Independent Banker - December 2021 - 40

LESS THAN $250 MILLION
KEY COMMUNITY BANK:
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
BY ROSHAN MCARTHUR
A
t the heart of Key Community
Bank's work culture is
connection. The leaders of the Inver
Grove Heights, Minn., community
bank encourage communication
and learning, instilling a sense of
camaraderie among their small team.
The $80 million-asset community
bank has one branch and 13 employees.
Within that tightly knit group, there's
the bank's leadership team, comprising
president and CEO Greg Dennis,
chief lending officer Jon Girard, vice
president of operations and compliance
Kristine Hendrickson, and executive
vice president and chief financial
officer Michele Boeder. Dennis says the
four leaders function as a unit to make
sure Key Community Bank's culture is
open and encouraging.
" We have the simplest of simple
mission statements that I think tries
to encompass what our culture is, "
he says. " Our mission is, 'Making life
better.' And that's for our employees
and customers-everybody that we
work with. We try to live that with
our employees every day, and we all
interact with all of our employees
every day, so that's where it begins. "
Keeping up communication
The leadership team has an opendoor
policy and hosts weekly meetings
for all employees where each person
is encouraged to speak up about what
they are working on and voice any
concerns they may have. Keeping
the lines of communication open has
allowed the community bank to foster
mentoring relationships, empower
all staff to make decisions and guide
employees to positions that work best
for them.
Key Community Bank
Inver Grove Heights, Minn.
Assets: $80 million
keycommunitybank.com
Dennis admits that the bank's size
Be willing to do any job
As a small organization, the team at Key Community Bank has
learned to be flexible. So, when it hires new team members, the
community bank looks for people willing to try new things.
Executive vice president and chief financial officer Michele Boeder says
the leadership team sets the example they want to see. " We are all willing
to do any job as leaders, " she adds. " If that means answering phones,
making coffee, vacuuming the floor, whatever it is that needs to get done,
we're probably going to do it first rather than ask someone else to do it. "
That way, instead of telling people what to do, they're showing them.
" We've got to have done it before in order to train somebody else how to
do it, " says president and CEO Greg Dennis.
makes achieving those goals easier.
" We don't have to have specific job
descriptions to try to fit people into, "
he says. " We're in a position where
we can make people work to their
strengths. It's our job as management
to put a team together so that the
strengths are complemented by
people who may have different
strengths. People appreciate when
somebody else is better at something
than they are, but they're also
appreciated for what they bring. "
This flexibility helped Key
Community Bank through the early
stages of the pandemic, especially
when it came to the Paycheck
Protection Program (PPP). " We
just figured it out on the fly, as did
everybody, " Dennis says, " but I think
we did a great job together. It was just
a matter of everybody pitching in, and
that's part of the culture of everybody
trying to support each other and help
each other do what needs to be done. "
And when there are successes like
that, the community bank celebrates
36 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q December 2021
http://www.keycommunitybank.com
Independent Banker - December 2021

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