One bank that had not grown in 10 years began growing at an annualized return of 35 percent within a month of an intervention. Hundreds report doubling customer service scores within 30 days and increasing sales and sales margins by 10 to 50 percent.

How is that possible? An employee motivation intervention helped to align everyone and everything on a mission of greatness.

After 16 years of working with the country’s top-performing financial institutions, one thing is clear: Nothing makes a more significant impact on growth and the bottom line than employee morale.

Without exception, extraordinary employee morale is THE most serious focus of high-performing financial institutions. It’s more important than strategy, and sales skills. It ranks just behind air in terms of importance. 

What are the key mistakes that leaders of under-performing financial institutions make when motivating their teams?

#1 Allowing Employees Who Have Quit to Come to Work Every Day

Research conducted by the Corporate Executive Board of 50,000 employees proves that employees who are “true believers”—who value, enjoy, and believe in what they do—displayed 57 percent more discretionary effort and were 87 percent less likely to pull up stakes. With the cost of replacing an employee estimated between three and nine months of their annual salary, low-performing organizations need to take heed that workers with the “just doing my job” mindset are four times more likely to leave.

Low-performing financial institutions believe that higher pay or benefits create increased employee performance. But high-performing companies (which attract nine times more “true believers”) know that employee engagement comes from making employees feel they’re valued and necessary, and that the bank has a “cause” and purpose that extends far beyond profits.

#2 No Clear Vision of Greatness Expected

Yep, this is a biggie. Imagine a new teller interviewing at two different banks. One bank manager tells him, “We want a ROA of 1.2 this year. It’s your job to balance your drawer and smile at customers. You’ll get a week of vacation after six months.” The other manager says, “We’re on a mission from God. EVERY person who comes here should be so well taken care of that they bring us a new customer each year!” At which institution would the job candidate likely be attracted—and work harder toward excellence?

Do you have a vision (created by your employees), a clear picture of what “extraordinary” looks like? Are your people “on a mission” to make it happen? Is your mission statement posted?

#3 Wrong People on the Bus

NOTHING is more predictive of job performance than emotional intelligence—not past job performance, personality, or IQ.

Most low-performing financial institutions don’t use emotional intelligence testing at all. If they do any testing, it’s “personality testing” with self-evaluation tools. These tests don’t work because personality assessments have a very low correlation to job success, AND job-based self-evaluation has inherent dangers:  people say what they think you want to hear (at worst), and people can’t always evaluate themselves clearly (at best). 

Emotional intelligence testing benchmarks have shown that those who are considered low risk have a 90 percent chance of being in that job successfully twelve months later; those who are high risk have only a 10 percent chance.

Do you test to make sure people can get along with others, have high expectations for themselves, are ethical and clear thinking, and will work hard?

#4 Leadership Plays the “Blame Game”

Everything is a leadership issue. There are no exceptions—and high-performing financial institutions know that. Low-performing financial institutions don’t accept responsibility for hiring the wrong people, for failing to engage or train them properly, for not eliminating dysfunctional behaviors (e.g., passive-aggressiveness and gossip). Your leadership team MUST identify and manage dysfunctional behaviors out of your organization. Does your leadership team know how to engage people to constantly apply new and better behaviors? 

#5 Imposed Standards or No Standards at All

If you want to see people live up to customer service standards, put them in charge of setting those standards, measuring progress, and celebrating that progress. Stop using the antiquated approach of “training” on features and benefits and then adding incremental incentives.  Instead, educate your people on sales approaches that aren’t manipulative or pushy; approaches that help people buy. If it feels or looks like sales, the salesperson is doing it wrong. 

As the old saying goes, “There are two pains in life: the pain of discipline and the pain of regret.” If you don’t choose the first, you’ll get the second. A leadership team needs extraordinary service and sales discipline.

The biggest lesson that leaders of financial institutions need to learn is that the human spirit never engages in mediocrity. The role of leadership goes well beyond making good loans and creating strategies. The top priority of leadership is to lead people to greatness.