Zach Hosman Nominated for Young Leader Award

Zach Hosman is nominated for the Paducah Sun Young Leader Award. He will be recognized at the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner on Friday, January 31.  We are proud of Zach and grateful to have him on our team!
Below is information shared in the Paducah Sun about Zach.

Director of Residential Mortgage Services, Paducah Bank

Age: 38

Education: Regent University School of Law jurist doctorate - May 2007, Southern Illinois University; bachelor
of arts - May 2004 graduated cum laude; Shawnee Community College, associate of arts - May 2002, graduated with honors; passed Illinois bar exam in 2007; passed Kentucky bar exam in 2009.

Some of Hosman's professional accomplishments include:

• Upon promotion to director of residential mortgage services, became the youngest member of Paducah Bank's leadership team.
• Earned Certified Wealth Strategist (CWS) designation recognized by Cannon Financial Institute in February 2017.
• Nominated for and accepted into US Bank's southeast community banking division's LEAD program for high-performance/high-potential future bank leaders in 2014.

A few of the organizations he has been involved in:

• Paducah Symphony Orchestra board, from 2017 to 2019.
• Member of the Paducah Rotary Club since 2015 and served on the board in 2017 and 2019.
• Family Service Society of Paducah board, from 2014 to 2016.

What is the biggest challenge for a young leader in today's workplace?

It is difficult to list just one answer for this question. I think there are two challenges facing young leaders in the workplace that could each be considered the toughest. The first of the two is leading teammates/employees that are older than you or have been with your company longer. There are numerous articles on the internet that discuss how to adapt to working for a boss that's younger than you, so it is a very real challenge not only for the younger leader, but the older or longer-tenured employee as well. Change is difficult and I think the longer you have been doing things, or a certain process, the harder to accept that change is. But change is also inevitable in today's highly competitive workplace with technology and trends changing seemingly every day.

So when leading teammates that are older than you or have been with the company longer, I believe you need to show them first that you respect their experience and knowledge, listen to them and their ideas, and show them that you want them to succeed. The sooner you can get a co-worker to trust you for the right reasons, believe that you have their best interests at heart, and see that you don't think you know it all, usually the sooner you can build a great relationship with that co-worker and earn their respect. A second real challenge for young leaders I see is being "patient for success." Not to paint younger people with too broad a brush, but when speaking with many employers over the last several years, many have shared that it is good to be ambitious, but with that you need to have some patience. Even for superstar young talents, it is hard to build a reputation with management and your co-workers, in a just week, month, or several months.

Most people simply do not become supervisors within a week of their new employment. This doesn't mean a young person needs to stay in a stagnant situation for 10 years, but it can be a hard lesson for them to realize it may take some time to get to where they want to be. Success, at least most of the time, is a marathon and not a sprint.

What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?

This is another very hard question and I don't think I can give just one answer. There are so many qualities that every leader should possess such as accountability, honesty, vision, transparency, high work ethic, etc. but for brevity's sake I will list two. I believe every good leader must have a high degree of humility and emotional intelligence. Humility, because the best leaders don't ask something of others that they wouldn't do themselves.
Good leaders want to spotlight the success of their "TEAM" not themselves. Good leaders must also be willing to take the lion's share of the blame when things don't go according to plan. Humility is an endearing quality in any person, and it is no different for leaders and their teammates. When an employee knows that their leader doesn't think they are any more important to the success of the team than they are, it can only be a good thing.
Thanks to a certain senior vice president at Paducah Bank, I have become a big fan of "emotional intelligence."
One very basic definition of emotional intelligence is "the ability to understand your emotions and those of other people and to behave appropriately in different situations." In a nutshell, it involves how you interact with other people considering your relationship with them, what they are feeling, their internal states and preferences, how they perceive you and your current state, etc. This characteristic is essential in communicating with your employees and creating positive relationships with them. Without this characteristic you may appear to be "tone deaf" to the pulse of individual teammates or your entire team at that. Not all employees need to be treated the same, but you should treat all employees fairly. Having a high degree of emotional intelligence can help a leader do just that.

What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

I am blessed to work for a company that has numerous highly respected and experienced market leaders and so the main thing I am doing to continue to develop and grow as a leader is observe how these individuals lead their teams and conduct themselves. These men and women have had a great influence on me, and I have learned many things from them that have helped better me as a leader and more importantly, a person. In addition to seeking guidance from mentors at work, which I believe is a must to grow as a leader, I also look to others in my community, my family, and church for examples of leadership and best practices.

To develop as a leader, I know I will have to learn from my mistakes. We all make mistakes, whether at work or home, and if I can learn from an incident, such as how did it get to that point, what could have been done or avoided, etc., then I can hopefully not repeat it and perhaps turn a similar situation in the future, into a positive experience. I will continue to ask others for help and try to continue to increase my skill set through teammates, training and education. For example, being in Leadership Paducah, attending leadership workshops, and applying for Leadership Kentucky.

I also believe the more areas of a company you can have a solid understanding of, the more valuable you are to that company. You don't have to be an expert on all the products, processes and procedures in your company to be able to confidently speak about them to clients, teammates, etc. Always being willing to learn something new and having a well-rounded skill set is essential to becoming the best leader you can be.