Your strategic plan was not built to sit in a binder. It was built to move revenue, margin, deposits, cross-sales, and culture. And now, midyear, the truth is staring every executive team in the face: some metrics are moving, some are stuck, and some are exposing the avoidance no one wants to name.

In this week’s video, Roxanne Emmerich delivers a blunt midyear wake-up call for community bank executives who are done tolerating soft excuses and slow execution.

You’ll discover:

• Why midyear is the most valuable diagnostic checkpoint of the year
• How elite banks stop obsessing over lagging metrics and double down where momentum already exists
• Why boards don’t reward explanations—they reward execution, traction, and measurable results

This is not the time for shame, sugarcoating, or “wait and see” leadership. It’s time to diagnose fast, adjust faster, and turn the second half of the year into a performance run your board can actually believe in.

Ready to stop explaining and start accelerating? Watch the episode now.

Watch now. 

Let’s get brutally honest for a minute. You’re halfway through the year. Halfway through the strategic plan your executive team swore they’d execute. Halfway through the revenue, margin, and culture shifts you intended to create.

And let me guess: some of your metrics are on track and some aren’t. Maybe you’re ahead in cross-sales but behind on deposit growth. Maybe net interest margin is stable but not surging. Here’s what elite banks understand.

Results rule. Excuses drool. Blaming the Fed, the market, the crazy pricing from your desperate competitors—that’s not leadership. That’s avoidance. And let’s be clear: your board didn’t sign up for adult day care. They want traction, transformation, results, and now is the time to deliver.

Midyear is not the time for shame or sugarcoating. It’s the ultimate diagnostic checkpoint. What’s working? Do more of it now.

Pour the gas on the fire. What’s not working? Diagnose fast. Adjust. Move. This is a game of acceleration, not apology.

Most executive teams obsess over where they’re behind and miss the most profitable move: doubling down where they’re ahead. That’s the mindset of the top five percenters—not, “How do we salvage the year?” but, “How legendary can we make this run?” Boards don’t reward explanation.

They reward execution.

The post Halfway Is No Excuse: The Midyear Execution Test Every Bank Must Pass appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

In this week’s video, Roxanne Emmerich challenges bank executives to move beyond first-order thinking—the easy, obvious, defendable answer that rarely fixes the real issue. “We need sales, so let’s get sales training.” “We need deposits, so let’s hire a new head of retail.” Those are pedestrian solutions for a complex, fast-moving environment.

The banks that win the next era will be led by executives who force second-order thinking into the organization before AI accelerates bad assumptions, scattered activity, and expensive misfires.

In this video, you’ll discover:

• Why simple answers usually fail in complex banking environments
• How second-order thinking helps executives spot consequences before they become costly
• Why AI readiness starts with better executive thinking—not more training

If your team is resisting change, waiting for old roles to return, or chasing activity instead of strategy, this is the wake-up call. The future will not reward pedestrian thinking.

Watch now. 

I have a book that I love that I read a couple times last year, and I continue to reference it often. It’s called Intelligent Thinking, which sounds like a pretty good thing to do. And on pages fifty-eight and fifty-nine, there’s the concept of first-order thinking and second-order thinking. And I think it’s important to understand as an executive to make sure that you are using the right thinking and make sure that you’re evolving your people to the right thinking.

Here’s how he defines it. First-order thinkers look for things that are simple, easy, defendable. But, unfortunately, the whole ecosystem we live in is not that simple. Rather, it’s a complex permutation and combination of various factors and their interaction at any given point in time.

Examples of that would be, “We need sales. Let’s get sales training.”

“We need to improve deposits. Let’s get a new head of retail.” First-order thinking, does it ever work?

Maybe one percent of the time. Second-order thinkers go way beyond the simple and look outside, extending to different parameters.

They go to second, third, and subsequent levels of probable consequences and think deeper.

Second-order thinkers think in terms of interactions amongst various factors, with attention to time and system-related aspects. They ask questions like, “What different factors or parameters are involved in this problem, and what’s the interaction? What could be different possible consequences of taking a particular action and analyzing each consequence? How do we leverage to speed up the solutions?”

Charlie Munger says it best when he talks about second-level thinking. He says, “It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.”

Gotta love Charlie Munger. Right? I mean, the guy was one of the most brilliant business minds of our time. And here’s why I think this is an important concept for bank executives to be thinking of right now. In the world of AI, if you don’t have a second order of thinking guiding the direction of things, you will have a whole lot of activity that you find to be going in the wrong direction because everybody came up with their first-order thinking approach, and now suddenly it’s not working.

We have a crisis in the industry right now, and we have a small window of time to elevate the thinking to the next level of thinking. You don’t have a lot of time to figure this out. You gotta get moving here. So it’s not about training programs because training is teaching people what to do. It’s kind of like how to be a monkey. Right?

Education is teaching people how to be, how to think at a deeper level, how to go down deep, and to get rid of the pedestrian solutions and go for deeper-level thinking that actually solves the problems and, more importantly, takes advantage of the opportunities.

Stick with me as we talk about how you are going to take your team and get them ready for this new world of AI while they’re resisting and fighting and saying, “No way, not me. I want my old job,” when you know you cannot guarantee their old job because it’s just not going to continue to exist. Welcome to the world of second-order thinking.

The post Stop Letting Pedestrian Thinking Run Your Bank’s Future [VIDEO] appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

A Banky Award™ is not a plaque for the lobby. It is not a one-day social media post. It is third-party proof that your bank is different, trusted, and worth choosing in a market where most financial institutions sound painfully alike.

In this week’s video, Roxanne Emmerich explains why credible recognition should become part of your year-round growth strategy—not a short-lived celebration.

You’ll discover:

• Why Banky recognition creates instant market differentiation when customers are choosing whom to trust.
• How to turn award credibility into a sales advantage across your website, business cards, customer conversations, and referral systems.
• Why consistency matters when your bank can show repeated recognition year after year.

The real power of a Banky Award is not simply winning it. It is using it until your market starts saying, “That’s that special bank.”

Banky applications are closing soon. Now is the time to claim the recognition your team has earned—and prepare to use it as a growth weapon all year long.

Watch now. 

Many of you know, it’s about to happen. The Banky applications will be closing soon. They’ll be going off to an elite group of judges from within the industry who are very knowledgeable and filled with wisdom, who work very, very hard to go and determine who are the best banks in this country based upon all kinds of measurements, from the culture scores to the customer service experience, all of which is done in addition to their interpretation from the application information that is sent in. The reason this award is powerful is because it’s credible.

It’s not some vendor just throwing something together to some customers because they paid them a lot of money. This is about having a way that really stands out that says you are special. Now, I want to talk to you a little bit about how you can use your Banky Award, because I’m assuming many of you will be getting it this year, and many of you will be able to say that you’ve received it many years in a row, and that is a wonderful unique selling proposition because people always look. I know when I go to restaurants, do they win the Travel Advisor Award every year? I don’t want to see any years that are missed.

That tells me something. So, you want to have that consistency.

Maybe you win a category. Well, that’s a unique selling proposition. So perhaps you have the best customer for your asset size. Whoop-de-do, that’s a big deal. Let’s make a big deal about that, and let’s get that out there on your website, on your business cards, in your sales process, everywhere.

So, even if you don’t win a Banky or a category or the big overall award, when you have some of the smaller awards as well, those, too, are extreme differentiators that can be used. Now, if you get several of those, talk about all of those, and certainly from the most prestigious on down of those awards because when you make it real for your customers, they will always refer to you as, “Oh, that’s that bank that won that Banky.”

You don’t need more words than that. It’s kind of like saying, “Well, that’s that band that won that Grammy.” “Oh, they must be good,” is what comes right behind that. But they can’t say that if you do a one and done after you receive your award. It’s important to keep that out in front of your customer all year long and have it be a part of the talk and have it be a part of the sales system as well.

Because you want the narrative to be created such that they’re all talking about, “That’s that special bank. We’re lucky to have them in our market.” You don’t ever want to look like the rest of them. You should be the only bank with whom they want to do business.

That’s the game you want to be in.

The post Turn Your Banky Award Into a Year-Round Growth Weapon appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

In this week’s Grow Your Bank episode, Roxanne Emmerich exposes why a weak or generic “unique selling proposition” silently drains revenue—and why awards, recognition, systems, blueprints, and processes must be turned into credibility assets your people can actually use in the sales process.

Because if your differentiation can be copied, ignored, or dismissed as “me too,” it isn’t a USP. It’s expensive wallpaper.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why one credibility marker is useful—but three or four stacked together become nearly indisputable proof
• How to turn awards, PR wins, templates, blueprints, and internal systems into a revenue-driving sales advantage
• Why bank executives must stop outsourcing their revenue model to branding firms that miss the point

Your bank’s future growth depends on whether prospects believe you are meaningfully different before they ever sit across the table from your team.

Want to turn your bank’s performance into a credibility asset? Apply for the Banky Awards by May 20th and give your team a proof point they can use to stand out, open better conversations, and win more of the right business.

Last week, we talked about the power of using your Banky Award to promote and get new business with the very best prospects by having your people understand how to use it in the sales process. That’s one way to do a unique selling proposition, and there are others. You’ll want to look at other opportunities for the credibility type of unique selling proposition, such as maybe you’re voted Best Place to Work in your state, or you’re on the American Bankers Association list for Best Places to Work. Those would also be some additional great ways to define you as being different.

But here’s the real power when you’re talking credibility pieces. What if you had a whole bunch? What if you had three or four that you tied together? Oh, so you have the Banky Award, you have Best Places to Work on the ABA list, and you’re also on the Top 100 list for your state across all industries. Now we’re talking that you are an elite bank, that many entities are recognizing this, and it’s indisputable that something special is going on here.

The other power that you have is that series of PR hits. Boom, boom, boom. So that every time they hear of the next award, they think, “These people, they just keep being recognized everywhere. They’re really something.”

Now, credibility isn’t the only kind of USP. There are also the systems that you have that you can explain that make you different. And the systems, again, need to have credibility, and you do that by listing it as a template, a blueprint, or a process. What is the piece that has the credibility so that they understand that, in fact, you are something unique? But it’s not just a fleeting thing that one person thinks, “Yeah, maybe we could do this.” It is a system that is believed and implemented throughout the organization, and it’s beyond the person who’s in front of them.

Therefore, the person buying knows, “Oh, I’m buying a system. And during good times and bad times, depending on who’s in front of me, I know I’m going to have this system that’s going to allow for me to have more of my needs met.” And that goes back to one of the elements of a unique selling proposition. There are three important pieces.

Number one, it matters to the customer.

If you don’t win on number one, do not go to number two. You must win on number one. So it’s got to be of importance to them.

Then it must be dramatically different.

In other words, if there’s any chance of “me too” for any other banks in your area, it is not a unique selling proposition. So sure, you have some new doohickey that you just bought, and you’re ahead of some others in your market. Okay, but that’s going to be fleeting, and that differentiator will go away as soon as others add that new way of doing things. So know that that will go away quickly.

But the third piece is how you determine and say this piece in a way that brings that credibility. So is it the system? Is it the award? What is it that makes it real for them?

And most banks that spend a half a million dollars on a branding company miss that last piece, and I’m thinking, “You just got all of ten dollars’ worth of advice out of five hundred thousand dollars. How did you let that happen?”

As executives of banks, you must get your head in the game called marketing and sales. Why? It’s your revenue model.

Tell me what’s more important in your organization than your revenue model. I can’t think of anything. And so do you really want to abdicate that to people who you think understand that, who don’t know how you want that to be driven down as strategies? I don’t think there will be a place for banks like that in the future.

I think every great bank in the future will have executives who thoroughly understand revenue models and know how to put those in place. So get those differentiations in place quickly, understand what they are, drive that, and stop wasting money on branding exercises because we know how that goes.

Call me. I’ll share lots of horror stories. 

The post Your Bank’s USP Is Either Indisputable—or Invisible appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

If your positioning relies on claims like “great service” or “relationship banking,” you’re invisible. In this video, Roxanne Emmerich breaks down a simple but powerful shift: credibility-based positioning that instantly elevates trust, pricing power, and conversion.

Here’s what high-performing banks understand:

• Third-party validation turns opinions into proof—and proof closes deals
• Strategic use of awards like the Banky™ creates instant authority in the sales process
• The right differentiator doesn’t just win customers—it builds internal confidence and culture

This is not about marketing polish. It’s about market position.

Because when your bank is recognized as best-in-class, prospects stop comparing—and start choosing.

Ready to move from “just another option” to the obvious choice?

Discover how to use credibility to dominate your market.

Watch now. 

Last week, I mentioned how important it was to have a unique selling proposition to differentiate you so you can get the premium pricing.

Okay, easier said than done, but let’s talk about one pretty easy way to create some differentiation in a way that is believable. So if someone says to you, “Listen, my sister’s really nice,” you’re gonna go, yeah, okay. But if somebody says, “My sister won the Miss Arkansas, Miss America, Miss Congeniality Award,” you’re gonna go, oh, she must be really nice.

Now why did you say that? Because there was a credible organization that substantiated this, and so therefore, it is now believable. Well, that’s one of the secrets of a unique selling proposition. Not the only one, but it is one: what outside source says that you are worthy?

Where do you get your credit from? Where is that credibility coming from anyway? For many of you, you have the Banky Award offered by the Institute for Extraordinary Banking™. If you don’t, please get in the game this year.

Because the Banky Award has helped many banks achieve what they call the “Banky bump,” that dramatic increase in their revenue and the amount of business that they do because everyone starts talking about, “Well, you’re the bank that won that Banky.” Just like a Grammy and an Emmy, a Banky says best of the best. We stand out. Now, how do you use the Banky in your sales process, you ask?

Ah, let me share with you how you do that. You simply ask questions such as: How important is it to you to work with the bank that has won a Banky for the last three or four years in a row so that you know you’re working with a bank that has legitimately surveyed and effective customer service strategies, that has been ranked on culture so you know you’re dealing with good people who are alive and passionate about making a difference for you, and that is making a great community outreach approach to make a difference in the community along with running a really great bank?

By simply asking that question, in their mind they’re now thinking, oh, I hadn’t thought about that with other banks. I don’t know what their customer service approach is and whether it’s credible or if it was just a one-time good experience. I don’t know if their people are happy or if they’re all going to leave, leaving me hanging, wondering who’s going to service my account. I don’t know if they’re a well-run bank, and I don’t know that they’re up to making a big impact in their community.

All I know is they had a nice person who opened my account, but here I’m looking at a different option.

Having a differentiator such as a Banky is a clear distinction that, when used in the sales process, when used properly on your website, on business cards, is a way for you to stand out because everyone recognizes the feel of the words Grammy and Emmy, and they understand a Banky is a big deal. It’s not just a big deal for them—it’s a big deal for you and your people because, as I’ve heard from so many bank CEOs, it built the confidence in our people we never had before because now they get—we’re special.

Ah, the power of a unique selling proposition—not just for your outside customers, also for your team members. That’s the power of a great unique selling proposition.

The post Why Your Bank Needs Proof—Not Promises—to Win Premium Clients appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

And that silent drift is killing execution.

Nationwide data reveals a hard truth: 87% of employees believe their coworkers avoid ownership. That’s not a people problem—it’s a system failure. Without clear standards, consistent follow-through, and real measurement, even great teams default to excuses over results.

The highest-performing banks don’t rely on pressure or pep talks. They install accountability systems that make ownership visible, measurable, and expected.

Here’s what changes when you get it right:

• Cross-sales increase because expectations are clear and tracked
• Deposits grow as teams execute consistently, not occasionally
• Profitability rises because performance becomes the norm—not the exception

The difference isn’t talent. It’s discipline. It’s structure. It’s a culture where people know how to win—and choose to.

If your bank is building that kind of performance culture, it’s time to be recognized.

Apply for the Banky Awards™ and prove your culture performs.

Watch now. 

Let me say something uncomfortable but true. Most bank teams don’t have a performance problem. They have a pretending problem—people pretending not to know what excellence looks like.

Pretending they didn’t see the standard. Pretending they didn’t hear the deadline. And when pretending becomes the culture, accountability dies. We’ve conducted the largest nationwide accountability culture survey.

And here’s what we found: eighty-seven percent of employees believe their coworkers pretend not to know what’s expected of them.

Let that sink in. That means that almost nine out of ten people think their teammates are willfully avoiding ownership.

And in that kind of culture, you don’t get execution—you get excuses.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Most people don’t mean to undermine accountability.

They’re good people.

They’re just part of a system that tolerates fuzzy expectations, no follow-through, and vague coaching like, “Let’s just do our best.”

What they really need? Clarity, structure, measurement, feedback, and celebration.

That’s what a performance culture delivers. When accountability becomes your cultural standard, cross-sells rise, deposits grow, morale improves, profits soar—because suddenly everyone knows, “Oh, this is how we play here, and we play to win.”

It’s not about pressure. It’s about purposeful pursuit of performance.

The best banks aren’t the ones who demand results with a stick.

They’re the ones who install systems that create self-led teams where people take ownership—and actually like it.

Because people want to win. They just need a scoreboard and a coach who believes they can.

But let me be clear: this isn’t going to happen with another staff meeting, or a memo, or my personal favorite—a new poster in the break room about excellence.

Accountability isn’t a slogan. It’s a system.

And when the system is installed correctly—stage-appropriate—it changes everything.

Incidentally, you’ll never guess what the one trait every bank award winner has in common.

It’s not a logo. It’s not a branch count. It’s not a flashy website.

It’s accountability.

They have cultures where execution happens because the system demands it—and the people embrace it.

That’s why they’ve been named one of the best banks in America.

And if you’ve built a culture like that—or you’re on your way—you should apply for the Banky Award at bankyawards.com because culture like that deserves to be seen.

So if you’re tired of nudging people, “We should already know…”

If you’re done tiptoeing around performance…

And if you’re ready to build a culture of accountability that drives results without drama…

Get your Banky Award application in at bankyawards.com.

And let the world know—you don’t just have a culture, you have a performance culture.

That’s what changes everything.

And it starts now.

The post Your Bank Doesn’t Have a Performance Problem—It Has an Accountability Gap appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

In this week’s video, Roxanne Emmerich calls out the expensive mistake too many community banks make: confusing branding with positioning. A polished logo, a clever tagline, or a faster turnaround time is not enough to make your ideal customer choose you. If your team cannot clearly explain why your bank is the best or the only one, you are not differentiated. You are replaceable.

In this video, you’ll discover:

• Why weak positioning destroys deposit growth, pricing power, and marketing ROI
• How to tell if your so-called USP is actually a real competitive advantage
• Why the right third-party credibility instantly helps your team sell value instead of rate

Roxanne also makes the case for why recognition matters when it proves performance. A credible award can do more than decorate a lobby. It can open doors, validate your claims, and help your team close.

If your bank has built real discipline, real alignment, and real results, this is your moment to step forward.

Banky Award applications are open now at BankyAwards.com

Watch now. 

Let’s get honest about something that’s quietly killing your deposit growth, sabotaging your pricing power, and making your marketing dollars evaporate.

It’s not your message. It’s your positioning.

Most community banks have been duped by well-intentioned branding firms who took hundreds of thousands of dollars, designed beautiful logos and catchy taglines, and then gave you one half of a decent USP like, “We approve loans in thirty-six hours,” which, okay, that’s something. But is it enough to make your ideal customer say, “Woah, we have to talk to that bank?”

Not even close. Marketing only works when it’s tied to one thing: positioning. If you can’t articulate why your bank is the best or the only, you’re just another option in a saturated market. And your team, when they get asked, “Why should I bank with you instead of the other guy?” they’re saying things like, “We’ve been around for eighty years. We have great people. You’ll get me.” Let’s be real.

These aren’t selling points. They’re red flags that you have no positioning.

A real unique selling proposition does one of two things. It proves that you’re the best or it proves that you’re the only. If your USP doesn’t do that, it’s not a USP, or a unique selling proposition.

It’s wallpaper.

And here’s the real cost. Without a strong USP, your marketing falls flat, your sales team doesn’t have the tools to close premium business, and you’re forced to compete on rate instead of value, which is a race to the bottom. So here’s the test. Ask your frontline team this question: “Why should someone bank with us instead of anyone else?” If you hear silence or clichés, you’ve got a positioning problem.

Incidentally, there’s one USP that instantly separates a bank from the rest of the pack. The one line that makes prospects stop scrolling, stop hesitating, and start saying, “Well, obviously, we should talk to them.” That USP: “We’ve been named one of the best banks in America by the Institute for Extraordinary Banking.” That, my friend, is positioning.

The bank award doesn’t just sit on the shelf. It gets you into the room. It closes the deal. It proves what your marketing claims. So if you’ve already built a performance culture, if your team is aligned, if you’re growing low-cost deposits and delivering real results, get your Banky Award application in at BankyAwards.com. Because the banks that win this award don’t just market better, they close better, they lead better, and they bank better.

The post Your Marketing Isn’t Broken. Your Positioning Is. appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

They’re not grinding harder—they’re executing smarter. While average banks chase vague “best practices,” elite banks install systems that drive measurable performance, profitability, and positioning.

Here’s what separates them:

• They systematize performance – culture, pricing, and execution are engineered—not left to chance
• They tie every role to profit – every employee understands how they move the bottom line
• They leverage positioning – recognition like the Banky Award becomes a revenue-driving asset

This isn’t theory. One bank moved cross-sales up 300% and increased NIM by 120 basis points—not by trying harder, but by installing the right system.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: being great isn’t enough anymore. If the market doesn’t see you as elite, you’re invisible.

If your bank is already doing the work—but not getting the recognition or pricing power you deserve—it’s time to fix that.

Apply for the Banky Award and claim your position at the top.

Watch now. 

What the Top 1% of Banks Do That the Other 99% Still Don’t Get

There’s nothing noble about working harder than your competitors unless it actually works. But for most banks, it doesn’t. The top one percent of banks, they’re not working harder. They’re working smarter with systems, culture, and leadership alignment that pull results like a magnet. Let me show you what they’re doing and how you can do that too. Now let’s be honest.

Best practices in banking have been watered down to meaning, well, nothing. Every bank claims great customer service. Every team says they’re relationship-based. Every CEO says our people are our biggest asset. So if everyone’s saying the same thing, why are only a few actually crushing it? Because the top performers don’t talk practices. They install them systematically, relentlessly, measurably.

One of our clients was buried in margin pressure. They couldn’t move pricing. Cross-sales were dead in the water. They trained their people twice and still got no lift.

But then we installed the Breakthrough Banking Blueprint performance system. Cross-sales up three hundred percent. Net interest margin up one hundred and twenty basis points. Team alignment locked in.

And today, they’re one of the best banks in America.

Incidentally, you might have seen them on stage receiving the Banky Award from the Institute for Extraordinary Banking. But here’s the part most banks miss. They didn’t win the Banky to feel good. They won it because it was smart business.

The Banky isn’t a trophy. It’s a tool. It separates you from the B2 banks. It gives your team a reason to step it up.

It gives your prospects proof that you are elite in your market. And let’s face it, it’s a lot easier to close deals and command premium pricing when you can say, we’ve been recognized as one of the best banks in America.

So what do the top banks actually do differently? They build culture like it’s a core product. They tie every role to profitability. They own the pricing conversation. They use metrics that matter.

Here’s a little hint. How many new accounts that you’ve brought in is not one of those metrics. They compete on value, not rate, and yes, they leverage positioning through the Banky Award to build prestige and close the deal.

If you’re already doing the work, and if your bank is walking the talk on performance and leadership, and if you’re ready to let the world know that you’re in a different class, apply for the Banky Award now. Position your bank where it belongs, at the top. Because these days, being great isn’t good enough. Being seen as great is everything. Don’t let the almost-best banks grab the spotlight that you’ve earned. Go to BankyAwards.com and make sure that you nominate your bank. And we’ll see you in September at the Best Banks in America Super Conference.

The post Why the Top 1% of Banks Win While Everyone Else Spins appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

You’ve seen it: missed deadlines, tolerated underperformance, and a silent agreement not to challenge each other. It feels polite. It’s actually dangerous.

In this video, Roxanne Emmerich dismantles the myth of accountability and replaces it with something far more powerful: mutual accountability rooted in respect—not avoidance.

You’ll discover how to:

• Stop premature accountability: Holding people accountable before mastery drives top performers out the door.
• Break the “I won’t tell if you won’t” culture: Silence doesn’t protect people—it delays consequences.
• Lead with accountable care: High-performing teams challenge directly, clearly, and with commitment to results.

If your team is “nice” but not performing, you don’t have alignment—you have avoidance.

And avoidance is expensive.

Ready to build a team that actually delivers?

Watch now. 

Everywhere I go, people tell me we’ve got to build an accountability culture. What a great and novel idea. Sadly, decades have gone by and most organizations have gotten nowhere on that. So what’s the problem? Why do we keep talking about the same problems, but we’re not fixing them? I have a couple ideas.

Idea number one. One of the things that organizations do wrong is they bring in some new training, and then they hold everybody accountable right away before they’ve had any level of mastery whatsoever. And so good people start thinking, I’ll never get this. They run for the door, and they lose their good people.

This is not a good solution. That’s one problem, but that’s not the big one. The big one is the whole concept of “I won’t tell on you if you don’t tell on me” philosophy.

But here’s the thing—we all know friends don’t let friends drive drunk. Well, guess what? Friends don’t let friends not perform in the workplace. Because when they miss a deadline, when they miss an outcome, eventually these things get reconciled.

They get reconciled in that somebody doesn’t get a raise. They get reconciled in that somebody gets fired. Do you really want that to happen to your friends? And yet, for many organizations, they have the ghost—we talked about ghosts a few weeks back—the ghost of “well, that’s how we do things around here.” We’re just nice, and you’d stand out and be different if you were to challenge.

Well, here’s the thing—we have to stand out and challenge, but we can do that with love in our heart. We don’t have to be nasty when we’re holding people accountable. It’s just like, “Hey Joe,

I think this is the third week you’ve had this on your list. Need this done by Wednesday at eleven o’clock. What do you need to move? What mountains have to be moved in order to make that happen?

Because, dude, I’m counting on you. Look me in the eye, tell me I’m going to see that.”

It’s a fun, light, easy way to basically say, I care about you. I’m not going to let you keep giving lip service to things and not performing.

It’s not good for you. It’s not good for the organization.

That need for approval within humans ends up being a big problem.

As you’re hiring, make sure you’re not hiring a bunch of people with a strong need for approval who will never confront. Those of you who are doing the emotional intelligence assessments—you’ll see it as the higher intuition/empathy score—because at a certain level they will do anything to not say anything about what’s going wrong, and therefore they become the source of the problem.

As you’re putting your executive team together, make sure you’re averaging between a six and a seven for average scores in intuition and empathy. That will be the magic that will make sure that you keep saying, “This is what I need, Joe. I can count on you, Joe. Right?”

With kindness, with love, accountability can happen—and yet it must happen.

The post Stop Nice. Start Accountable: Why Your Culture Is Failing (and How to Fix It) appeared first on The Emmerich Group.

Most bank executives tolerate a dangerous pattern: disagreeable behavior disguised as “passion” or “high standards.” The result? Top performers disengage, culture erodes, and accountability quietly disappears.

This video draws a hard line between healthy dissension and toxic disagreement—and why failing to address it is costing you more than you think.

In this video you’ll discover:

• How one toxic communicator silently impacts 8+ employees—and your retention

• The simple language shift that instantly removes defensiveness and drives alignment

• Why executives must confront behavior directly—or accept cultural decline

The strongest cultures don’t avoid conflict. They weaponize it for performance—without letting it turn personal.

If your team is walking on eggshells… or worse, checking out… it’s time to reset the standard.

Watch now. 

So you disagree, and yet you can disagree without being disagreeable.

Have you noticed that there are certain people that you work with that, no matter what they do, they just have a way of being disagreeable?

Underneath that is not just maybe a lack of skill set, but maybe a disgruntlement where it’s basically always an attitude of, “You’re ticking me off, and let me do a little harm back the other direction.”

Allowance of these behaviors is underneath all crazy-making behaviors, but also it is the principles that cultures are built on that are unhealthy cultures. And yet, in many organizations, this kind of behavior does not get approached.

As you’re onboarding new employees, make it really clear that you expect them to disagree. You didn’t hire them to be bobbleheads to agree with everything that you said—you’ve hired them to think and challenge. But how they challenge makes a difference.

A mentor of mine taught me years ago to never say, “I disagree.” Instead, just say, “I see that differently.”

Immediately, we’re no longer being combative. We’re just basically saying, “That’s interesting. I give you points for what you said. I would like to have some points for what I’m saying so we can figure this out together.” But notice how the tone, the words matter.

Having disagreeable people on your team who believe that they can get away with any infraction of what they believe to be perfection in the workplace—which you have to understand is pretty much every day, all day long, because it’s never perfect—when that person in the room gets away with that, I guarantee you, if they work in proximity to eight people, those other eight people are very much impacted. Walking around on eggshells, not enjoying their job, not bringing in and recruiting their best friends to come work there too, and counting the days until their retirement.

Understanding that we must deal with those who disagree in disagreeable ways, so that they don’t suck the energy out of the room, is part of what it means to be an executive.

Again, going back to what I was talking about a couple weeks ago—you’ve got to grow a backbone to make sure you deal with those things. And again, as you’re bringing it up, you don’t need to be disagreeable. You just need to say, “This is how we do things around here. We’re going to expect you to always do it that way.”

Do we agree on that? Can I hold you accountable? Great. You can count on that being the case.

Looking forward to working with you under these new parameters.

Make it clear that you want them to disagree, but they don’t need to be—and they should never be—disagreeable.

Come back again next week. We’re going to talk about the next layer of building your culture, because it’s about getting people to play nice in the sandbox together, but then it’s about getting them to be productive together as well. See you back next week.

The post Healthy Dissension: Eliminate Toxic Disagreement Before It Erodes Your Culture appeared first on The Emmerich Group.