Several years ago, there was a gentleman who came into our boot camp, and he was an EVP of a bank on the West Coast.

He told me that they had hired a firm, spent several hundred thousand dollars, and been in meetings for five months to figure out how to find their next most profitable customers. I was thinking, “are you kidding me”? I said, “Well, how’s it working?” He said, “Well, we’re not done yet. We haven’t identified them.” So, what they should have done is identify them in a couple of hours by following a clean process of psychographics and demographics, and then got busy bringing them in. That is the point, isn’t it?   

He came up to me, and he was just distraught. And yet, I get it. I’ve been a part of those organizations where you get it and you see what needs to be done, but nobody else does. But what do you do when you know everybody around you is going the wrong direction?   

Here’s what happens when that person works for a bank that’s destined to become a top 5% performing bank, they become a puppy dog with a sock in their mouth, they don’t let go. They just keep asking questions like “Shouldn’t we have figured this out already”? “Shouldn’t we be calling them”? “What is our process for calling on them”? “Do we know we have the right thing”? “What’s our process for organizing this”?   

Those who are Top Five Percenters™ don’t watch the crazy going on around them except it and say “that’s just how things are around here. It’s just me, how will I ever move this mountain?” Every great organization that’s become a Top Five Percenter has had somebody who grew a backbone and decided to be a stand for “if somebody can do it, we can do it, and we’re going to do it, so get the heck out of my way. I will just annoyingly keep asking questions until we get this right, because I will not accept working for a mediocre organization. “ 

When was the last time you ever called home and you said to your significant other “Honey, today, I performed average.” That doesn’t happen. We called home and we kick some back end and took some names and we made something happen. And that’s how our Top Five Percenter thinks. They are unstoppable in getting what they want when they know that there’s a better way of getting things done. And they are never going to sleep until they find the best way because success leaves clues. And as my mentor taught me years ago, only study with those who have their information in order and have done it repeatedly. 

To your continued success, 

Roxanne Emmerich 

Please watch the video above and share it with your exec team and board.