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Pictured from left to right: Kristen Heisey, SVP, Director of Marketing and Client Experience; Amy Doll, SVP, Chief Commercial Banking & Lending Officer; Diane Baker, EVP, Chief Risk Officer.
We’re celebrating International Women’s Day by recognizing the female leaders of our Executive Leadership Team. They have shared their unique perspectives on leadership, how they find balance in their lives, what advice they would give to the next generation of female leaders, and more below. Thank you, Kristen, Amy, & Diane for sharing your wisdom and guidance with us!
Diane Baker
EVP, Chief Risk Officer
Q: Describe your leadership style and what inspired you to be a leader.
A: I have always aspired to be a servant leader. My faith gives me an excellent example of what servant leadership looks like. I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and working as a team. Early in my career I was given the opportunity to attend Leadership York’s Leadership Training Program. It was transformative in that I was linked with two lifelong mentors.
Q: How do you balance career, personal life, and your passions?
A: Working in an organization where my core values are in alignment with the organization is key to keeping me in balance. For example, PeoplesBank’s value of ” Live We Before Me” invites us to the servant leadership style that I strive to employ every day. Additionally our core value of “Care Deeply and Go Further” encourages my passion to serve the greater community. I have a supportive spouse and family who encourage me to excel at work and play.
Q: What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced as a female leader?
A: Accepting that I can’t say yes to every good cause. I’d love to be able to squeeze more volunteer work into my schedule…but that might have to wait for retirement.
Q: What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?
A: Identify what you are passionate about and pursue those passions. Set your priorities based on what’s most important to you and stick to them. Don’t let someone else tell you what success looks like – define it for yourself and achieve it!
Q: What has you most excited about the future?
A: In the near term, enjoying a post-pandemic family vacation and finding “normal” again. Professionally, banking continues to evolve at a rapid pace. I am excited to be a part of creating the future for PeoplesBank.
Amy Doll
SVP, Chief Commercial Banking & Lending Officer
Q: Describe your leadership style and what inspired you to be a leader.
A: I don’t have a single source of inspiration in becoming a leader. I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by great role models in all aspects of my life, whether that’s family and friends, professionally, or participating in various teams and volunteer organizations. The people who surround me are my motivation to continually evolve and improve myself. My focus on continued personal growth, my faith, and my commitment to helping those around me achieve their own goals define what I aspire to be as a leader – an engaged team player who others can trust to be consistently and enthusiastically focused on helping to provide the best opportunities for them personally and our common organizational goals.
Q: How do you balance career, personal life, and your passions?
A: I feel very fortunate that all three areas are closely aligned for me, which makes the balance easier. I’m passionate about the work I do and the positive impact we can make in our community. Our organization’s core values align closely with my own and encourage the opportunity to excel professionally while also spending time pursuing personal growth and being active in the community. Similarly, I have a passion for the outdoors, physical fitness, and inspiring confidence in others by including them in running, biking, and other sports activities. My family and faith have always been my key area of support and a focal point of everything I do.
Q: What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced as a female leader?
A: I’m not sure if this challenge is specific to being a female leader, but I struggle with wanting to always come up with the best solution for everyone and helping to solve every problem. While this can be a positive attribute, I’ve learned that I serve those around me better when I only take on enough that I can be fully engaged in what I am pursuing and trust the strengths of those around me to tackle other items.
Q: What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?
A: Establish your core values and benchmark your success by those values. There may be times you will fail at a task or make the wrong decision, but if you hold true to unwavering values, they will be your compass to learn and grow from those challenges. Plus, those around you will benefit from understanding what is important to you and the consistency in how you lead. Being successful at leading your team to hitting targeted performance metrics is important in business, but how you lead your team is what you will carry longer than the immediate success or failure of hitting a goal.
Q: What has you most excited about the future?
A: This may sound overly simplistic, but I wake up every day feeling excited and grateful to experience a new set of opportunities and challenges. I am able to apply what I’ve previously learned to handle what the future brings with more grace and skill. Professionally, I’m very excited about several initiatives we are working on to use technology to better serve our clients while still maintaining our personal approach to banking relationships.
Kristen Heisey
Kristen HeiseySVP, Director of Marketing & Client Experience
Q: Describe your leadership style and what inspired you to be a leader.
A: I have a collaborative approach to leadership and enjoy bringing people together to brainstorm, problem solve, and create. I am passionate about empowering others to reach their full potential and serving as a catalyst for change, innovation, and growth.
Q: How do you balance career, personal life, and your passions?
A: I have weekly check-ins with myself to review my top goals, both personal and professional, and how I plan to move them forward each week. Planning ahead allows me to make time for the important things in my life. It is also necessary to take time to renew. This is something I have not always done well. We are not machines. Rest and rejuvenation are crucial. Taking time to invest in myself is very important – getting enough sleep, being in nature, meditation and prayer, journaling, exercising, reading, and listening to podcasts fill me up.
Q: What is one of the biggest challenges you have faced as a female leader?
A: A few times earlier in my career I felt underestimated as a leader because I am a woman. However, I can say that I have also worked with some incredible leaders who have given me a chance to lead in new ways that were out of my comfort zone.
Q: What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?
A: It is important to be clear on what is important to you because we really cannot do it all. Career and family are both very important to me. In order to do both well, I consciously made a decision to not seek out jobs that required a lot of travel, and for a season, I took a break serving on community boards when my kids were younger. I also chose a partner who was supportive of my career goals and was willing to support those goals in very practical ways.
Q: What has you most excited about the future?
A: I enjoy mentoring other women leaders. I am excited to see the next generation of female leaders grow and affect the world in greater ways. Professionally, I’m excited to continue to grow in my leadership impact at PeoplesBank. How we engage with our clients is really changing and it is inspiring to find new ways of helping our clients achieve their dreams through the use of technology.