Hopefully my last blog on the difference between leadership and management piqued your interest. If it didn’t, it should have. Why do I say this?
Think about the executive management team of your bank. What are the ages of your executives? In many banks today, the executive management team averages 60 plus years of age. Now think of your regional managers, what are their ages? Again, the average age is likely 50 to 55 years of age. This could easily turn into a discussion on the critical need for banks to invest more energy into developing tomorrow’s leaders as part of their succession planning efforts. But it won’t! In fact, I will be discussing this subject in future blogs so stay tuned!
Leadership vs. Management Further Distinguished
What is the difference between management and leadership? This is the question I started with in my last blog. The subject is so vast, it bears continuing to explore and learn the differences so supervisors, managers and executives can consciously behave in optimal ways in any situation. Idealistic I know, but certainly worth striving for. The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate and focus employees.
Simply said, leadership is a passion, management is a profession. While management is a title and a “job,” any employee in your bank can distinguish themselves as a leader regardless of their title, responsibilities or seniority. Some of the best leaders I’ve met from over 25 years of senior level consulting don’t have the title. But they do have the passion and the behaviors!
In A Very Traditional Sense…
Managers Have Subordinates
By definition, managers have subordinates, leaders have followers. The relationship between a manager and their subordinates is a traditional “hierarchy”. Unless their title is given as a mark of seniority, a manager’s power over others is through formal authority.
Leaders Have Followers
Leaders do not have subordinates as managers do, they have followers and devotees. True leaders have an ability to connect with both the hearts and minds of employees. They understand a good employee will give you their mind, but to become a great employee, you have to find a way to connect with, and engage, the heart of an employee. Effective leaders invest the time to develop authentic, meaningful relationships with employees. The conversations these leaders have, transcend traditional work related subjects. Creating an environment where employees feel safe to be real goes a long way to engaging the heart and converting employees into followers.
Managers Use a Dictatorial Management Style
Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the bank, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Human nature being what it is, most of us will do just enough to get the reward. But we won’t do a whole lot more. Employees will give a good manager a “solid day’s work” but at 5:02PM in the afternoon, they are out the door! This management style is authoritarian or dictatorial in nature in that the manager tells or directs the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so. A dictatorial management style doesn’t mean that a manager is rude, arrogant and disrespectful. It simply refers to where the authority lies and how decisions get made.
Leaders Use a Democratic Leadership Style
Telling people what to do does not inspire them. Often, it can have quite the opposite effect. Leaders understand the power of creating an appealing vision where employees play an integral role in the creation of that vision and the decision making process. Facilitating processes that create a far more engaged and passionate work force is a primary leadership goal. A leader focuses on where a team, department or organization needs to go and strives to allow employees maximum say so and decision making authority throughout the process. That’s where employee buy-in and engagement come from.
The Focus of a Manager
Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight time constraints. Thus, they naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates. Managers know (or should know) that employee discipline often mirrors manager discipline. Scary thought, right? To run an efficient and effective team or department that gets things done on time with a high degree of quality and very few mistakes is an art that most managers can improve on. At least 75% of employee, team or departmental mistakes are linked to managerial and process shortcomings. Successful managers rely on organizational structures, defined processes and a high degree of oversight to boost productivity.
The Focus of a Leader
Leaders on the other hand boost productivity through inspiration and investment…emotional investment. Leaders are paid to develop, coach and mentor employees. Leaders understand that their employees are one of the few things that differentiate their bank from their competitors. For this reason, they are not afraid to invest time and financial resources to grow the capacity of their employees. Leaders understand that to be a world class organization, you have to develop world class employees. For a bank filled with mostly C-Players and B-Players, financial performance and growth will be stymied. Leaders know that employee growth is a strong contributor to bank growth and accordingly insure their bank leverages both internal and external resources to develop employees.
Managers Seek Reliability
“Running smoothly” is confirmation of a high functioning team or department for a manager. It’s not enough to have the right players on the bus today; effective managers strive to make sure the right players are in the right seats on the bus. Deviation from the standard is frowned on because let’s face it, if it’s not broken why fix it? For an industry like banking, this kind of mindset and skill set is extremely valuable for the predictability and consistency needed when dealing with customer’s finances and to adhere to strict regulatory standards.
Leaders Seek Ideas and Innovation
Like the farmer who cultivates the soil and fertilizes their crops, today’s leaders need to be effective at cultivating the minds of employees in order to grow ideas. The mind of employee is the fertile soil a leader needs to spawn innovative new ideas that lead to process improvement and improved service delivery. Leaders know that innovation will never be birthed from a closed mind. They work hard to create an environment where employees are encouraged to think about how to streamline or optimize some aspect of the business. In short, they strive to cultivate open-mindedness in their departments. The lowest level employees are often the ones that have good ideas and perspectives on how to improve things in large part because they spend so much time interacting with customers. Leaders know that a meaningful idea that could improve the business can come from any employee at any level on the bank and that is why they are willing to make the emotional investment in employees at every level in the bank.In summary
This table summarizes the above ideas (and more) and gives a sense of the differences between being a leader and being a manager. This is, of course, an illustrative characterization. There is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales and it is the effective manager/leader that is able to flow within this range in an effort to maximize their effectiveness.
It could be said that leadership is a passion and management is a profession. Leadership is about growth, humility and accomplishing lofty goals through shared vision, shared passions, shared decision-making and shared efforts. Management is about effectiveness, efficiency and quality outputs. To be clear, both are essential and equally necessary if a bank is going to grow and evolve with the times.
In conclusion, the many studies conducted on employee engagement (See Gallop) prove that there is a quantifiable and undeniable economic benefit to a company that is able to engage both the mind and heart of their employees. Clearly both effective management and effective leadership are needed to maximize employee productivity.
As you can tell, I have a passion for this subject. If you would like to discuss some management and leadership situation in your bank, please give me a call. My personal cell number is 760-445-4980.
Here’s to your management and leadership success!
Learn Why More of Your Lenders Don’t Meet Their Annual Sales Goals
/0 Comments/in Business Development /by Ray AdlerSo let’s jump in and get to the heart of why more lenders don’t meet or exceed their annual sales goals.
The #1 Reason
The #1 reason a substantial percentage of your lenders don’t hit their sales goals is because they are overly reliant on third party referrals as the primary source of their deal flow. Said another way, they are too dependent on the actions of others for their new business opportunities. In any given year, if the quality and quantity of referrals is good, a lender likely will hit or come close to hitting their annual goals. If the flow or quality of referrals isn’t good that year, a lender likely will fall well short of their sales goals. At the end of the day, luck more than anything else often is the determining factor in sales goal attainment. Why would any lender WANT to rely on “luck” and the actions of others for something as important as hitting or exceeding their annual sales goal? That makes no sense!
Now, there are a minority of lenders who have established great relationships with great referrals sources. These relationships have been established over decades with referral sources that have a considerable transaction volume. And for these lenders, every year they get plopped into a steady stream of high quality deals and as a result, meet or exceed their annual sales goals. These lenders are the envy of every other lender in the bank and why wouldn’t they be? They didn’t have to invest the months and years “developing a relationship” with the company owner or executive. They didn’t have to establish their credibility or expertise with the company owner because they established that credibility and expertise with the referral source. As a result, the lender is able to leverage the relationship and credibility of the referral source and literally is dropped into an already underway transaction. And hear me, this is great!!!
But the scenario I described isn’t what a majority of lenders experience and it is the fundamental “strategy” most every lenders and relationship banker utilizes to source new deals. By and large, the referrals that lenders solicit come from two primary sources, commercial real estate brokers and CPAs. Certainly existing customers, attorneys and the occasional insurance broker provide lenders with referrals on occasion. However, the majority of referrals come from commercial real estate brokers and CPAs and every banker is soliciting the same brokers and CPAs for referrals.
The Consequences of Being Too Dependent
#1. No Control – Let’s start with the obvious. Your annual production rests in large part on the efforts of others, your referral sources. That should make you very uncomfortable because you have little if any control over your destiny.
#2. Poor Quality – You have little control over the quality of referrals you receive. How many dozens of times were you delighted to receive a referral from a referral source only to find out upon meeting with the company owner, they were un-bankable? Or maybe worse, you got their financials, found that they were “marginal” but because your pipeline was lite, you presented the credit and the deal was turned down. So not only did you waste three plus hours driving and meeting with the prospect, you wasted another six to ten hours of the bank’s resources spreading financials and having the deal worked on by your underwriters. Now imagine the drain on bank resources every week when lenders are working on low quality, marginal deals.
#3. Stiff Competition – Not that this happens all the time, but a lot of the time a lender is being referred into a deal that is being “shopped” where other institutions are also bidding on the deal. This happens frequently with real estate deals. Good news, you get a shot at a new piece of business. Bad news, you’re going to give up net interest and non-interest income.
#4. Margin Pressure – There are trade-offs for not having to invest the time necessary to develop and source your own deals and the trade-off is a loss of net and non-interest income. Bidding wars create margin pressure pure and simple.
#5. Limited Differentiation – Because no time was spent developing a relationship with the lender and your bank, no loyalty or “relationship capital” was created. Because you leveraged the relationship of your referral source, there was little if any time for you to get to know the vision, goals, and challenges of the customer. The by-product of being “dropped-into” an existing transaction is that you positioned yourself as a commodity. You had no time to differentiate yourself or your bank or to add value and because of that, typically pricing is the primary way we differentiate one supplier from another when all things are equal.
I’m going to reiterate what I said previously; there is nothing wrong or inherently bad about soliciting referrals from real estate brokers and CPAs as a strategy. However, there are many other highly effective and newer ways to “attract” high quality new business. AND, there are so many simple strategies lenders and relationship bankers can use to hone the quality of referrals they receive from their existing referral sources.
The only reason more of your lenders and relationship bankers aren’t meeting or exceeding their annual sales goals is their business development and sales strategies need honing! You have good people, smart people! They have the knowledge and experience, however, they’re using the same, tired one or two strategies to pursue business that every other banker is using. The entire psychology of selling has changed as a result of the internet and social media. Your lenders and relationship bankers haven’t changed…in two or three decades and that’s why more of them aren’t meeting or exceeding their annual sales goals.
This could change…
“By implementing the tools and coaching provided by Ray and Lisa, I have hit my annual sales goals by July with a disciplined strategy of working smarter, not harder.”
Kyle C. Maguire
Vice President & Relationship Manager
American Business Bank
Here’s to your sales honing success!
Your Competitor’s Marketing Plans Revealed!
/0 Comments/in Sales /by Ray AdlerYour Competitor’s Marketing Plans Revealed!
What if…
A healthy percentage of your lenders exceeded their annual production goals…by June 30th?
What if…
A healthy percentage of your lenders produced more than twice their annual sales goals annually without working any harder then they currently are working?
We’re not surprised by these results. They are quite common for our clients. We’re talking documented results!
We’re accustom to seeing a $4M to $5M annual producer produce $8M to $10M with the same or less effort as it took to produce $5M. We’ve watched $10M to $17M annual producers produce $25M, $30M or more with the same amount of energy as it took to produce $10M.
They’ve doubled their production without working longer hours.
Here’s the honest truth, the sales activities of the majority of lenders are inefficient and moderately effective. Your lenders are simply working way too hard for what they produce.
And the problem isn’t interest rates, competition, or market conditions…it’s your lender’s outdated and antiquated marketing and sales approaches that are the problem! They’ve been marketing bank products and services in exactly the same way for the past two to three decades.
It’s that simple…and good news…it’s not that difficult, time consuming or costly to correct. The cost of the solution is pennies in comparison to the cost “under-performing” lenders have on bank profits. Yes, your “A-players” are under-performing.
Your Competitor’s Marketing Plans Revealed!
In my last blog, I promised I would show you the exact marketing plan your competitors are using to source new business. How valuable would that be? Incredibly valuable.
For over 16 years, my partner Lisa and I have been modernizing and honing the sales strategies of commercial lenders and affecting positive cultural change by helping their banks become more market driven.
As you can imagine, we’ve witnessed first-hand, how thousands of commercial lenders across the country market, sell and speak about their bank’s products and services. Before I share your competitor’s marketing plan, I want to share six of the more striking marketing similarities among commercial lenders in every State:
The marketing and sales behaviors described above have existed in banking for over 30 years! So without further ado, I promised I would show you your competitor’s marketing plans so here they are!
This is a visual representation of the marketing plans used by your competitor’s lenders.
Now this is not what their lender’s written marketing plans say they’ll do to develop business. Nor is it what your lender’s written marketing plans say. But, it is what they do!
But make no bones about it, the above diagram accurately depicts exactly how eight out of ten commercial lenders approach their markets. Their marketing efforts lack an intelligent strategy and focus, and their sales efforts lack discernment, discipline and preparation.
Are there repercussions from such an unfocused, “red-ocean” approach to sales that rely too heavily on the efforts of “COIs” that with the best of intentions provide a lot of low to poor quality referrals? Absolutely including but not limited to:
The honest truth is that the sales activities of the majority of your lenders are incredibly inefficient and marginally ineffective. Your lenders are simply working way too hard for what they produce.
We’ve spent the past sixteen years showing commercial lenders of all experience levels how to be much more productive.
Click Here To Learn How To Help Your Lenders Become Much More Productive
Here’s to your marketing and sales success!
Have Your Lenders Become Sales Dinosaurs?
/0 Comments/in Sales /by Ray AdlerHave Your Lenders Become Sales Dinosaurs?
So what did the Sales Dinosaur Assessment for Bank CEOs in my last email reveal about your bank? What new insights did you have about how your bank needs to evolve? The bank-assessment in my last blog asked bank CEOs and Presidents twelve questions designed to expose a small portion of the antiquated thinking that currently exists in your bank.
Why should you care about “antiquated thinking”?
Because nothing stifles progress, creativity and innovation faster than old, familiar habitual ways of thinking. Wait a minute! Did I just suggest that our thinking is habitual? Yes I did! Just like our behaviors are habitual, the ways in which we think are also habitual.
Our habits of thought are like blinders. They obstruct our peripheral vision and in doing so prevent us from discovering new ways to hone our organization. As bank leaders, are you cultivating a culture that encourages and rewards new ideas? Do your managers understand how valuable employee perspectives are in the quest to improve the customer experience? Or are your executives, managers and employees comfortable with the “status quo?”
Has Your Bank Become a Sales Dinosaur? Yes! That is the best possible answer. It means you’re not in denial about the fact that your lenders, relationship and branch managers are pretty much saying and selling the exact same way as your competitors. It means you realize your sale teams continue to use the same, tired old approaches to finding and closing business as they have for the past two and three decades. Every banker is approaching the same commercial real estate brokers, CPAs and attorneys for referrals. What could be less original than that?
This, the second, follow-on blog is a “self-assessment” for lenders and relationship managers to help them determine if they’ve also become sales dinosaurs. You likely will find this assessment to be very revealing.
Have Your Lenders Become Sales Dinosaurs?
Sales-Assessment for Lenders and Relationship Managers
You have likely become a sales dinosaur if…
Looking in the mirror isn’t easy. Confronting the truth is uncomfortable. The more “yes” or “possibly” you had as answers to the questions above, the more likely it is that you’ve become a sales dinosaur. If more than 50% of your answers were yes, you’re among a dying breed.
What’s the point of the sales assessment for lenders and relationship managers? Awareness! To make you aware that you and your bank are undifferentiated, commoditized and antiquated in your approach to marketing and sales!
As lenders, relationship and branch managers, it is imperative we understand and acknowledge we’ve commoditized yourselves due to lack of originality, lack of a defined strategy and lack of discipline. As a result, every banker sounds and sells like every other banker in the market.
We all know the game is changing in banking; the
question is how are you going to change with the times?
Check out BTI Growth Advisors evolutionary, new website and resources.
Would it be valuable to see your competitor’s marketing plans? Keep an eye out for my next blog in a couple weeks! I am going to show you the exact marketing plan of all your competitors.
Best regards,
Has Your Bank Become a Sales Dinosaur?
/0 Comments/in Sales /by Ray AdlerAs you’ve seen from past blogs, the consistent theme of the blog content we produce focuses on helping bankers and banks evolve and become more progressive, innovative institutions.
The theme of my next two blogs is Has Your Bank Become a Sales Dinosaur? This first blog is a “bank-assessment” designed to assist bank CEOs and Presidents to determine if their bank has become a sales dinosaur.
The second, follow-on blog in June will also be a “self-assessment” for lenders to help them determine if they’ve become a sales dinosaur. You may find this assessment to be very revealing.
Has Your Bank Become a Sales Dinosaur?
Bank-Assessment for CEOs & Presidents
Your bank has likely become a sales dinosaur if…
Looking in the mirror isn’t easy. Confronting the truth is uncomfortable. The more “yeses” or “possibly” you had as answers to the questions above, the more likely it is that your bank has become a sales dinosaur. If more than 50% of your answers were “yeses,” you’re bank is among a dying breed.
What’s the point of the CEO / President bank assessment? Awareness! To make you aware that your bank and your lending teams are undifferentiated, commoditized and antiquated in your approach to marketing, sales and hiring!
Hall of Fame hockey player Wayne Gretzky said “I skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s been.”
As leaders in your bank (you can be a leader without having the title) it is imperative we understand where the proverbial “puck” is going in banking and skate in that direction. We all know the game is changing in banking, the question is how are your employees and executives going to change with the times?
Keep an eye out for my next blog entitled, “Have Your Lenders Become Sales Dinosaurs?”
Best regards,
Developing Your Bank Leaders – Part Two
/0 Comments/in Leadership /by Ray AdlerHopefully my last blog on the difference between leadership and management piqued your interest. If it didn’t, it should have. Why do I say this?
Think about the executive management team of your bank. What are the ages of your executives? In many banks today, the executive management team averages 60 plus years of age. Now think of your regional managers, what are their ages? Again, the average age is likely 50 to 55 years of age. This could easily turn into a discussion on the critical need for banks to invest more energy into developing tomorrow’s leaders as part of their succession planning efforts. But it won’t! In fact, I will be discussing this subject in future blogs so stay tuned!
Leadership vs. Management Further Distinguished
What is the difference between management and leadership? This is the question I started with in my last blog. The subject is so vast, it bears continuing to explore and learn the differences so supervisors, managers and executives can consciously behave in optimal ways in any situation. Idealistic I know, but certainly worth striving for. The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate and focus employees.
Simply said, leadership is a passion, management is a profession. While management is a title and a “job,” any employee in your bank can distinguish themselves as a leader regardless of their title, responsibilities or seniority. Some of the best leaders I’ve met from over 25 years of senior level consulting don’t have the title. But they do have the passion and the behaviors!
In A Very Traditional Sense…
Managers Have Subordinates
By definition, managers have subordinates, leaders have followers. The relationship between a manager and their subordinates is a traditional “hierarchy”. Unless their title is given as a mark of seniority, a manager’s power over others is through formal authority.
Leaders Have Followers
Leaders do not have subordinates as managers do, they have followers and devotees. True leaders have an ability to connect with both the hearts and minds of employees. They understand a good employee will give you their mind, but to become a great employee, you have to find a way to connect with, and engage, the heart of an employee. Effective leaders invest the time to develop authentic, meaningful relationships with employees. The conversations these leaders have, transcend traditional work related subjects. Creating an environment where employees feel safe to be real goes a long way to engaging the heart and converting employees into followers.
Managers Use a Dictatorial Management Style
Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the bank, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Human nature being what it is, most of us will do just enough to get the reward. But we won’t do a whole lot more. Employees will give a good manager a “solid day’s work” but at 5:02PM in the afternoon, they are out the door! This management style is authoritarian or dictatorial in nature in that the manager tells or directs the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this because they have been promised a reward (at minimum their salary) for doing so. A dictatorial management style doesn’t mean that a manager is rude, arrogant and disrespectful. It simply refers to where the authority lies and how decisions get made.
Leaders Use a Democratic Leadership Style
Telling people what to do does not inspire them. Often, it can have quite the opposite effect. Leaders understand the power of creating an appealing vision where employees play an integral role in the creation of that vision and the decision making process. Facilitating processes that create a far more engaged and passionate work force is a primary leadership goal. A leader focuses on where a team, department or organization needs to go and strives to allow employees maximum say so and decision making authority throughout the process. That’s where employee buy-in and engagement come from.
The Focus of a Manager
Managers are paid to get things done (they are subordinates too), often within tight time constraints. Thus, they naturally pass on this work focus to their subordinates. Managers know (or should know) that employee discipline often mirrors manager discipline. Scary thought, right? To run an efficient and effective team or department that gets things done on time with a high degree of quality and very few mistakes is an art that most managers can improve on. At least 75% of employee, team or departmental mistakes are linked to managerial and process shortcomings. Successful managers rely on organizational structures, defined processes and a high degree of oversight to boost productivity.
The Focus of a Leader
Leaders on the other hand boost productivity through inspiration and investment…emotional investment. Leaders are paid to develop, coach and mentor employees. Leaders understand that their employees are one of the few things that differentiate their bank from their competitors. For this reason, they are not afraid to invest time and financial resources to grow the capacity of their employees. Leaders understand that to be a world class organization, you have to develop world class employees. For a bank filled with mostly C-Players and B-Players, financial performance and growth will be stymied. Leaders know that employee growth is a strong contributor to bank growth and accordingly insure their bank leverages both internal and external resources to develop employees.
Managers Seek Reliability
“Running smoothly” is confirmation of a high functioning team or department for a manager. It’s not enough to have the right players on the bus today; effective managers strive to make sure the right players are in the right seats on the bus. Deviation from the standard is frowned on because let’s face it, if it’s not broken why fix it? For an industry like banking, this kind of mindset and skill set is extremely valuable for the predictability and consistency needed when dealing with customer’s finances and to adhere to strict regulatory standards.
Leaders Seek Ideas and Innovation
Like the farmer who cultivates the soil and fertilizes their crops, today’s leaders need to be effective at cultivating the minds of employees in order to grow ideas. The mind of employee is the fertile soil a leader needs to spawn innovative new ideas that lead to process improvement and improved service delivery. Leaders know that innovation will never be birthed from a closed mind. They work hard to create an environment where employees are encouraged to think about how to streamline or optimize some aspect of the business. In short, they strive to cultivate open-mindedness in their departments. The lowest level employees are often the ones that have good ideas and perspectives on how to improve things in large part because they spend so much time interacting with customers. Leaders know that a meaningful idea that could improve the business can come from any employee at any level on the bank and that is why they are willing to make the emotional investment in employees at every level in the bank.In summary
This table summarizes the above ideas (and more) and gives a sense of the differences between being a leader and being a manager. This is, of course, an illustrative characterization. There is a whole spectrum between either ends of these scales and it is the effective manager/leader that is able to flow within this range in an effort to maximize their effectiveness.
It could be said that leadership is a passion and management is a profession. Leadership is about growth, humility and accomplishing lofty goals through shared vision, shared passions, shared decision-making and shared efforts. Management is about effectiveness, efficiency and quality outputs. To be clear, both are essential and equally necessary if a bank is going to grow and evolve with the times.
In conclusion, the many studies conducted on employee engagement (See Gallop) prove that there is a quantifiable and undeniable economic benefit to a company that is able to engage both the mind and heart of their employees. Clearly both effective management and effective leadership are needed to maximize employee productivity.
As you can tell, I have a passion for this subject. If you would like to discuss some management and leadership situation in your bank, please give me a call. My personal cell number is 760-445-4980.
Here’s to your management and leadership success!
Developing Your Bank Leaders – Part One
/0 Comments/in Leadership /by Ray AdlerIn my next series of blogs, we will be focusing on a subject near and dear to my heart…leadership!
Much of our time as a company is focused on working with, developing and coaching leaders in banks. For some executives, we’re working on succession issues and preparing them for their next promotion. For others, they’ve already been promoted into a new leadership position and we’re helping them develop the mindset and skillsets to be effective in their new role. Other times, we’re working with CEOs and Presidents helping them take their leadership skills to the next level.
Leadership” has been such a commonly used term in business for well over three decades. Team leader, branch leader, department leader, and project leader are titles given to executives, managers and supervisors who at best understand only conceptually what leadership is. Even more confusing is the difference between management and leadership.
Here’s the distinction: Management is an assignment. Leadership is a choice!
Leadership and management must go hand in hand. They are not the same thing. But they are necessarily linked, and complementary. Any effort to separate the two is likely to cause more problems than it solves.
Still, much ink has been spent delineating the differences. The manager’s job is to plan, organize and coordinate. The leader’s job is to inspire and motivate. In his 1989 book “On Becoming a Leader,” Warren Bennis composed a list of the differences:
A very powerful question to consider is what percentage of your week is spent managing and what percentage is spent leading? And are these the correct percentages?
Adapted From “The Wall Street Guide For Management”
Perhaps there was a time when the calling of the manager and that of the leader could be separated. A foreman in an industrial-era factory probably didn’t have to give much thought to what he was producing or to the people who were producing it. His or her job was to follow orders, organize the work, assign the right people to the necessary tasks, coordinate the results, and ensure the job got done as ordered. The focus was on efficiency.
But in the new economy, where value comes increasingly from the knowledge of people, and where workers are no longer undifferentiated cogs in an industrial machine, management and leadership are not easily separated. People look to their managers, not just to assign them a task, but to define for them a purpose. And managers must organize workers, not just to maximize efficiency, but to nurture skills, develop talent and inspire results.
The late management guru Peter Drucker was one of the first to recognize this truth, as he was to recognize so many other management truths. He identified the emergence of the “knowledge worker,” and the profound differences that would cause in the way business was organized.
With the rise of the knowledge worker, “one does not ‘manage’ people,” Mr. Drucker wrote. “The task is to lead people. And the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of every individual.”
Over the next several blogs, we’ll be taking a more in depth look at leadership and the differences between leadership and management.
Keep an eye out!
Evolutionary Business Planning For Lenders – Part Four – Final
/0 Comments/in Sales /by Ray AdlerWhich Would You Prefer, To Be Uninspired or Inspired?
Confident businessman runs a successful business project. Business icons and growing arrow on the background.
Its 8:51 Saturday morning and I just sat down with a hot cup of tea to write the final blog in the Taking an Evolutionary Approach to Business Planning. I am feeling very peaceful and grateful for my life. Before I get into the subject of business plans, I want to discuss how important it is these days for us to find ways to feel grateful in our lives. Our world today is filled with threats, chaos, turmoil and injustices. Our lives are pressure packed and exhausting. There are so many things in life that deplete us emotionally, physically, spiritually and energetically, it is imperative we find ways to fill ourselves and to feel grateful. Any activity that is connected to a personal passion brings us joy and gratitude. When was the last time you allowed yourself the time to enjoy something you are passionate about? Sometimes we can connect to our gratitude with the smallest, simplest act such as when we look at our children sleeping soundly in their beds, or when we take a moment to really take in the beauty of nature just outside our window.
Read more
Evolutionary Business Planning For Lenders – Part Three
/0 Comments/in Sales /by Ray AdlerIn this, the third blog in our educational series, Taking an Evolutionary Approach to Business Planning, our intent is to help your lenders modify their 2016 business plans, based on what they have learned from the analysis of their 2015 activities and results.
Plan Your Work; Work Your Plan…Why Don’t More Lenders Do This?
Production Process on the Mechanism of Metal Gears.
At the start of every year, an extremely high percentage of business plan conversations take place between sales managers and lenders beginning exactly the same way. The conversation begins with the lender telling their sales manager, ”I want to bring in $ X,000,000 of loans” or “My goal this year is to bring in $X,000,000 of loans and deposits.” Wanting to produce a result is great, having a goal is important. The real question becomes how are your lenders going to produce the specified result? For many lenders there is a vast difference between what they say they are going to do in their business plan and what they actually do blog in and blog out. Why is that? Why don’t more lenders follow their plans? The answer is fairly obvious, no accountability to the business plan by either the lender or their sales manager. Much of the responsibility for lenders not following their business plans falls on the shoulders of their sales managers.
Read more
Evolutionary Business Planning For Lenders – Part Two
/0 Comments/in Sales /by Ray AdlerIf you’ve been reading our blogs you’re beginning to recognize that we advocate taking a more thoughtful and strategic approach to every facet of sales. In this, the second blog in our educational series, Taking an Evolutionary Approach to Business Planning, our intent is to leverage the insights learned from the recommended actions laid out in our last blog.
What Insights Were Gleaned from Last Week’s Analysis?
In last our last blog we laid out a process designed to help your lenders discover insights on how to be more efficient and effective in their sales efforts. The goal of this process is to develop stronger 2016 business plans and stronger 2016 results. The steps we discussed were:
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Evolutionary Business Planning for Lenders – Part One
/0 Comments/in Sales /by Ray AdlerWe’re excited to begin discussing lender business plans as part of our four-part blog series on Taking an Evolutionary Approach to Business Planning.
It doesn’t matter if your lenders have completed their annual business plans or are in the process. I promise that the things we will be shedding light on over these next four weeks will measurably improve the quality of your lender’s business plans and dramatically increase the odds of them hitting their annual production goals.
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