Tammy McGee, Class of 2015

Tammy McGee
Mid-Atlantic Recruiting Manager, Wells Fargo
Richmond, VA

What is new and exciting with you now or since your time with Lead Virginia?
Close to the end of my time with Lead Virginia, an enterprise-wide reorganization provided me with the opportunity to step into a leadership role for a national recruiting team. This change has challenged me to embrace a number of virtual channels to coach and connect with this team and clients that spans 41 states.

How has your Lead Virginia experience influenced or shaped you as a leader?
After any program, seminar or conference, execution and application of the learning and awareness from the event is critical. I have, on more than one occasion, revisited Lead Virginia notes, articles and websites, even sharing a number of the Commonwealth websites with my team to aid in their understanding of community economics and demographics. For continued growth and development, an individual’s leadership style evolves and changes over time and Lead Virginia has helped in continuing to stretch and strengthen my leadership muscles!

Since Lead Virginia, how have you put your social capital to work?
This is just one of example of how rewarding Lead Virginia was for me. There’s no shame in my game: “Social Capital” was somewhat of a mystery term that was shared in the first session of Lead Virginia. It was repeatedly emphasized and reemphasized over and over until one bus ride with a colleague, now turned an inspirational friend, that changed everything. Social Capital is simply a connection, infusion of ideas, openness and awareness to reality and so much more. Lead Virginia showed us “how” to make those connections from so many perspectives.

What is something that Lead Virginia inspired you to do that you were not doing before your class year?The format of Lead Virginia includes hands-on, in-the-field experience across the Commonwealth. It was through these field experiences that the “business” purpose of Lead Virginia started to take shape for me. Meeting and talking with representatives from the economic development arena and recognizing the need to help in workforce planning created ideas in my head that even today I continue to discuss with other Wells Fargo leaders. I am always evaluating how we can support strategic plans in small communities and how we can better prepare individuals for banking and finance careers.

What did you expect from Lead Virginia going in? Did the program exceed your expectations and broaden your horizons?
Honestly, I did not have any preconceived ideas or expectations of the Lead Virginia program. I would have been wise on my part to have connected with the previous year's Lead Virginia participants so I could have come in better prepared and been more engaged up front, however, I am glad I didn’t talk with anyone prior to attending because I was able to come in without any pre-established judgments and experience the program with an open mind and be a lot more receptive to the learning.