lorenz: Fair enough. Fair enough. I think I already know the answer to this question, but I’m gonna ask it anyway. So would you rather be in the ski slopes, or would you rather be on the beach?
Leslie Parnell: Ski slopes all day, every day?
Ken Lorenz: Your poster behind you gave that one away.
Leslie Parnell: Exactly.
Ken Lorenz: All right, we’ll put those aside for a little bit. Let’s talk a little bit about leadership and team management. You’ve been at this for a long time. What things do you do to foster innovation and continuous learning within your teams?
Leslie Parnell: I think trust is huge. I think if you do not have the trust of your team, you really will be cut off at the legs. They have to trust that you support them, they have to trust that you believe in them, and that you will allow them to come to you with any type of idea, inquiry, concern, and that you will treat all of those as opportunities. So, for me, going into an organization as a new leader, it’s really about building the relationship with my team and making sure they understand that I’m not the expert in everything, that we as an. As a team, are the experts, but that I need them just as much as they need me and we can lean on each other. We can grow from each other.
Leslie Parnell: So again, trust for me is huge as a leader, and I expect the same from my leader. Right. For, you know, for who is going to lead me to the next growth opportunity. For me personally, I need to trust in that person, too. So I think that’s critical.
Ken Lorenz: Absolutely. So when I think about that. So first of all, I think you’re absolutely right. Trust is a huge issue. I think in order to be successful, if you don’t build that trust immediately, you’re absolutely right. You’re not going to have folks that are going to jump on board. I think if people understand, one of the ways that you can build trust is helping people understand. You don’t have the answers, but you do have the questions. But one topic that’s come up a lot of lately is the concept of managing up. Is that something you found yourself doing over the years as well? Is managing up as well as managing down?
Leslie Parnell: Yes. I think all successful leaders manage up as well as manage their teams. We can’t just be order takers. And you have to be able to respectfully and productively question your leader. And so I think for me, yes, that is something that I definitely do. One, it’s important to build that relationship with my leader. Two, as I mentioned earlier, it’s important to have the trust that goes both ways between myself and my leader. But then, you know, managing up can take many different turns, and it can look different to different associates and in different situations. Right.
Leslie Parnell: But I think if you have that relationship, you have that trust, you can very easily manage up so that you can take that information and then help disseminate whatever that is down to your team and carry the message for the organization and for what’s best for your team, because it is, you know, we’re all coming to work for different reasons. Right. Some are motivated by that paycheck. Some are motivated by the education and the opportunities they have. Some are, you know, climbing the ladder, want to continue to grow and move into different leadership roles. Right. So everyone is motivated differently. And so making sure that you are managing up to understand what that entire directive looks like and that strategic directive looks like for your organization helps you then motivate each of your team members based on what drives them.
Ken Lorenz: Awesome. Awesome. So a couple of closing questions and maybe some thought provoking ones. If you could go back in time 25 years ago and give yourself advice, what advice would you give yourself when you began your career at bank of America?
Leslie Parnell: That’s a great question, Ken. I think one thing that I would tell my early twenties self is to continuously look for opportunities to learn. The more you know, the more you can grow, the more you know, the more you can help your associates and your teammates grow and learn. And ultimately that’s better for your customer. I knew I always wanted to be working with customers and have that opportunity to support them and their growth and their revenue needs. And I think one of the things that has helped me be successful in others is the will and the desire to continuously learn so you can take those lessons to your customers. So I think that would be one big key for me is just to ensure and encourage myself that I constantly keep that desire to learn.
Leslie Parnell: And then I think it would probably also just be the encouragement to really jump into treasury management. It is a unique industry. It is not one you go to school for. Right? There’s no treasury management master’s degree, so you kind of find yourself in the niche. And I have been very fortunate there. I have absolutely loved my career in treasury management and would strongly encourage myself to jump in with 2ft and enjoy the ride.
Ken Lorenz: Awesome. Well, speaking of learning, one thing that I always love to have my guests talk about is influences, right? So business, books, authors, speakers, who do you listen to? Where do you hang out and learn more about the industry and about life in general?
Leslie Parnell: You know, I don’t have one person that I stick to because I think that pigeonholes us in our thinking a little bit. Right. So, you know, different podcasts, different articles, different webinars. I really try to pick from as many folks as I can. Now, what I’ve also learned, and where I feel that I have grown potentially, some of the most are from some of the leaders in my past that maybe weren’t stellar. They weren’t the ones that I said, wow, I want to be just like they were the ones that I said, let me learn from this. I don’t want to do this. How can I ensure that I do the opposite? Or how did this impact me? One of the things that I say all the time is intent versus impact, right?
Leslie Parnell: And I think those are both in your personal and your professional life. I think that is a phrase that we can all live by. What is the intent and what was the actual impact? And so that I got from one of my strongest leaders that I ever worked for. And it is definitely something that I live by. So again, it’s. I try to get as much info out there from books and webinars, podcasts all that kind of stuff, different conferences. But really, I also. I like to watch people and how someone reacts or how someone acts in a meeting and what the reactions are for the others in that session. That’s very important. And those relationships that they’re building or not, I think we can all learn quite a bit from.
Ken Lorenz: I love what you said about not just learning what you want to do, but seeing examples of what you don’t want to do. I have no idea who said this and where the quote came from. The context is actually a little bit wrong, but the context was, if you can’t be a lighthouse, be a beacon. Right. So they both warn you to not go there. But the point was taken. Be an example, good or bad.
Leslie Parnell: That’s right.
Ken Lorenz: Excellent. So, I’ve got one last question, but the tradition that I’ve got on the show, if you’ve watched any of the episodes, is that the last question is not mine, actually yours. So, is there. Is there anything that you would want to throw at me as a question?
Leslie Parnell: So, my question to you then, Ken, would be, what was your favorite podcast or one of them, and what did you learn?
Ken Lorenz: I’d have to say that the interview that I did with Tiki Barber was very interesting. I was expecting the podcast to be one. It wasn’t. Make a long story short. It was a customer event that we held. We asked Tiki to join us, and I interviewed him for 45 Minutes live in a fireside chat, which we turned into a podcast.
Leslie Parnell: Okay.
Ken Lorenz: And I was expecting to talk a lot more about football. And he had some questions that were geared around getting him talking. Tiki was amazing. Some of the topics that he got into. Did you realize that he was in Kinky Boots?
Leslie Parnell: I didn’t.
Ken Lorenz: He was on kinky boots for quite a while, but that podcast was really interesting. The lessons that were able to kind of bring out through that interview, you wouldn’t think would be tied to technology, but he did a great job of tying them back totechnology, but just phenomenal life lessons. So, yeah, that was. I enjoyed that immensely. That was just a great interview. Leslie, it’s been a pleasure having you on the podcast today. I absolutely wish you the best of luck in what you do going forward. And, you know, in my experience in this industry, people cross paths multiple times, and I would expect we’ll cross paths again. So thank you so much.