Photo courtesy of Essex Bank
Lynn Giroux
President and CEO, Essex Bank
Industry experience: 43 years
Lynn Giroux has spent over 20 years at Essex Bank before being named the bank’s brand-new president and CEO. Giroux began her career in human resources but quickly gained tools in other areas such as branch administration, IT, compliance and marketing. Having worked in various areas of the bank, she believes this will help her in her new leadership role. In her prior roles, Giroux was credited with fostering the bank’s talent pipeline and said she hopes to provide the next generation of bankers with opportunities to grow.
Q: You worked your way up through Essex Bank to become its top executive. Do you think that motivates or gives employees that feeling that they, too, can replicate that journey?
A: I think both my journey and [former CEO Diane Arnold’s] journey showed that it can be done. It takes a lot of determination and grit, and sometimes resilience, because not everything goes your way all the time. Things have not been handed to me. I worked very hard for them, but I had a lot of great people and mentors along the way, too. So I think that’s important: paying it forward to be mentors for others in the bank.
We keep expressing that thought to the [bank’s] growing leaders. We’ve had certain programs where we’ve brought along emerging leaders, and we’ve participated in the Connecticut Bankers Association Aspire program. We sent some of our newer leaders so they could gain those leadership and soft skills, which I think sometimes are missing in people’s leadership capabilities. They might have the technical ability, but they need to focus on the soft skills, and I think that I’ve been able to garner that throughout my years. I’ve had HR under my hat ever since I came here 26 years ago, on top of branch administration, and then throughout the years took on other departments. So I think it all plays into us, bringing ourselves along, but also bringing others along too.
Q: Like you mentioned, you’ve worn lots of hats. How important do you think it is for a CEO to have a varying skill set?
A: I think it makes me more a well-rounded leader. Honestly, when I look at other leaders in the industry, sometimes they’re more siloed. So I think having this variety under my belt really allows me to appreciate everyone’s efforts at the table, and that one part of the bank isn’t necessarily more important than the other. Obviously, some parts of the bank are revenue drivers and others are the expense part of the bank, but it takes everything to make it work.
Q: Throughout recent years, the banking industry has seen gender diversity in leadership improve. How do you hope to inspire the next generation of female bank leaders?
A: I hope to inspire other female bank leaders, just by my own efforts. I think our bank is a little bit unique in its structure, just because two-thirds of our executive management team is women at this point. Even on our board of directors, almost 50 percent are females, so that’s unusual in this industry. I do believe we will constantly have a road ahead of us as females but I would like to think as we move forward in this day and age, especially with DEI coming into play so importantly, that a lot of people’s minds have opened over the past few years. That people are recognized more for their accomplishments than for whether you’re male or female.
I remember, 25 years ago, I was going to a conference with my spouse, and people would walk up to him and say, “Oh, what do you do at the bank?” And he finally had to take his name tag off and say she’s the one that works at the bank. That doesn’t happen anymore, thank God, but I still have those scars. So I do believe we’ve come a long way, and every one of us here, female leaders, are proactive with those under us, having them have experiences and opportunities to engage in leadership skills by going to conferences and training sessions because we want to pay it forward.
Q: How important is it to have a seat at the table to be able to represent your community and also from a business point of view, being able to understand your customer more?
A: I think it’s really critical. You have to have balance, because everyone connects with different types of people. The whole diversity component is critical to making that community connection. We have our tagline that we instituted back in October when we changed our name from Essex Savings Bank to Essex Bank: “All about relationships.” And it is all about relationships. We don’t want to be looking superficially at the person on the outside or the business. We want to dig deep and become colleagues and understand the business needs and understand the loan needs and the community needs.
We’ve tried to broaden our demographics here through having a seat at the table, being proactive in engaging in the community, through our volunteer efforts and through just being an active part of the community, not a bystander.
That’s the piece that I think I’ve always been taught. My father was my mentor. He was never a bystander, and he was a banker so I guess that’s how I got into banking to begin with, way back in the ’80s. But he taught me never to be so fearful, to [never] stop doing something out of paralysis, to face fear, to be able to keep moving forward. That in the banking field and the community field means continuing to look at technologies that keep that omnichannel presence available to every demographic, and to be there for them.
Q: When it comes to the next generation of bankers, how important is mentoring to ensuring the industry progresses?
A: It’s so important. We want to remain viable, and technology is key. We’ve got to look at AI now but we also have to keep the people part in mind. I think that’s the one thing with the next generation, the younger generation, sometimes picking up the phone and talking to somebody is kind of scary, right? ‘Oh, I want to text.’ So it’s bringing that compassion piece to the table that they might be missing. They’ve got the technology, they can run circles around me. So if I can teach them the humanity part that’s what makes a community bank survive. We’re a special piece of the community, and we want to stay that way. So if we can ingrain that in the younger generation, then they’ll take a more holistic view of everything going forward, and they’ll be leaders.
Giroux’s Favorite Cycling Adventures
- Cycling up Mt. Ventoux in France
- Participating in a tour group through the Alps
- Cycling through Glacier National Park in Montana on the Road to the Sun
- Vermont backroads
- Colorado bike paths
