Rick L. Hull liked the world of a small community bank, where he had lots of individual loan authority and was able to interact with clients. The problem was he was the CEO of a large regional bank and just wasn’t happy in what was not a kinder, gentler world.
So he hooked up with a private equity firm and struck a deal to acquire a woe-begotten bank so he could breathe new life into it. And after 18 months, regulators declared the bank safe and sound (although Hull had hoped for about a 12-month time span).
“I really just had to follow my own advice,” says Hull, president and CEO of Premier Bank & Trust, formerly Ohio Legacy Bank. “I had spent my entire career telling everybody who worked for me that life is too short to be unhappy. If you find you wake up in the morning and you really don’t want to go to work, do something different.”
Hull knew change had to start with changing people if the bank were to thrive.
“There was a real stagnancy about the place but there were folks who really wanted to do something,” he says. “I think some of them simply just did not want to get re-energized. So you have to go and take care of that quickly.”
Once Hull excised the deadwood, he knew he had to assure those who were left that stability would return as guided by new management.
“I think you have to be quick to make change; it will resonate with others in the organization ― ‘OK, there was a willingness to make the tough decisions and do those for the benefit of the organization.’”
If you have a basic philosophy such as Hull’s ― life is too short for you to be miserable ― this was the time to explain it.
“I should have written the book, ‘The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t,’” he says. “Robert Sutton wrote it, and it exposits the theory that I have always had ― if someone is making you miserable, you don’t want to be party to that.
“We really invoked that and made some changes quickly. I’m a big believer that you need to make those changes fast. You have to be willing to hemorrhage for a short period of time as opposed to a slow bleed-to-death. You want to get everybody back to that feeling, ‘OK, there is some certainty. I wasn’t one who was released. I am part of this team.’”
Once Hull formed his team, it was time to get out the playbook and make sure everyone was on the same page.
“You need to meet everyone in the organization,” he says. “Take a humanistic type of approach ― you want them to be happy. If they do not think this is the place for them, then please, they should look someplace else.”
An important part of the plan is your expectations for the employees during a specified time frame, for instance, 90 days.
“Track that about every 30 days, giving a kind of periodic update,” Hull says. “Here’s where we are relative to this point ― staffing issues, things relative to systems, processes, procedures, all those types of things.”
If you want your vision to resonate with the staff, even though you come from a larger institution, stress the familial aspects.
“You want to define both internally and externally who you are and what you are looking to do,” he says. “Take the time to make certain there is really a family feel to it.
“If folks respect you as a leader, they’ll certainly do a lot of things for you,” Hull says. “If they really care about you and know that you care about them, I think they really will want to succeed. They have a sense of pride themselves. They also want to make you proud.”
How to reach: Premier Bank & Trust, (330) 499-1900 or www.mypremierbankandtrust.com
Committing to a sales culture
When Rick L. Hull was resuscitating the former Ohio Legacy Bank, he noticed it was missing something quite important.
“This little bank did not have any type of sales culture,” says Hull, president and CEO of the bank now known as Premier Bank & Trust. “They had never made a proactive sales call, ever.”
To develop a sales culture, you have to target with whom you want to do business ― small business owners, doctors, lawyers, accountants ― the ones who may have not been getting great service from one of the bigger players.
Next, your assignment is to institute strict guidelines for the sales department.
“I want you to make three outbound calls per day, and I want to know who you are going to talk to, what you are going to talk to them about,” Hull says. “I’m going to ask for your commitment, then somebody’s actually going to follow up at the end of the day to see if you did that. It’s a responsibility. If I ask you to do something and value your time enough that I’m actually going to follow up with it, you will feel a sense of ownership in it.”
Finally, make certain that everybody commits himself or herself to the process.
“Evoking a sales culture here was really embraced by some; it wasn’t embraced by others,” Hull says. “The ones who didn’t embrace it are no longer here.”
How to reach: Premier Bank & Trust, (330) 499-1900 or www.mypremierbankandtrust.com
