Tim Mayopoulos has his work cut out for him. The former Fannie Mae CEO is now CEO of the FDIC-operated Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, which was created when Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by regulators.
His goal? Restoring confidence. TechCrunch reports that late Monday evening, Mayopoulos sent an email to the bank’s clients, stating that the bank was open and it was business as usual. He reportedly ended the email by saying, “We look to restore your confidence and support you and your companies at this time.”
That may not be such an easy task, given depositors’ attempts to withdraw $42 billion in a single day.
Fortune’s Sheryl Estrada asked experts how he might approach what looks like a Herculean endeavor.
“CEOs should do two things,” Simmons University president and coauthor of The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient than Before, Lynn Perry Wooten says. “First, they should assess how the team—individually and collectively—performed during the crisis. Second, CEOs should be intentional and strategic about what they want to see in their team moving forward, and examine how the current composition matches up against that.”
She says the key qualities CEOs should look for in the team are “its resiliency and ability to create a climate of trust and psychological safety.”
She warns that a lot of leaders fail to learn from crises. Some think it’ll never happen again. Others fail to seek out diverse perspectives, which are “required to make necessary decisions and changes.”
Yes. That means hyper-homogenized teams and “yes men” are out.
Wooten advises finding people from different backgrounds. CEOs should create a post-crisis review team. And she says that the team should have different perspectives, knowledge, and expertise.
Mayopoulos said he has been evaluating the current management team and is impressed with their “professionalism, focus, client centricity, and resilience.”
The bank is open for business and the financial segments are scrutinizing performance.
Hint: watchful eyes can gather valuable leadership lessons, regardless of the outcome.
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