Social Capital

Social Capital
Question
Answered

Take-Away-Applications (TAAPs)
EXAMPLE #1
1.     Concept: Social Capital is productive potential resulting from strong relationships, goodwill, trust and cooperative effort.

Application: As a commercial banker, I am always aware of the need to develop my social capital.  I know that any interaction with a new person can be one way to expand that network and impact my professional environment.  Over the past year or so, I have purposely spent time in a few areas.  First, I focus some energy with LinkedIn.  Within my connections, there are many that I do not know very well.  On a weekly basis, I attempt to connect with one of those acquaintances to further that relationship and uncover new connections or opportunities that could potentially benefit my career going forward.  Along those same lines, I also focus on people that I serve alongside with on various not for profit organizations.  In many cases, these are business leaders that need to know more about Frost Bank.  I know that, in order to grow, Frost needs to consistently share our story and culture with more people to continue raising the awareness of our company.  My social capital has also expanded with my community involvement.  The process of becoming more engaged and involved in the community takes time and effort.  However, it is critical for business development and long term success.

2.     Concept: Development Plan for a credit analyst

Application: At Frost, our analysts and younger bankers want to learn from others and figure out a way to advance their career.  They are eager to learn more and want to be exposed to more banking scenarios and experiences.  First, in terms of competencies, the most basic is financial anlaysis and having a thorough understanding of a company’s financial statements.  These skills are developed primarily through RMA training and working on various types of transactions.  As anlaysts see more types of companies, they become more comfortable with the basic concepts.  Second, one of the experiences that is necessary is the credit approval process.  Our analysts need to be able to present a new opportunity for approval, explain our recommendation to the credit officer and, most importantly, anticipate possible questions, concerns, and issues.  Third, the relationship component is valuable to continue developing as a banker.  The primary way to make progress with this aspect is to shadow bankers and ask to be included on client meetings.  This is the best way to witness the process of a client call and understand the back and forth interaction.  They quickly learn that every call is different and the banker needs to adjust to the client.  I benefited from this process earlier in my career and am willing to listen and teach younger bankers as well as it makes our company more efficient.
 
EXAMPLE #2
Idiosyncratic Deals (I-Deals):
At my current firm, travel is done quite frequently. I have negotiated a deal with my manger and the client to limit my travel from a bi-weekly basis to an as necessary basis (for major events). My manager and client have been flexible and have allowed me to do this while I attend Grad School. I currently work remotely from home and only have to travel occasionally.
Job Design:
Within my firm, employees are allowed to alter some of the jobs/tasks that they are assigned to do. For example, when I first started out in IT Security I was doing all things IT Security (IAM, DR, Risk Assessments), however, as my career progressed I was able to work on things other than IT Security. I was able to work on other projects such as those in management. Most of these changes came from me (bottom-up) but I’ve also had my career counselor and managers assist in finding me other things to do (top-down). This is an example of both job rotation and job crafting.