In her two years of working as a
broadcast journalist at a local television
station, Nik Khan saw lots of exciting
things and enjoyed reporting about interesting
events.
But after covering a story, she hated
just walking away.
"It was frustrating, because you never
got to get in and solve the problem. You
couldn't help the people involved."
She learned her true calling wasn't
reporting but serving.
Now as a district manager for Wells
Fargo, where she oversees 10 community
banks in Reno, Khan gets plenty of
opportunity to serve through her work
with customers and the bank's team
members.
"I love what I do," she says.
After she left broadcasting, she took a
job as a part-time teller, figuring that a
bank would pay well and she might enjoy
customer service. At first she looked at
the job as a means to an end, but it
became an end in itself as Khan discovered
potential opportunities. She soon
became an agent officer, the precursor to
branch management, then a branch manager
and then district manager in January.
Khan, who grew up in Incline Village
and attended the University of Nevada,
Reno, says the same competitive spirit
that helped her excel in sports in high
school helped her reach new heights in
banking.
"Challenges are very interesting to me,
and I'm driven to them.When I set my
sights on what I want, I find out what I
need to get it."
She also attributes her success
to the mentors she found at
Wells Fargo. "Every manager I
worked under provided the
path." Each time she asked,
"What can I do to take the next
step?" someone was right there
to help her, she says.
As district manager, she still
enjoys lots of direct contact with
customers. She chats with them
when she visits each of the
banks she oversees and sits in
the lobby for a while to see the
operations from their perspectives.
Wells Fargo strives to contact
its customers once every 60
days, and Khan has her own list
of people to call from families
with car loans and checking
accounts at the bank to big
businesses with lines of credit.
She also still hears from customers
in Carson City, where
she was a branch manager, who
keep her up to date on what's
going on, whether it's the arrival
of a new grandchild or the
launch of a new business.
The most important trait of
a good manager, Khan says, is
communication. She says the
best way to advance in a career
is to ask for feedback and really
listen. Khan says she asks her
own boss regularly what she can
do to improve, and asks the
people she supervises what she
can do to be a better manager.
Sometimes it's hard to take criticism,
she says, but the information
helps her improve.
"She's passionate about her
team," says Sean French,Wells
Fargo's community banking
president for northern Nevada.
"She creates a really healthy
environment. People feel comfortable
saying what's on their
minds and throwing ideas out.
They feel supported enough
that they know they can make a
decision. She loves them and
would do anything for them. It's
neat to watch."
Another reason Khan has
risen quickly at Wells Fargo is
her focus on the customer,
French says. "Every decision she
makes, every strategy she creates,
every plan she puts together
is centered around the customer."
Khan says her toughest
career decision was when she
took a job to manage two
branches in Carson City. The
promotion meant commuting
from Reno as well as learning a
whole new customer base, and
Khan questioned whether she
wanted to leave the familiar
Reno territory. But the move
allowed her to diversify her
experience, and she's glad she
did it.
Although she enjoyed her
time in broadcasting, Khan says
she made the right choice to
switch to banking. She loves her
job. On the way home late from
work recently, she was talking to
her mom on the phone. "You're
just leaving work so late?" her
mom asked.
"Yeah, the time just got away
from me," Khan replied. And it
was true, Khan says. She hadn't
stayed late because she was
under a frantic deadline. She
just lost track of time because
she was enjoying herself.
