I have recently started a new bank in south carolina. we are now about 14 months old and have exceeded or 5 year projections, not only in growth but in profits. we became profitable in the fifth month. something unheard of in the banking industry. my concern is that i have some great people here, they are honest and hard working. some of them have a limit to committment and let the remaining group shoulder the burden of this growth. their talent would be more suitable with a mature company, but non the less they do have talent and i believe it is in the best interest of the company to find a way to motivate to a higher level. larger dollar incentive plans do not seem to work... any ideas?

-- Rick Saunders (rick@firstreliance.bank), October 31, 2000

Answers

Rick, there is always a danger that you can begin to narrow the focus that you become so inward looking that people forget what they were originally motivated about. Profitablity in five months didn't happen just because of something that you may have written on a business plan, it happened because your customers saw you doing things that other banks are not doing.

You have to remind yourself of what that was by asking your front- line troops (your employees) what they noticed that worked. Larger dollar incentive plans are an inward looking strategy, most people who work, work because they see something greater in their own individual contributions, once you do something or say something to remove that and do things that turns their focus on the day-to-day then that's when the air starts going out of the balloon.

I think you need to sit down with your people after you have thought about what growth means to you. You may have unrealistic growth ideas that don't match what you have in your company now or maybe not matched by training and development strategies that your staff need. So you have to find out how much your staff think the bank can grow. They will give you an honest answer but if they become oarsmen and you become a bank manager with a whip, trying to row them to some growth target that they are out of touch with, guess what Rick, some people do stop rowing. When they do you have to ask yourself one thing, Was it my ideas of growth that is stalling my boat or do I really need to find better rowers? Usually, most companies don't have to find better rowers but merely to listen to the crew to things that would speed things up.

I hope this stimulates some of your own ideas, this is of course my perspective.

Regards

M.

M. To be or not to be that is the question: http://www.fastcompany.com/fasttalk/replypost.html?p=9738

-- Mark Zorro (zorromark@consultant.com), November 02, 2000.

In my opinion, nothing is more important to a high performance organization than positive reinforcement, delivered correctly.

Positive reinforcement occurs when a person recieves something he or she likes after accomplishing a specific behavior or result, and increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur again.

Telling someone, "I like what you did," is not a naturally-occuring act for most of us. We expect a certain level of performance from other people and have difficulty understanding when they don't do what they're "paid to do."

Money is a reinforcer for some people, but definitely not for all. You mention that you have some very talented employees, that you have some dedicated and committed employees. Tell them personally and exactly why you like their work. You can't do this if you are not "on the floor" and can recognize immediately when a behavior occurs that you like.

-- Deirdre K. Vest (vestfam@earthlink.net), November 06, 2000.