management
5 Steps to Making your Culture Real
We’ve all heard the nightmare stories of businesses being exposed for major failures in their cultural attributes. Maybe the failure is with their values. Significant companies have faced huge fines, and executives have gone to jail for not living up to their published values. These companies include Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, General Motors, Purdue Pharmaceuticals, and…
Read MoreGrow Deposits and Liquidity, Three Strategies
“The times, they are a changin’.” This famous refrain from Bob Dylan’s song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ) is as real today as it was in the early 60s, especially when we look at deposit needs for financial institutions. In 2008, FIs had to shrink deposits as a tactic to keep their expense ratio in line with the regulators.…
Read MorePreparing your Credit Union for Disruption video
Seeking Call Center Excellence?
Call centers are driven by data and key performance measures. Setting those KPMs is both the challenge and the opportunity. One measure I frequently find for call centers is abandon rates. The averages I typically see are 5-8%. But, be careful of measuring yourself against peers on this measure because if you are just a…
Read MoreWords Matter in Leadership
“Words Matter,” I did not create this phrase. The first time I heard it was from a great CEO I worked for, Gerry Agnes, at Elevations Credit Union. He used this short statement often. However, these two words take on a lot of nuanced meanings. When used in grammar and spelling, words say a lot…
Read MoreIs your job spiraling into (un)planned obsolescence?
Will robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, the buzzwords of this decade, disrupt your job? Here are the types of situations that are at risk: Tasks that are simple and repetitious Functions that take require decisions that can easily be taught to another Jobs that involve data entry from disparate sources Tasks that provide reactive…
Read More5 Reasons to Define Leadership
Leadership is too often leadership is seen as the job of the chosen few as dictated by the org chart. Let’s move past this arcane concept and change our paradigm. Leadership isn’t for the few; leadership is for the masses. Here is why I know this to be true: Marine Corps boot camp taught me…
Read MoreHow to Create a High Performing Team
The largest expense line on the income statement is compensation and benefits. This expense must be maximized and leveraged. To accomplish getting the most from your comp and benefit’s expenses starts with performance management. Unfortunately, performance management has become an annual or semi-annual exercise in futility for too many organizations. When performance management becomes a…
Read MoreSo You Want to Be a Leader; A 3 Step Primer
First, let’s define leadership. Leadership IS NOT about title, rank, direct reports or hierarchal power. Leadership IS about creating change. A person that is not creating change is maybe good at tasks and people management but not a leader. Being a leader requires the individual to have the courage to take risks, use her/his voice…
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