Welcome to the Top 5 Percenter™ Blog

Best Practices for Leadership: Part One

by | Effective Leadership

Before we get to the five best practices for leaders, there is a fundamental difference you must understand.

Leaders and managers serve different functions within a healthy organization.

Both roles must inspire and instill accountability but there is a profound difference between management and leadership.

Managers use command and control techniques. They measure. They plan. They set goals. They do.

Leaders, on the other hand, are more about being than doing. It’s more WHO they are than what they do that inspires the “better angels of our nature,” as Abraham Lincoln said.

Managing is about efficiency and doing things right. Leadership, on the other hand, is about doing the right things.

Too many managers climb the ladder beautifully; only to find out they climbed the wrong ladder. Management is about controls, procedures, and systems.

Leadership is about trust. Only through trust can leaders innovate, create, adapt, and change.

Leadership is about enrolling people in a vision that will let them be extraordinary and make an impact.

Leadership is both top down and bottom up. In order for a leader to trust, the people they delegate responsibilities to must be well educated about the work they need to do and the direction you are going so they can make good decisions. To simply let go of the reins without giving people the necessary tools is a formula for disaster.

Make no mistake, you need BOTH leaders and managers in a kick-butt sales culture.

Look for the five specific best practices utilized by high-performing leaders within the industry in next week’s blog post.

More From The Blog

Stop Letting Pedestrian Thinking Run Your Bank’s Future [VIDEO]

Most banks are not suffering from a technology problem. They are suffering from a thinking problem. Roxanne Emmerich explains why second-order thinking is now essential for community bank executives preparing their teams for AI, change, and the next wave of performance pressure.

Your Bank’s USP Is Either Indisputable—or Invisible

Most banks don’t need another branding exercise. They need a USP that prospects believe. Roxanne Emmerich explains how credibility, systems, awards, and proof points turn differentiation into a revenue-driving advantage.

Your Marketing Isn’t Broken. Your Positioning Is.

Most bank marketing does not fail because the message is weak. It fails because the bank has no compelling position in the market. In this video, Roxanne reveals how community banks can sharpen their USP, strengthen credibility, and win more business without racing to the bottom on rate.