Tag Archive for: Erica Klinkowize

Erica Klinkowize: CBNA Treasurer, Citi

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Erica Klinkowize“It can be intimidating in finance when you’re fresh out of college, but I would encourage anyone to not discount their own opinions or gut instincts,” says Erica Klinkowize. “It’s important to differentiate early on between this is who I am and this is who my company is.”

Klinkowize speaks to developing gut instincts, the shorter- and longer-term journeys of networking, and intensive listening.

Hone Your Personal Gut Instinct

After working a short while at Prudential Securities, then at Goldman Sachs for over a decade, moving to Bank of America for seven years, and then to Citi last summer, Klinkowize observed that she, early in her career, internalized a gut instinct that was highly influenced by organizational viewpoints.

She found herself consistently asking what would the company do? While a valuable perspective, she realized it was important to differentiate her own gut instincts as she grew as a leader, so as to discern different perspectives, including what was her own intuition.

“Something would pop up, for example, in a meeting or conversation, and I’d have a negative feeling,” says Klinkowize. “I’d often quash it or question it until I came to a rationalized conclusion or the whole thing dissolved, which is not the same as listening to your gut instinct.”

She intentionally learned, with the help of executive coaching, to develop her gut instincts, recognizing that her emotional responses are often held in her upper stomach where her ribs meet, around her solar plexus: “You should know where your emotions strike you.”

Learning to discern, trust, and develop her gut instincts has been a core component of her leadership journey: “First, you need to be able to identify it: I’m having a feeling. Then you need to name the feeling and ask yourself: What is driving that feeling and is it worthy of speaking up for? Then you ultimately need the self-confidence to speak up, be potentially willing to engage in a disagreement, and simply not question it too much. The more you question it, the more likely you are to miss the appropriate moment to say something, or to lose the feeling entirely. As you move through life, your gut instinct is one thing that stays with you, no matter what you choose.”

Enrich Your Leadership With Exposure

Her background is largely in Treasury, but Klinkowize spent over two years partnering to head up a trading desk for Global Markets at Bank of America before joining Citi and returning to Treasury.

“It’s like riding a bike coming back to Treasury, in that things don’t change that quickly, but I found that I was different,” she observes. “Every experience changes you. Every risk you take, every career move you make, each one enhances your perspective on things, provides you with moments to improve your ability to hone your gut instincts, and increases your understanding of human beings. How you respond in situations changes, and you learn to do things better for everyone around you.”

Klinkowize attributes her recent move to Citi once again to instinct. She loved her team and trading desk journey at Bank of America and the rich connections she made. But when an unexpected opportunity came, along with an interview journey full of sparks and connections, she heeded the call on what was right for her development.

Along with diversifying experiences, she takes inspiration from other leaders and mentors to catalyze her growth.

“I spend time observing the people who I feel are ‘ahead of me’ in a way that I feel matters, and I ask myself what are they really good at – I watch people in meetings, noticing mannerisms, how they sit, how they dress, the speed and cadence of speech, the way they organize a deck or argument. I also note what characteristics I would not want to adopt,” she reflects. “That practice has helped me bring out a wider breadth of traits and abilities within myself.”

Klinkowize feels a big part of her own value as a mentor is her willingness to share openly all kinds of experiences including the most challenging moments of her career, such as going through pregnancy with an unsupportive manager at a previous employer. She sees mentorships as mutually beneficial and useful for reflecting on her own growth.

“Everyone looks at people who they consider successful and thinks it was a straight shot up,” she notes. “But it’s been a very up and down experience. I’ve constantly tried to remind myself that perception is reality and ask myself what am I doing (or accepting) that I need to change, which comes back to gut instinct.”

Network Early and Broadly

While at Columbia working on her MBA, Klinkowize was given the challenge to draw her network, which turned out to be very closed relative to her fellow professional classmates.

“It didn’t really register with me until I got to business school that I needed to network beyond my group and then beyond my organization,” she admits.

A latecomer to networking, initially more comfortable with keeping her head down and doing the work, Klinkowize is now its biggest advocate. She emphasizes the importance of networking early on and broadly – beyond formal programs, beyond your company, beyond your direct area of work.

“When I look back, I saw my (performance) equivalents at Goldman getting promoted faster than I was and only later did I realize that I had done a bad job at networking,” she realizes. “I had done a bad job at those things that felt hard and that I didn’t want to do.”

Klinkowize notes that while she was well-liked, she hadn’t cultivated the professional connections who would be pounding on the table for her at promotion time. Later, she gained that level of sponsorship and really felt the difference in support and validation of having someone put their name and reputation on the line for her.

Getting over her resistance to networking required having patience with the journey: “There’s a short-term experience and a longer-term experience to doing what is hard to do (for you),” notes Klinkowize.

“I’d walk away from a networking session exhausted and needing to recuperate, yet I would have learned new things and heard relatable experiences,” she reflects. “Then, it’s like a butterfly effect. You don’t exactly know how, but every interaction you have with someone makes you feel a certain way and changes your trajectory. It can be five minutes that simply reminds you of something that you forgot about yourself, and it’s revolutionary. Or it’s the fact that you’re now top of mind with that person when the next unexpected opportunity comes up.”

“On the other side of doing the hard thing (networking), you see both how your trajectory changes,” says Klinkowize, “and how it becomes more natural to you.”

Model Presence and Perspective

Klinkowize emphasizes the importance of intensive listening: “It’s about deep breathing, calming yourself, listening and not getting caught up in the chaos or the transactional nature of things but instead sitting back and observing the whole thing.”

She feels team members look to leaders for broadness and expansiveness, and embodying yourself in a meeting as a leader sets a tone for the team in terms of moderating stress.

Klinkowize feels intensive listening also helps her hear people on many levels beyond their words, and she tries to “hear with her gut” – for example, catching that moment when someone on the team suggests an idea and she knows intuitively, that’s it.

Despite days of back-to-back meetings, Klinkowize has stopped multitasking 75% of the time, noting that while her days may take a little longer, her stress levels have plummeted.

When with her daughter, her practice is to be fully present and immersed. She has come to appreciate, and actively chooses to spend, more time outdoors, along with their dog, Ash.

By Aimee Hansen

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Erica Klinkowize, Managing Director, Global FICC ETF Trading, Bank of America

Erica KlinkowizeErica Klinkowize began her career in finance at Goldman Sachs in 2003 and for over a decade, she had various roles that focused primarily on Liquidity.

In July 2014, she made the leap to Bank of America and continued to work in the Liquidity space within Treasury until April 2019. After almost 20 years into her career, Erica shifted her focus from Liquidity and Treasury to Global Markets at Bank of America.

“I have spent the past 8 months building out the central Fixed Income ETF trading desk. While it was an extremely difficult decision to switch directions as it’s easier to stick with what you know, at the heart of it, this was a, likely, once in a lifetime prospect that I could not pass up. The opportunity to build out a new trading business at a world-class organization does not come along very often. To be offered the opportunity to co-lead the effort was, and still is, an honor.”

She comments that this experience has added a whole new set of skills to her personal and professional toolkit and has reinvigorated her for the challenges that lie ahead.

Learning Opportunities

Klinkowize, at the exact time of the financial crisis, began the Executive MBA program at Columbia Business School while working in the Securities Division at Goldman Sachs. These simultaneous experiences had a powerful impact on her and she comments that the combination of the two during this tough time “further framed my worldview and gave me a lasting perspective as I experienced the crisis at the forefront and, further, saw the crisis through the eyes of my classmates, over 50% of whom did not work in Finance.” During the crisis, Erica was part of the firm’s front line response to raising liquidity, and thereafter, experienced and helped shape the internal and industry change that comes after an event such as this. At the same time, she experienced the perspectives of her EMBA classmates, many of whom developed stark views of the Finance industry as a whole. She says, “Living through this permanently altered how I approach challenges at work, and provided me with a deeper understanding of what it means to manage risks. Further, I am grateful for the diversity of perspective my classmates provided me. While it was challenging to hear many of their views and personal experiences, in the end, it showed me the immense value garnered from consistently incorporating outside viewpoints into a decision-making process.”

Networking Matters

When Erica moved to Bank of America, she made a commitment to herself that she would focus on building support networks at the Bank.

“I am quite proud of the ongoing mentorship and sponsorship relationships I have been able to cultivate since I joined more than 5 years ago. I truly benefit from these consistent interactions, regardless of corporate title. It’s so important for us all to feel supported and connected in the workplace and to have a safe space to go vent, seek advice, or laugh. We can all benefit from hearing about each other’s successes and challenges and realizing other points of view. Through these interactions, we become grounded as humans and are reminded that we have more similarities than differences.”

When asked what is the one thing you know now that you wish you had known when you were first starting your career? She offers,

“I wish had known how to consistently return to a sense of serenity within the chaos, and that sometimes silence and observation are more powerful than words.”

She goes on to say how her start in finance was somewhat briefly detoured: she had secured a dream job working for Deloitte Consulting doing systems and business consulting right out of college but received a call that the company was pushing back the start date of her analyst class to January of 2002 due to the economic downturn that occurred as a result of the tech start-up meltdown of that era. She decided to take advantage of that time and worked at a job that still resonates with her. She relays,

“I ran the front desk of my dad’s dental office for a month. I never would have had that opportunity had Deloitte not given me some extra time and money. Almost 20 years later, and I can still remember details of the experience which I am sure have altered how I interact with people working in customer service.”

The decision to take a different path is very poignant as, later that year, the tragedy of 9/11/2001 struck and, she shares that if she had started at Deloitte on the original date, she would have been at the World Financial Center when the planes hit. Instead, she was sitting in her apartment in midtown, having moved in the weekend before. She comments,

“I believe that was the first time I truly understood how much of our careers and our lives are beyond our control and that we should look for the lessons in each experience, even if it takes decades to find them.”

When asked what advice would you give to young women entering this industry? Erica candidly answered that she advises young women to create support networks as soon as possible within the bank.

“Join Bank sponsored networks and seek out mentors immediately. Keep the consistency of these relationships no matter how busy you are with your day job. Take on a little bit more work in one of these organizations or do a favor for a mentor. You will not only feel more connected and supported as you go through the ups and downs of your career, but you will also likely gain sponsors who are critical to your success.”

She added that advice for her peers is exactly what she reminds herself to do as well.

“Seek out camaraderie, friendship, and support at work and give it back as much as you can. Remember to find laughter. Don’t be afraid to hold people to your high standards.” She continues,

“Don’t be afraid to continue to try new things and learn. Ask questions when appropriate. Try not to be so hard on yourself to have it all, all of the time. Remember to drink water and exercise. Take deep breaths. And remember to be compassionate to yourself the way you would be to a friend.”

Upon reflection around the career navigation journey, she believes that having a true sponsor is the key to getting promoted quicker, or even helping get back on track when one’s career takes a detour. She states,

“Once I truly understood what it meant to have sponsors and how to maintain sponsorship, I was able to more easily navigate difficult situations at work leveraging these relationships, and I was surprised at how beneficial they became when I was looking to make transitions. It’s critical to have senior people who will proactively support you when it comes down to a management decision about your career.”

For the past five years, Erica states she has been fortunate to co-lead a group of 10 women as part of a grassroots effort at the company that aims to connect women across the organization and provide ongoing support throughout their careers. She mentions that the success of these groups is dependent on the commitment of the leaders and the members to show up on a monthly basis. The interactions are in person and entirely confidential. Each group takes on its own format and agenda as needed, but there is a central repository for groups to share a myriad of discussion topics. She enjoys the group and finds that within a few months, the groups form their own identities which garners natural commitment from its leaders and members.

She adds, “My prior group maintained the same core group of women for 4 years and we provided each other with consistent and honest personal and professional support, and we became committed to each other’s successes.”

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