October - December 2017 •
The Lion King
• 43
WE HAVE A TEAM
BY OLA BABS OLUGBEMI
A
man who had a successful
career as a branch manager
(BM) once described branch
managers as the mini-CEOs of the
banks in their locations. I cannot
agree less with him. On the average,
BMs lead minimum of twenty staff with
customer-facing responsibilities. This
makes the BMs the custodians of the
Bank’s brand which are often deter-
mined by services and perception
about the bank. The BMs are also the
people who make or mar the quality
of the workplace for the people they
are leading.
Thus, the quality of the BMs is the qual-
ity of the brand, at least with the cus-
tomers, the branch staff and the local
community. As a Branch Manager,
you have major roles beyond deliver-
ing the numbers. Whereas delivering
the numbers is important, BMs who
succeed in making the numbers sus-
tainable create a foundation for the
fundamentals that make customers to
prefer the brand and the branch.
budget which will be achieved on the
platform of customer services.
To provide an effective service, you
must work on your team’s attitude. The
attitude of each of the team mem-
ber is the collective attitude of your
team. Attitude can be the differenti-
ating factor among teams, organisa-
tions and institutions. If your attitude
to the budget is negative, you are
like a train that cannot leave the train
station because the rail tracks have
been removed. Attitude is an inner
feeling that manifests into an outer
behaviour. You as a leader must work
towards ensuring your team members
are inspired enough to take the lead.
As important as attitude is, it is not all
that is required to develop an effec-
tive team. While good attitude will
create an atmosphere for success,
it does not replace skills, experience
and the desire to work for the team
when needed.
As branch managers, the responsi-
bility to upskill our team in relevant
products, processes and regulatory
requirements is on us. We must devel-
op team members we will be proud of
irrespective of level or grade.
You cannot achieve things alone
and if you can, you will sustain your
achievements if you work and build
your team. You must be able to say
you have a team even if you are
unavoidably absent.
Do you have a team?
Growing the Balance Sheet, Profits
and the general business perfor-
mance of a branch is hinged on the
creation of a culture and atmosphere
where success can be attracted and
sustained. These factors appear as
soft focus when compared with the
financial KPIs. However, the founda-
tion for success is to first create an
atmosphere for it at the branch level,
and be part of the overall vision of the
bank globally. The environment and
the culture at your branch is crucial to
inspiring and motivating the branch’s
team to be at their best in deliver-
ing on the hard focus - the numbers
and customers’ experiences. All these
must be in line with the 3Es - Enterprise,
Excellence and Execution.
While there is no fast and hard rule to
creating an effective team, it is impor-
tant for leaders to create teams that
think and act like the owners of the
bank. The starting point is to ensure
your team understand the vision for
the year and be enterprising about
achieving it. The vision is clear, it is the
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