Coeur d'Alene-based Mountain West Bank promoted Besse Bailey to regional market president in December. In that role, she'll oversee commercial lending and business banking initiatives across the bank’s Inland Northwest footprint. 

Bailey, 45, has 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and was previously the bank’s senior vice president and commercial manager. She started her career in banking as a commercial lender at the Coeur d’Alene branch of FirstBank Northwest, which later was acquired by Spokane-based Sterling Savings Bank, before Sterling was acquired by Umpqua Holdings Corp.

Bailey joined Mountain West Bank in 2007 as vice president and professional/commercial banking manager.

Bailey grew up in Post Falls and has a degree in finance from Western Washington University. She is a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School, a three-year program that focuses on risk management, financial performance, and leadership. 

Mountain West Bank operates 21 branches, financial service centers, and lending centers throughout Idaho and Eastern Washington. It is a division of Montana-based Glacier Bancorp Inc. 

The Journal met with Bailey recently to discuss what drew her to banking, what challenges she faces, and what she hopes to accomplish in her new role. 

What made you want to go into banking? 

I kind of fell into it. I don’t think anyone is like ‘I want to be a banker when I grow up.’ After I graduated college, I spent a couple of years as a ski bum, spending time at different ski resorts. Then in the summer, I would wait tables in the San Juan Islands (Washington), just working multiple jobs to pay off my student debt.

Then my parents suggested I get a real job, and I thought: How am I going to get a real job? This is a great life, ski in the winter, and I get to be in the San Juan Islands in the summer, and it's beautiful. But I looked in the paper and saw that FirstBank Northwest was hiring for a commercial loan assistant. I had no idea what the job was and just fell into it. 

Did you get a graduate degree in banking to grow into leadership roles? 

Yes. The banking school helps you understand how the whole industry works. The nice thing is they have leadership classes, and asset liability classes, and they talk about economics. For a long time, I didn’t know if I wanted to be a banker. But then I moved from the Coeur d’Alene branch to the Spokane branch in 2011 and did Leadership Spokane in 2012, I just got to know more about Spokane and meet people here.

What type of leadership is needed in banking? 

The biggest thing I learned is to be open and listen and learn from the people you work with. Probably the best thing I learned in leadership is how to help guide people to get them where they don’t even know they want to be.

I’ve had staff who have gone through the same experience as me—not knowing what I want to be when I grow up—but you can see the potential in them and you can see how amazing they are, but they can’t see it in themselves. So you learn how to guide them and grow their confidence in themselves so that they can grow into the positions they don’t even know they’ll be good at, but you know they’ll fit into.

That’s probably been the best part of leadership for me; watching and supporting my staff and the people I work with grow and be promoted within the bank. 

What are some obstacles you see in your new role? 

I grew up in the commercial side of the business, and as the regional market president, I’ll need to understand the retail side of our branches better. Things like, what our branches are tasked with, the adversities they face, and how I can support them more.

It will involve understanding the compliance side of retail and how staffing can help, because they see ebbs and flows in workload depending on if it’s a payday or a Friday when it's busy. It’s about getting customers in and out in a timely manner but taking care of their needs. 

What advice do you have for others looking to follow in your footsteps? 

Always invest in yourself and others around you by giving back in your time and talent. I think giving back to the community has really paid off for me. It just makes me feel whole as a person, and it helps the other nonprofits and communities around you.

The same goes for giving your time and talent to your staff. I’ve had some great mentors as I came along, and I really owe a lot to them, so I make sure to give back to those around me to help them be successful. And also invest time in yourself to reenergize yourself in what you do.