Community banking industry experts weigh in on the art of negotiating and its worth to both up-and-coming and veteran bankers. They offer insight into the key areas of negotiating and how to hone your chops in this key skill. One tip? Queue up episodes of Shark Tank. [Continue]
Excellent leaders possess strong negotiation skills. Yet the art of negotiating successfully is rare these days. As many organizations transition to their next generation of leaders, soft skills training, which includes negotiation skills, seem to be forgotten. I consider negotiation skills to be a key trait for up-and-coming leaders to succeed in the marketplace. [Continue]
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. “Why won’t they just finish the project?” I am sure “they,” those awful nameless faceless creatures, are lurking at your institution as well. How do we flush them out? How did they infiltrate our institution in the first place? [Continue]
We want our teams to feel empowered to use their resources and take appropriate action to overcome obstacles. At the most basic level, this means keeping open the lines of communication. Communication challenges often first come to my attention during monthly one-on-one meetings with staff. [Continue]
Age should not matter. Employees from all generations should strive to work together as one team to accomplish the vision of the company. [Continue]
We have all been there: Overwhelmed with projects, direct reports and responsibilities. We look to our highest performers to step in or step up to take on managerial duties to relieve our work loads. We ask them if they are ready and willing to manage a small group of teammates and let them know how confident we are that they are going to knock it out of the park. [Continue]
Bank Midwest adopted the Fierce program for its staff six years ago after Mary Kay Bates, president and CEO, was certified in the program. Bates, BankBeat’s 2019 Banker of the Year, views employee-customer communications as critical to the future success of the bank because people are less likely to interact face-to-face. [Continue]
The student debt statistics are stunning: 45 million Americans hold $1.5 trillion in student loans, for example. This kind of debt is a huge drag on the economy. [Continue]
For many financial institutions, using cloud-based applications is the only way they can affordably and effectively deploy the products younger generations desire. They can help attract and keep them as employees, too. [Continue]
The best way to approach management succession planning is by taking a broad perspective. Instead of focusing on the potential problem of succession planning for top positions, consider a talent management program to address succession planning at all levels. [Continue]