Roundtable Rule: Wintrust Business Credit Takes A Collaborative Approach to Business

Wintrust Business Credit, a division of Wintrust Bank that provides asset-based lines of credit and term loans for middle-market companies, was built on a foundation of collaboration. Robert Shanahan, president of Wintrust Business Credit, founded the group 16 years ago, and while it started as a one-man show, he has since formed a “roundtable” of executives that contribute greatly to the company’s success and continued advancement.

“Of course, somebody has to ‘be the boss’ and make the ultimate decision, but our style of leadership is not an ‘authoritarian’ process; it’s built on collaborating, conversing and adding to the formula we create together,” Shanahan says.

Collaboration is essential to Wintrust Business Credit, as it provides for broad-based experiential and learning opportunities. While Wintrust Business Credit is like other organizations in terms of having a top-down corporate structure, the weight of opinion and trust at the company can come from all directions. The company’s leaders listen to employees’ new ideas and are more than willing to incorporate them to improve the business. Shanahan says this structure allows for some less experienced people in the room to gain knowledge and experience by engaging in the thought and decision-making processes in real time. He also believes the convergence of experience from everyone within the company results in the best answers for any issues the team is facing.

In addition, prioritizing collaboration allows the group’s executive team to foster the next generation of Wintrust Business Credit’s leaders. Shanahan believes it’s incumbent upon himself and the executive team to provide opportunities for others to learn the skills he sees as requirements to run the company.

“You have to put people in decision-making situations to learn themselves; you can’t make every decision for them,” Shanahan says.

As Wintrust Business Credit comes closer to implementing succession plans, it has been more important than ever to let employees experience situations by themselves or for Shanahan to extract himself from some of the processes to see how others operate and to give them the confidence to make tough decisions themselves.

In addition to collaboration, Wintrust Business Credit places an emphasis on the individual, including their ideas, goals and response to certain styles of leadership. Shanahan personally customizes his style of management with individuals he works with, understanding that there are different types of people who are more comfortable with different deliveries of management.

“Baked within my management repertoire are multiple different styles based on who I’m interacting with,” Shanahan says. “As a leader, you learn to be flexible and you ultimately apply what works to get you where you and your team need to be.”

The Wintrust Business Credit executive team prioritizes having as much direct access to the larger team as possible. In addition to holding weekly update meetings, leadership also offers bi-weekly office hours during which the team can discuss the various challenges and solutions across the company’s existing portfolio, and those arising as the team reviews prospective new borrowing relationships. The company’s leaders encourage open dialogue in a casual setting during office hours to help facilitate a more significant collaborative approach to problem solving.

To further emphasize the development of its employees, Wintrust Business Credit values both individual and team development through formal leadership training programs and highly structured and effective mentorship programs. This encourages cross-departmental collaboration and the exchange of values beyond the immediate team dynamic on both business and personal levels. •