Embrace your failures

 
 

Our modern society conditions us to avoid fiascos. The thought of failing stresses us out when we are expected to impress our manager with exceptional results just as it did when we were kinds wanting to impress our parents in a school play.

While a failure might knock you down temporarily, it’s important to get back on your feet with the valuable lessons shrouded by the letdown. These lessons are often overlooked as we are preoccupied with feelings of shame.

Be mindful and don’t let discouragement hold you back. Embrace your failures and look for what they teach you instead of what you dread in them. Find that hard? Here is some advice to look at letdowns from a different angle:

• Let it be an inspiration. A bad experience will allow you to approach a future challenge with newly gained insights.


• Let it build your courage. When you are more comfortable with failing you’ll not only be able to take more risks, your mind won’t be clouded by anxiety and fear of failing again.


• Let it motivate you. When you know what disappointment feels like, you’ll be more focused and work harder to elevate yourself.

Still Learning,

Honey

How To Diffuse Any Heated Customer Interaction With Ease

Don’t we all wish that every customer interaction is a smooth and pleasant experience where all parties respect each other? The reality is that some experiences, unexpected news or unfortunate events can bring out a strong negative energy in some customers. In the heat of the moment those customers can vent their emotions on the people in your front-line: your tellers. Training your tellers to handle these heated customer interactions with confidence and calmness is imperative. Equip your tellers with the techniques that enable them to satisfy the hard-to-please by using the five point customer contact rule.

1. Remain friendly and keep your smile upDon’t raise your defenses, it will turn the situation into a power struggle
2. Show interest in the customer’s issueShowing genuine interest is a strong signal that you are committed to solving the issue
3. Maintain eye-contactDon’t look away, stay focused on the customer as this is yet another signal that you are dedicated to find a solution
4. Express appreciation for their feedbackSignaling that your customer’s feedback is important shows that your organization puts its customer's satisfaction first.
5. Use the customer’s name
   Using the customer’s name makes the conversation a little more personal and it grabs people’s attention. Bring your customer out of a frenzy by repeating their name to get their focus back.

Using these techniques will show your customer you are interested in resolving their issue professionally. It will quickly bring the heat down so you have the opportunity to get to the root of the problem, find a solution and ultimately provide outstanding service.

 

Still learning,

Honey

Leading the Way at the Branch

The highly accomplished basketball coach at Duke University, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, has earned a reputation for being an outstanding leader. In his book, Leading with the Heart, Coach K says, “There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring, and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable.” His philosophy for the business world is to approach it like basketball. “Business, like basketball, is a game of adjustments. So be ready to adjust.” 

 

Leadership isn't better than management nor is it a replacement for it. Not all leaders have responsibility for managing others but, more often than not they do. Leadership is circuitous; what you give is what you need to get. A classic example at the bank is the role of the branch manager. Here the leader is given a set of objectives and is expected to work with a team to produce meaningful results. The branch manager will need a dynamic role model that is devoted to encouraging and coaching the manager to success.

 

Effectiveness as a leader doesn't include walking on water or perfection. Rather it includes a genuine desire to make a difference – to continuously work on personal effectiveness. At the same time, recognize that the more you contribute and the higher up the ladder you go, the more vulnerable you become. Taking on more responsibility and signing up for big challenges increases the risks associated with scrutiny, failure, criticism and disappointment. Yet, when weighing all the odds, the chance to experience a deep sense of personal satisfaction that comes with meaningful work will make the effort outweigh the risk.

 

Still learning,

 

Honey

Spark Your Improvement as a Leader

It is easier to be a judge of others’ leadership than it is to lead. All of us have a critic that lives and thrives within us. Most of us never question that critic when the target of criticism is someone else and especially, when we are up close and personal with someone we view as a poor excuse for a manager or a lousy leader. This situation often intensifies when that someone is our boss or a leader in our midst. No question that a lack of management skills or inadequate leadership ability can create a ripple effect resulting in confusion, frustration, dissatisfaction, and even disaster. Perception can come crashing into reality when something similar to an Enron debacle surfaces.

Responsible, dynamic leadership calls for you to become a master at self-evaluation. Examine the common characteristics of great leaders and ask yourself, “where am I with that?”  Keep a watch out for people who exhibit great leadership and ask them about their journey. Look over the common characteristics of lousy leaders and find your own sparks for improvement.

Common Characteristics of Lousy Leaders

• Lack of character
• Issues with honesty, limited humility, questionable trustworthiness
• Rules oriented vs. people oriented
• Micro managing
• Disengaged from the team
• Undermining or allowing undermining to go on among the troops
• Defensive when challenged or offered feedback
• Attack mode when giving feedback
• Power smacking – in meetings or in groups dressing people down
• Seeking blame rather than resolution
• Ignoring poor behavior or lousy performance among leadership

 

The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, states that counterfeit check scams are on the rise. Some fake checks look so real that bank tellers are reporting being fooled. The scammers use high quality printers and scanners to make the checks look real. Some of the checks contain authentic-looking watermarks. These counterfeit checks are printed with the names and addresses of legitimate financial institutions.  And even though the bank and account and routing numbers listed on a counterfeit check may be real, the check still can be a fake. These fakes come in many forms, from cashier’s checks and money orders to corporate and personal checks.

 

A teller must be fast, efficient, competent and well-versed in money, monetary transactions and financial instruments. The teller must be sufficiently worldly-wise to cope with the professional "paperhanger" who makes a comfortable living by defrauding financial institutions and merchants out of hundreds of millions of dollars annually. There is no substitute for experience in the teller's arsenal of defense weapons, but until that experience has been acquired and carefully developed, intelligent training methods must fill the gap.

 

$ $ $ $ $ $
The teller treats a check to be cashed or accepted for deposit
like a thermometer – the higher the amount the hotter the deal.
Practicing prudent risk management practices is essential at the teller window!
$ $ $ $ $ $

 

A scammer's goal is to become your customer.   Once an accountholder, the thief can wait patiently (typically months not years) to deposit fake checks into their account and then move the money before the bank is on to them.  Once an accountholder defrauds the bank they move on so the likelihood of collection is extremely low.

 

Decision making on the teller line around checks that are acceptable to cash or take for deposit is complex.  Here are critical questions and concerns to ponder:

 

Who is this customer?

• How long have they been my customer?
• What is their average balance?
• How much is in their account?
• How have they managed the account – NSFs?
• Would the bank loan this amount of money to this customer unsecured for ten days?
• Don’t be lulled into feeling comfortable by placing a REG CC hold. Whenever the character of the presenter is unknown or questionable or when the amount exceeds the customer’s “credit history” a routine REG CC hold will not offer enough protection.   A hold is never a solution for potential or probable fraud.  Never use a hold when the amount is excessive.  Those items must be sent for collection or the presenter can take the check to the financial institution it is drawn on.

Still Learning,
Honey Shelton

Who’s Responsible for Learning Effectiveness at Your Bank?

 

We talk a lot about training but we don’t have enough emphasis on learning effectiveness. It is easy to be fooled and buy into the myth that training that is conducted in a bank or credit union is entirely dependent upon the effectiveness of the trainer. Nothing could be further from the truth.

 

Accountability for training and learning effectiveness needs to be broad and deep. To ensure the company gets the very best return on payroll, systems and products, the ownership must hold all key parties responsible for quality work. Quality work is dependent upon job know-how, training, tools, coaching, and leadership. If any piece of the quality puzzle is missing or misshapen there will be breakdowns that impact the bottom line, service delivery and satisfaction – the customers and the workers.

 

A high profile advocate at your bank needs to be a visible, vocal champion of training. The person who states the vision, purpose and expectation of learning in the culture.

The trainer needs training, support and to be accountable for their piece in the puzzle. As does everyone else. Learning must become the heartbeat of your culture.

 

Still Learning,

 

Honey

Four Essential Elements of Lead Management

A system of motivation that I am a student of is called, Choice Theory. It is the premise for understanding why all of us do what we do, when we do it.  Want to learn how to succeed at leading others?  Check out this four elements of Lead Management and join me for Supervisor Boot Camp.  Check out our calendar.

•  The leader engages the workers in a discussion of the quality of the work to be done and the time needed to do it so that they have a chance to add their input. The leader makes a constant effort to fit the job to the skills and the needs of the workers.

• The leader or a worker designated by the leader shows or models the job so that the worker who is to perform the job can see exactly what the manager expects. At the same time, the workers are continually asked for their input as to what they believe may be a better way.

• The leaders asks the workers to inspect or evaluate their own work for quality, with the understanding that the leader accepts that they know a great deal about how to produce high-quality work and will therefore listen to what they say.

• The leader is a facilitator in that he shows the workers that he has done everything possible to provide them with the best tools and workplace as well as a non-coercive, non-adversarial atmosphere in which to do the job.

Lead management is the basic reform we need to generate quality and increase productivity. It is the way to manage, coach and lead others so that the worker stays motivated. Motivation is an internal thing it comes from within. Regardless of where it comes from, supervisors are expected to lead the team to perform more efficiently and effectively.

 

Still learning,

 

Honey