Seriously, Just Stop!
The employees see it. The customers see it. Why can’t the bank’s leadership and management see it? It’s similar to watching an LSU football game with Les Miles at the helm up until Saturday. Everyone in the stands saw it. Those watching on TV saw it. But we were always amazed when Les made a call that went completely against logic and good sense (see #3). There’s no better time than today to stop doing these five things that are holding your community bank back from outpacing and outshining your big bank competitors.
1. Stop chasing the latest retreaded program
If you’re a community bank with a 1.0 ROA and weak deposit and loan growth, then change is needed. If your branch isn’t seeing 10% deposit and net deposit account growth on an annual basis, then change is needed. You may need new people, but more than likely a shift in philosophy and culture is what’s required. Your culture and philosophy should guide you to the programs and processes that support the culture. We see community banks chasing new programs that are nothing more than retreaded ideas that failed 10 years ago. Just because the program has a fancy name with a new spin doesn’t make it worth rehashing. Stop focusing on the program and start paying attention to the culture.
Start Today: Embrace the true advantage of being a community bank… The Relationship Culture. Everything you do should revolve around your advocates.
2. Stop listening to or saying, “this is how we did it at my old bank”
Seriously? You left your old bank. You weren’t happy there. You wanted out! And now you want to bring those ideas and that culture here? If it was so great, why did you leave in the first place? Maybe you hired an employee from another bank to bring fresh ideas and energy to your team. That’s fine, but make sure the new employee is a good fit for your culture and philosophy. Stop letting individuals bring in disruptive programs and ideas that don’t support your culture. It sends a bad message to your employees and will create an environment of conflicting ideas.
Start Today: Define the culture, communicate the bank’s philosophy, and only promote people and innovations that support it.
3. Stop being afraid to fire someone
You’d be amazed at the positive culture shift that will take place in your community bank by firing a few of the actively disengaged employees, a.k.a., the trouble makers. These are the employees that are leading the subculture within your community bank. Is your stress attributed to a particular person or group? Are employees undoing what you are trying to implement? You know what we’re going to say… Fire them! Keep in mind, you can’t fix people. If you’ve trained, tracked, and taken necessary steps for improvement where needed, but to no avail, then its time to take that final step. Life’s too short and your engaged employees deserve better than keeping the disengaged around.
Start Today: Set your non-negotiables and stand by them. Act quickly and decisively. Your best employees will be motivated by it and will take their performance to a level where you’ll quickly forget about that person… “what’s her name?”… that you fired last week.
4. Stop 30-minute meetings that last 2 hours
We read articles quite often about useless meetings or suggestions to end all meetings. That kind of sounds good on the surface, but meetings are necessary for effective communication within any organization. However, the problem isn’t the meeting, it’s the length of the meeting. No one will complain about a 30-minute managers meeting each week with information and conversation that applies to the entire group. The problems arise with the next 1 hour and 30 minutes of inane gibberish of walking in the weeds, listening to individual issues, personal problems, and blue sky conversation that leads to pie in the sky ideas with no implementation.
Start Today: Set an agenda and time frame for all meetings. Start them on-time and end them on-time. Consider locking the meeting room door at the scheduled start time, just to have a little fun with those who show up late.
5. Stop living in the land of Analysis Paralysis
More money is lost every year on delaying decisions that will actually add to profitability and capitalize on the strength of being a community bank. We’re not saying to jump into any decision without serious thought, but taking 6 months to decide on how to begin your outbound call program is just wasting time and money. If you’re looking at a cold calling program or a pitch the product of the month call program, then please do embrace analysis paralysis and never implement it. That type of craziness will cost you money and credibility (see Wells Fargo). However, delaying an effective Reason to Call program will cost you money every single day you think about it.
Start Today: Understand your culture and philosophy. Understand that every shot you take won’t hit the mark, but if those shots agree with the culture, you’ll have many that will hit the bullseye. People will soon forget about the missed shots.
Start Doing, Start Expecting, Start Tracking
Everyone should have a “stop doing” list. Now that we’ve given you five things for the list, you can start doing what’s going to make you and your bank profitable… Embrace the unique advantages of being a community bank. Demand service that meets the expectation of your brand. Exceed the personalized service your customers and community deserve. Deliver the best customer service experience of any business in your market. It’s quite simple when you expect it and you track it.
