There is a lot of expertise sitting inside the average regional bank.
The commercial banking leader knows what local business owners are worried about before most economic reports catch up. The CIO is making decisions about AI, cybersecurity and technology investment. The president understands the market, the community and where opportunities are emerging.
Other executives have spent decades developing expertise in lending, wealth management, talent, risk and operations.
The question we’ve started researching is much simpler:
How much of that expertise can the outside world actually see?
We recently began benchmarking the external visibility of executives at mid-market banks. Our initial sample includes 25 leaders, so this is early research rather than a definitive industry study. We’re continuing to expand the dataset and refine the peer groups.
But even at this stage, the differences are hard to miss.
Executives with comparable responsibilities can have dramatically different external footprints. Some regularly appear in media, on stages and in industry conversations. Others have built meaningful audiences of their own.
And some accomplished banking executives are difficult to find beyond their corporate biography, press releases and occasional company announcement.
That may be a bigger business issue than it initially appears.
Your customers are evaluating more than the bank
Banking is built on relationships and trust, and increasingly those relationships begin before someone walks through the door or takes a meeting.
A business owner considering a new banking relationship can research the institution and its leadership in minutes by perusing their respective LinkedIn profiles. A prospective commercial customer might encounter a bank president’s perspective on the local economy or a lender’s commentary on access to capital…or nothing at all.
That external footprint doesn’t close a multimillion-dollar commercial banking relationship by itself.
But it can create familiarity before the first conversation ever happens.
We’ve seen that dynamic with one bank president we’ve worked with. Our assessment identified LinkedIn as a significant visibility gap, so we developed a more intentional strategy around the platform. He subsequently landed a $4 million business opportunity that originated through a LinkedIn relationship.
That’s one example, not evidence that LinkedIn is the answer for every banking executive.
The more important question is whether each bank knows where those opportunities exist across its own leadership team.
Talent sees your executives, too
The same principle applies to recruiting.
A talented technology executive considering two banks isn’t only comparing compensation and job descriptions. They’re looking at leadership, culture, innovation, and career opportunities.
If a bank says technology transformation is a strategic priority but its technology leaders have virtually no external presence, there’s very little evidence supporting that story outside the organization’s own marketing.
The same applies to commercial banking, wealth management, operations and other areas where banks are competing aggressively for experienced talent.
Executive visibility can give people outside the organization a window into the quality of leadership inside it.
Community leadership should be visible
Regional banks occupy a particularly interesting position because their executives often have influence extending well beyond financial services.
They sit on boards, support economic-development initiatives, and work closely with universities and nonprofits. They understand the challenges facing employers in their markets.
Yet our early research suggests that considerable amounts of that authority can remain disconnected from the bank’s broader external presence.
That creates another question worth asking:
Does the market understand the role your executives actually play in the community?
For a regional institution, that is part of the bank’s reputation.
The competitive comparison may be the most useful part
Looking at one executive in isolation only tells you so much.
The analysis becomes more interesting when we begin comparing similar leaders.
Imagine three competing regional banks operating in the same market.
One has a CEO who regularly discusses economic conditions with local and trade media. Its CIO speaks about AI and cybersecurity. Its commercial banking leader publishes useful perspectives for business owners.
Another has equally accomplished executives doing equally interesting work, but almost none of it is visible externally.
From an operational standpoint, those leadership teams could be comparable.
From the perspective of a prospective customer, recruit, journalist, conference organizer or community partner, they may look very different.
That’s the visibility gap we’re interested in understanding.
It may not be the CEO who needs more visibility
This has become one of the more interesting questions coming out of the first 25 profiles.
For years, executive visibility has largely been treated as CEO visibility.
That may be too narrow.
A bank could already have a well-known president while significantly underleveraging the people immediately around that person.
Perhaps the commercial banking leader should become a recognizable voice among business owners.
Perhaps the CIO should represent the bank in conversations about AI and technology.
Perhaps the CHRO has something meaningful to say about workforce development in the region.
Perhaps an emerging executive should begin building external credibility now because that person is part of the bank’s long-term succession strategy.
The goal shouldn’t necessarily be more visibility everywhere.
It should be understanding which leaders, topics, audiences and channels matter most.
A question banking leaders may want to ask
Our sample of 25 is too small to establish a definitive benchmark for mid-market banking. We’re continuing the research, and I expect some of our assumptions will change as the dataset grows.
But I think there’s already a useful exercise for bank leadership teams.
Take your CEO, president, CIO, commercial banking leader, CFO and other key executives and ask:
If a prospective customer, recruit, community partner or journalist researched these people today, what would they find?
Then ask a harder question:
What would they find if they researched the same executives at your closest competitors?
That’s where this gets interesting.