Proud winner of the 2021 Pacific Northwest Admin Awards Leadership Award

1. How many total years has this Nominee served as an Administrative Professional throughout their career?

Shannon has served as an Administrative and Executive Professional over 22 years, which includes DoubleGTV (where Shannon also filled the role of Publicist), Nathan Associates, Verizon Networkfleet, Teradata, moovel Group (a Daimler company), and most recently in her current role at Umpqua Bank, a $30 billion regional bank on the West Coast.

2. How many years has this Administrative Professional been employed by their current organization or executive?

Shannon has been in her current position as Executive Assistant at Umpqua Bank for nearly 2 years.

3. Why does this Administrative Professional deserve to win an Admin Award? Include details such as the specific or unique  contributions they’ve made to their organization, what elevates this candidate from their peers, what makes them a highly effective and invaluable Administrative Professional, what obstacles they may have had to overcome, examples of their perseverance, loyalty, etc.

Shannon is highly deserving of the 2021 Admin Awards recognition, and is an exemplary Administrative Professional. Shannon is always anticipating and responding to the needs of our 100+ associate team before I even know about them. She keeps things moving forward with all of my direct reports, which can be a heavy lift at times. Shannon proactively makes me aware of any deadlines and ensures we are all in alignment to meet our goals. She clears hurdles quickly, and indeed makes the impossible happen on a daily basis! Though Shannon has been at Umpqua Bank less than most EAs, she has become a go-to resource for the entire administrative team. Other senior EAs have frequently complimented Shannon for her partnership and work.

Shannon keeps us all organized with the latest updates on technology within the bank and is a step ahead of the game at all times. The Microsoft Teams that she's created, and the meticulous organization of files, information and folders ensures we have everything at our fingertips. I count on accessing the latest information on our Teams channels, and Shannon has everything organized and at the ready. Whenever I ask Shannon if she has a file that I cannot locate and think is long-gone, she finds it immediately - again doing the impossible. Shannon keeps our meetings running on time and as planned leveraging technology and all tools at her disposal. 

Shannon also created a tutorial on a social networking tool, referred to as “The Influencer,” and shared with all of us, so that we could all espouse the virtues of the bank on our own social channels. She is frequently posting updates on the bank’s successes, sharing comments and updates on the latest activities to ensure her networks are updated, and has even been recognized as one of the bank’s top Social Influencers with her insightful posts and positive bank updates.

Shannon has also scheduled large meetings with hundreds of associates from across the organization in our Associate Resource Groups, panel discussions, internal and external advisory boards, and executive team meetings. She independently creates outstanding meeting materials, agendas, and content, and keeps everyone on-point with the run-of-show guidelines she creates and sends before the meetings. Shannon’s presentation creation skills have been recognized bank-wide, and other EAs frequently compliment and emulate Shannon’s templates and presentation graphics.

Shannon has truly proven to be an exemplary leader, associate and colleague in all of her responsibilities, leading the way for other EAs to follow.

4. Is there anything else you think the judges need to know about this candidate? If so, please share any additional thoughts, information, insights etc. that you believe would be helpful to the judges in determining this candidate’s unique qualifications in this award category.

Not only does Shannon perform at a very high level as an Administrative Professional, but she also is very involved in her community. During the pandemic, she wanted to make a difference to her local neighborhood community, the Portland metro area community, and beyond. Shannon lives along a city park walking path and created a beautiful rock garden with encouraging and positive messages for walkers to enjoy. In addition, she had a food and essentials pantry built to sit along the pathway. Originally, she kept it stocked with non-perishable food items, paper goods, games, and books. There is now a constant flow of items coming in and going out with heavy participation from the neighborhood. Shannon also spent several hours making sack lunches and delivering to The Blanchet House, a nonprofit social services organization located in downtown Portland that provides food, clothing, and housing programs to people in need. Early on during lockdown when face coverings were difficult to obtain, Shannon got her creative juices flowing and came up with a face covering made from old t-shirts. She then taught herself how to use a video editing software program to create an informative, and slightly humorous instruction video to share. She also created a Stay-at-Home Activities Facebook group that she nurtured and grew and eventually was approached to be featured in a paid Facebook campaign that received 4.2 million views. The group featured all entertainment options for lockdown, such as: musicians putting on virtual concerts, free educational class offerings, and kid crafts and activities to name a few.

Shannon has led a few Meetup groups over the past 12 years. Meetup.com brings individuals with similar interests together to get involved in activities and create friendships. In her current Meetup group, before the pandemic, she created a book club that met in person monthly, organized hikes, dining out gatherings, and zoo outings. She continued the book club virtually and added a film club, happy hours, and game nights as well.

Shannon writes a money-saving blog in her spare time. She informs her subscribers on where to find free or cheap items and provides tips and tricks on how to stretch their dollars.

The Leadership Award:

1. Please describe the leadership qualities that this Administrative Professional demonstrates in their role and provide specific examples or details to support each of these qualities and how they are demonstrated through their administrative role. Leadership qualities that you might speak to could include (but are certainly not limited to) qualities such as determination, focus, confidence, integrity, passion, innovation, patience, decisiveness, open-mindedness, empowerment, generosity, persistence etc.

Shannon has taken the CliftonStrengths by Gallup assessment and her top 5 identified strengths encompass who she is as a leader:

· Analytical: Shannon has the ability to think 3 steps ahead and think about all factors that might affect a situation. She is able to anticipate any roadblocks that may arise. Her seemingly clairvoyant approach has led to the department running smoothly with few issues to contend with. In addition, she can take a flawed situation or process and determine the reasons and causes to make logical improvements based on historical data. 

· Maximizer: Shannon focuses on finding ways to stimulate personal and group excellence. She’s never satisfied with mediocre and even will strive to transform something strong into something superb. Not only does she look to produce the best results, but she also recognizes other’s strengths and encourages their participation in those areas. Attention to detail is important to her as is an impressive end result.

· Empathy: Shannon has the ability to sense the emotions of those around her and put herself in her colleagues’ shoes to understand their work styles. She knows that customizing her approach to the person she is dealing with is of utmost importance, and in turn, produces better results. She works closely with the leadership team along with the entire department. The associates of the bank’s Global Payments & Deposits know that Shannon is always willing to help with care, patience, and a smile.

· Ideation: Shannon is creative and strong in brainstorming. Uniqueness is something she strives for so that a fresh approach brings fun and fascinating ideas to the workplace. As the world keeps changing, so do her ideas to keep employees engaged and interested at the bank.

· Responsibility: Shannon takes pride in owning anything she commits to and follows it through to completion. She never misses a deadline and holds others accountable for theirs. She follows up to assure that everyone else maintains their responsibility on projects and timelines. While this is challenging at times, she is persistent and honors the expectations of the Executive leadership and bank goals.

Other critical qualities Shannon possesses are:

· Hunger for Knowledge: Shannon consistently seeks ways to improve both her hard and soft skills. She learns the latest technology used at the bank to sharpen her own skills and share that information with others. She is currently determined to become fluent in Spanish and is taking intense courses to achieve this goal. She’s prioritized getting involved in the Administrative Professional community to obtain additional soft skills and exchange tips and tricks with other Executive Assistants.

· Confidant: As it’s absolutely critical to keep confidences when working closely with Executives, Shannon can be trusted. I know that the most confidential information will be handled with care.

2. Please provide specific examples of how this Administrative Professional demonstrates a passion for leading people, ideas, projects etc. towards success. Include examples of how this Administrative Professional shares their knowledge, expertise and experience with others in the organization and how this positively impacts the organization.

Shannon was the first at our bank (a 4,000+ associate organization) to leverage a live webcast technology, Microsoft Teams Live Event, to help us launch informational podcasts that we refer to as the "Ask the Expert" monthly educational series. Shannon scripts, produces and advises groups of executives on live sessions viewed by more than 300 associates at the bank on a monthly basis. She proactively shared this knowledge with other EAs at the bank so that they could leverage the live webcast for bank-wide meetings. She set up a training meeting after creating a PowerPoint presentation, which included a mock Live Event, assigning each of the attendees a role. In addition, she offered to attend their broadcasts as a consultant to help facilitate their meetings initially until they were comfortable enough to administer the meetings independently. Shannon enjoys knowledge sharing amongst her peers in order to enable each department to be more successful by utilizing the tools that are available. 

Though Shannon has been at Umpqua Bank less than most EAs, she has become a go-to resource for the entire administrative team. Other senior EAs have frequently complimented Shannon for her partnership and work. She continues to make it a goal to bring, at a minimum, quarterly presentations to the team to share what she has learned that can benefit all. While the bank does not have an official onboarding program, Shannon has created a process, which includes files, that she has implemented for new employees within our department and has also shared with the EA team.

Shannon also played a pivotal role in the bank’s success within the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provided forgivable loans and grants to businesses struggling during the pandemic, to ensure they remained viable post-pandemic. When the bank was looking for volunteers to help facilitate the PPP borrower application approval process, Shannon was quick to raise her hand to support the effort. In addition to fulfilling her daily responsibilities, Shannon worked tirelessly and set a tremendous example, reviewing, organizing and managing thousands of PPP applications. This process proved instrumental in allowing businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest and California to survive and even thrive post-pandemic. And not only did Shannon support the effort, but she was recognized as the top loan reviewer, and highest-performing team member, during the several month process, quickly setting a leadership example of how to manage the work, working days, nights and weekends, and doing it all with a smile and positive attitude… all while maintaining the responsibilities of her important “day job”! The effort was new to everyone, so the learning curve was steep for all. She stepped up with her strong process improvement skills and technology knowledge with her PPP team. Once she understood what needed to be done, she quickly identified the most efficient way to complete the tasks, and communicated to the team to streamline the process.

Shannon has been instrumental in connecting our teams, whether we are in the office or in a remote working environment. Shannon coordinated and led an internal associate Global Payments & Deposits Advisory Council, which was pivotal in providing the bank with employee feedback and strategic ideas on ways to continually improve for our clients and associates. Shannon organized information, meetings, feedback sessions and advisory panels in an effort to identify the most pressing needs for improvement and focus as a leadership team. She created action plans, timelines and project outlines to execute on the team’s ideas, and held the teams accountable to key deadlines. At the end of the day, through her tireless efforts, Shannon was responsible for enabling the bank and the teams within Global Payments and Deposits to deliver results across multiple strategic initiatives – results which will benefit our clients and our employees to ensure we deliver an exceptional banking and working experience respectively. Other EAs have taken Shannon’s lead, and are creating similar internal Advisory Councils within the bank to leverage off the good work and commitment that Shannon delivered. 

Additionally, in an effort to keep the teams motivated across the West Coast footprint, Shannon adeptly organized multiple themed regional year-end holiday gathering via Teams that was lighthearted and fun, with games, scavenger hunts, baby photo contests, giveaways, etc. She also organized fun happy hours for the leadership team. And Shannon keeps a "Fun Working Remotely" interactive Microsoft Teams channel live every Friday with interesting questions, quotes and though provoking comments that are always positive and fun.

Shannon has done an outstanding job of keeping so many teams and councils organized, creating multiple decks, Microsoft Teams sites, meetings and other tools to ensure we make the most of our time together. The Global Payments & Deposits Advisory Council was particularly complex, as Shannon had multiple teams to organize and groups to maintain. Shannon also is excellent at keeping our All-Hands Meetings organized and running smoothly each month... no small feat. Shannon prides herself on keeping everything sorted, and I know I can always depend on her no matter what!