We came across an odd article the other day about Wal-Mart in China recalling donkey meat that was tainted with fox meat. Our first thought was, “who eats donkey meat?”. But then again, when in China… Regardless, it got us thinking about cultures. More specifically, corporate cultures. Every company has one, but most are not very effective. Too often corporate cultures are driven by the latest fad, misguided ideas and status quo protectors. We believe in a relationship or advocate based culture. Some believe in a low price culture. Some believe in a quota culture. Regardless of your belief, it’s important to develop a culture, believe in the culture, live the culture and implement the culture. If you’re a community bank, the only culture that will drive you to the top of your market is a relationship or advocate based culture. However, far too often, community banks tend to mix several cultures together which in turn makes them look like Wal-Mart in China selling donkey meat with a little fox added.
If you’re going to develop or maintain an advocate culture you have to look out for a few things…
- Avoid the fads – It’s easy to get caught up in the latest article expressing an idea that seems to be working in another bank. When you see this, be sure to ask a few questions or do some research to really see if the bank’s numbers are stacking up to what they are saying. Odds are the fad may have contributed to success in one area but may have caused a downturn in another area. Now keep in mind that sometimes there are great ideas out there. When you see one just be sure it matches the philosophy of your culture and doesn’t water it down or deviate from it.
- Avoid managing to the bottom – Quotas are easy and tempting to use. Set a goal and if the employee doesn’t hit it, they’re fired. Nothing like motivation by fear! We don’t think so. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to set a quota to get an employee to perform, you have the wrong employee or possibly the wrong manager over that employee. Establishing minimum standards and non-negotiables are a much better way to begin when implementing an advocate culture. This gives managers and employees the freedom to use their talents and show their engagement in the culture.
- Avoid celebrating “activity” – An advocate culture is based on measurable results but far too often a culture will veer towards rewarding those that “tried really hard” or had some sort of “activity” but no result. This is probably the most common and lazy thing we come across. This will always demotivate the producers while giving cover to the slackers. Eventually, the producers will either leave the culture or they’ll stop producing and embrace the new, “fox with your donkey” culture.
- Watch out for the status quo protectors – These are the people that will slow you down and the culture down. They operate behind the scenes. We’ve been know to call them the Profit Pirates. They’ll lose your emails. They’ll bring up new objections well after decisions have been made that will cause a team to start from square one yet again. They act like they didn’t know things that seemed like the obvious or were previously stated.
We could go on but these will give you a few things to think about. If your company has embraced a relationship or advocate based culture you should celebrate and get on board. If you’re fighting the urge to go in another direction or can’t seem to implement and sustain this culture then start the turnaround by looking at the four areas above. Begin today because there’s nothing worse than being a part of a fox with your donkey culture.
