Bank of America Banking Center

An employee at the Bank of America Banking Center, whom we will name Morial Dawes, is a part-time window teller or customer service representative.  She works at both the drive-up window and inside.  She only performs teller functions, does not open new accounts or sell loan or credit products.  Morial is also a college student.  She has two years remaining to complete her bachelors degree in business management and finance.  Morial also holds a real estate agent license and occasionally lists and sells homes.  She is currently age 27, and has been active in many civic organizations since age 21.  She has been featured in the local news as a board member and mentor for a local program that helps single mothers obtain job skills, higher education, and employment.  Morial’s goals are to obtain an executive level position with a local company, or to start her own real estate agency.

Morial believes that the bank is a good launching board for her goals.  She also believes that she offers the bank many skills that can help them be a better corporate citizen, and be more profitable in their local business.  Morial has recently completed some Dale Carnegie seminars and is interested in doing motivational speaking and corporate training.  She has done some small speaking engagements at her church and civic organizations.  Morial would like to do some motivational seminars for her coworkers, as she has noticed low morale and high stress among some tellers.

Morial will write a letter to Mr.  Modeba explaining her observations, and outlining a seminar plan that she can do in-house at staff meetings.  Mr.  Modeba will respond with a decline based on the bank’s internal training model and on Morial’s position within the organization.  He will explain to her how she can reach the point where her proposal can be reconsidered.

Our staff meetings always provide excellent tools for communicating with customers and with managers.  During my time here at this branch I have learned to adapt my communications patterns to adjust to customers, branch management, and senior level management when they come into our staff meetings.

As we have previously discussed, I have completed some speech and communications courses at the university level.  I have also attended many of the Dale Carnegie seminars.  Not only have these courses and seminars helped me to develop my personal communications style, but they have given me a greater ability to incorporate the strategies that you have taught into my daily work activities.

Some of my fellow tellers have been experiencing low morale since our branch received a below average rating in overall communications efforts.  However, I know that each one of us enjoys our jobs immensely, and would like to do all we can to raise our branch rating the the ‘excellent’ level.  To that end, I would like to assist by offering a series of peer seminars to help enhance our internal communications strategies.

With your assistance, I would like to conduct a five week, 60 minute seminar based on the five communication concepts that you often refer to in our meetings – information, progress reporting, motivation, organizational advance, and implying law.  In each session we will discuss each concept in detail, and conduct peer-to-peer practice scenarios on how to apply each concept.  For example, in the session on implying law, we would practicing asking clarifying questions to senior management who present new policies to us.  Then we would practice explaining the changes to customers who are used to older practices.  We would also learn how to discuss amongst each other how the policies alter our tasks and how to remain efficient during transition.

I am willing to meet with you after my shift or during my off hours to draft out the full plan for the seminars.  I am sure that you will need approval from senior management, so I will also answer any questions or put a detailed proposal and seminar curriculum in writing for presentation and review.  I believe that this will help all of us reach a greater comfort level and become a model branch for achieving communications excellence.

Thank you for your memo affirming the challenges and goals we have as a branch team.  I am also pleased that you have taken so much from my staff meetings.  I realize that our meetings are short and to the point, but it is positive to know that you are able to apply the principles we discuss into your daily activities.

As a branch manager, my purpose and goal in having staff meetings is to provide employees with a sounding board for their day to day observations and concerns.  Staff meetings also facilitate senior management in providing new product or service training, and to discuss changes in bank policy and procedure as it relates to our daily operations.

You may or may not know that our regional office has a state-of-the-art training and educational facility.  As a manager, I often attend training programs designed to enhance my ability to communicate with employees at the branch level.  Some of the trainers are our in-house training personnel, other times local universities send their staff in to conduct training or even provide coaching for individual managers.  There is also a dedicated staff at the company headquarters that works closely with staff at the regional offices to identify training needs and to develop and acquire training resources.  As such, all official and technical training programs are developed at the corporate level first, and then duplicated at the regional level.

I have shared your memo and idea, as well as your resume with my senior regional manager.  She is impressed with your attention to detail and with your identification of need and response to that need.  However, we are unable to approve in-house peer-to-peer branch training.  That model was in use several years ago, and proved to be ineffective in meeting the corporate training goals.

At my regional manager’s request, I am forwarding to your email a link to our corporate careers webpage, and a copy of several positions available at the regional office.  As you will see, there are several opportunities within the training division for persons with your skill and vision.  As you know, our company prefers to promote from within and you may be surprised to learn that my regional manager began as a part-time float teller while attending school.

I hope that this information is helpful to you, and find it conceivable to someday bring the entire branch staff to attend corporate training led by you.