- Key insight: Banks are investing in ever-more capable technology, from new banking apps to AI-enabled back-office systems. But what keeps customers coming back continues to be their relationships with real bankers.
- What's at stake: Technology, facilities and strategies are all relatively easy to copy. An educated, engaged, and motivated team is not.
- Forward look: As artificial intelligence becomes more common, real conversations and authentic communication between leaders and their teams become even more critical.
One of the most common comments I've received over the many years I've spent making presentations to bankers is that most of the subject matter I address could be just as appropriate outside of banking.
The CEO of a
This phenomenon has always made me smile just a little. I like to remind bankers that ours is a great, respected and, in many ways, unique industry.
But let's be real.
Banks are companies, and companies are made up of people. When it comes to building and leading teams, we share far more with other industries than we don't.
Organizations that do a better job of finding, developing, motivating and retaining good people will always have a competitive advantage. I've made some version of that statement hundreds, if not thousands, of times in presentations and columns, and it seems to receive almost unanimous agreement.
Yet I've too often observed that the "people part" of building great organizations gets glossed over, even by smart and talented leaders.
You see, when you design a new branch, app or marketing campaign, it is what it is.
When you implement
When you set a rate or fee, it's a tangible thing. It doesn't wake up tomorrow in a bad mood. It doesn't get distracted, discouraged or decide it wants to work somewhere else.
But people do.
That said, a new branch, app, or marketing campaign won't improve itself. It won't step up and solve problems you couldn't foresee. It won't take extra time to engage a customer and learn the crux of their problem.
It won't take less-than-perfect plans and make them work. (My apologies to AI proselytizers everywhere.)
None of those things can build relationships, earn trust and stay connected with folks in a community. People do that.
The very same person in the very same job can show dramatically different levels of engagement, enthusiasm, and productivity depending on the leaders they work for and the culture they experience.
Pay matters. But I frequently point out to groups that if pay were truly the driving factor in engagement and productivity, "management" would be a piece of cake.
You pay more; you get more. Right? Anyone who has been in the field for more than three days can tell you that isn't the case.
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And for the more analytically minded, there's plenty of research to back that up. Gallup's extensive workplace research has found that managers account for 70% of the variance in team-level engagement.
I recall a slide that one of my best friends in the industry used quite often at conferences years ago.
He led one of the largest branch networks in the country and had been around the block for a time or two. His slide identified what he believed were the three most important factors in a branch's success.
He would then reveal them one by one: 1) The manager. 2) The manager. 3) The manager.
While it always brought a few chuckles from the room, he was serious. He'd point out that he had seen once-great teams run into the ground after the wrong person was put in charge.
But he'd also seen branches he was almost convinced had been a mistake to open become profitable after the right leadership change.
After years of widespread branch closures in America, we've recently seen a notable resurgence in branch investment.
In an increasingly technology-driven era, the enduring value of physical branches is being revealed more clearly than ever.
One of my oldest mantras is, "People do not visit branches. People visit bankers."
The renewed appreciation for branches is, in many ways, a recognition of the importance of actual bankers.
The best leaders throughout an organization recognize that the more they invest in physical branches and better tools, the more important it becomes to invest in the people who will run those branches, use those tools, and ultimately determine their success.
And investment goes beyond money. The value of investing time in people cannot be overstated.
As artificial intelligence becomes more common, real conversations and authentic communication between leaders and their teams become even more critical.
Technology, facilities and strategies are all relatively easy to copy. An educated, engaged, and motivated team is not.
Tomorrow's banking winners will pay as much attention to the latter as the former.
