I believe people are basically good. They want to do what they say they’re going to do, but sometimes they get distracted, or they’re unsure of what their optimal role is. And that can be dangerous when it comes to your bank’s strategic planning.

In this episode, I’m going to show you how to get your entire team aligned so that everyone knows what their responsibilities are EVERY week and how it ALL ties into the bank’s strategic plan. You’ll be able to breathe deeply, knowing you won’t be begging for forgiveness from regulators or your board.

If you’re the kind of leader:

• Who thinks your team could benefit from more alignment and accountability, you’re going to love this.
• Who finds it gut-wrenching not to know where each person is on their promises, which must be fulfilled for you to meet YOUR promises, you’re going to love this.
• Who is great at execution and your team already has it nailed, you’re really going to like some of the ways to see how everyone in the bank can elevate to that level of execution.

Typical challenges to executing a strategic plan

• The many “oh look, there’s a squirrel” people who like to jump from shiny thing to shiny thing
• The lack of a cohesive system that allows for good communication of status on projects and provides accountability, which can lead to a few ugly surprises
• Or often, there isn’t a dynamic system that allows for the flow of items that tie together to dance together. This causes disappointment from superstars who are ahead and can’t see those who are behind.

EVERY bank seems to struggle with some version of these issues.

Three steps to overcome these strategic planning problems

Step 1: An integrated sprint accountability system

Most strategic plans are stale, boring, lack accountability, and often have a list of 18+ things to do—all of which will, no surprise to anyone, show up on the list the following year… undone.

Instead, you need an integrated sprint process where everyone in your organization knows what they must do that week and get the distinction that “they gave their word.” Their outcomes are their promises to the team.

Step 2: Build rituals of visibility

Unlike so many strategic planning processes that have a visibility program that sounds like, “file the plan in the board room,” when you build a weekly visibility system where each person commits to their outcomes for each week, people get excited and engaged.

They have an important role in seeing the plan be fulfilled, and everybody is watching.

Step 3: Build ritual of celebration to focus on alignment

Unlike traditional “rah-rah” fake happiness, create an acknowledgment and celebration system where progress is recognized, and teams are excited to see that they have moved the ball down the court on the right kind of leading and lagging indicators.

Being tuned into and taking pride in their outcomes moves the needle so much faster.

Imagine the peace of mind and the ease of your job if your team followed an effective system for getting more and better new business in your bank. You come up with the strategies and can rest assured knowing your people will enjoy their work more because they are set up to win.

This concludes my 5-part series on strategic planning. If you missed an earlier episode, catch them all here:
Part 1: What really works in strategic planning
Part 2: Thousands of dollars in untapped profits found at your bank
Part 3: 4-step system to attract top-quality prospects who pay premium prices
Part 4: Is your strategic plan out of alignment?

Next week, I’ll kick off a 5-part series on cross-sales. Stay tuned!

To your continued success,
Roxanne Emmerich

P.S. We still have seats left for our upcoming Breakthrough Banking™ Blueprint Conference. Register your executive team today if you’re serious about getting even-better results in 2023 and beyond.