Introduction:

In the ever-evolving landscape of the banking industry, senior managers and executives face unique challenges and opportunities. To empower them with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate these complexities, we have developed a comprehensive five-day training program. Drawing insights from the HBR book for CEOs, this program focuses on key areas crucial for success in the banking industry. This program is for you, if you’re ambitious and want to gain valuable insights. Dive into executing strategies effectively, cultivating focused leadership, managing risks, identifying and developing talent, and optimizing board interactions. Through a combination of interactive sessions, case studies, and practical exercises, participants will enhance their strategic capabilities and drive sustainable growth in their banking organizations.

Harvard series for Banking Professionals and Executives is the definitive collection of ideas and best practices for aspiring and experienced leaders alike. This series offer essential training selected from the pages of Harvard Business Review on topics critical to the success of every manager.

Titles include:

1. Strategic Leadership with Impact: Building a Visionary Future for Your Bank
2. Transforming Strategies into Comprehensive Impact
3. Bank Manager Mastery: A Comprehensive Training Program to Power up Your Performance
4. Empowering Bankers: Communication, Decision Making, and Leadership for Success

Who should attend:

Senior executives, directors, and managers who hold leadership positions one or two levels from the CEO and have been identified as central to the company’s succession plan.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this training program, participants will:

• Understand the common causes of growth stalls in the banking industry and develop strategies to prevent and overcome them.
• Gain insights into the secrets of successful strategy execution, including decision rights, information flow, and creating a transformation program tailored to their bank’s needs.
• Cultivate focused leadership by harnessing the power of attention, self-awareness, and authenticity in leading banking organizations.
• Develop a comprehensive framework for managing risks in a volatile and uncertain banking landscape, including tailoring approaches to strategy risks and identifying major external risks.
• Master the art of 21st-century talent spotting, shifting from a competency-based approach to assessing potential and effectively developing talent for future leadership roles.
• Learn how CEOs can work with an active board, revamping their interactions, and leveraging board engagement for strategic planning and decision-making.
• Analyze the case study of Group Chief Executive Ibrahim Dabdoub at the National Bank of Kuwait, gaining practical insights into real-world banking leadership.

Training Program Outline:

Day 1: Overcoming Growth Stalls in Banking

• Understanding the causes and preventability of growth stalls in the banking industry.
• Ossified assumptions about customers, competitors, and technologies are the underlying causes of growth stalls.
• Surface assumptions and test their accuracy to prevent growth stalls.
• Analyzing growth experiences of leading corporations to identify patterns and costs of inaction.
• Cost of inaction: the last chance of ever returning to healthy top-line growth.
• Case Study Discussion

Day 2: Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution in Banking

• Moving beyond structural changes and focusing on decision rights and information flow.
• Helping employees understand the bottom line and strengthening organizational effectiveness.
• Building a transformation program and improving strategy execution through key building blocks.
• From Paralysis to Progress: The Power of Decision Rights and Information Flow in Strategy Implementation
• Decision Rights: Clarifying Who Owns Each Decision, and The Importance of Open Communication
• The 17 fundamental traits of organizational effectiveness
• The 5 Elements of Strong Execution
• The four building blocks that managers can use to improve strategy execution
• Test-Drive Your Organization’s Transformation
• Case Study Discussion

Day 3: Cultivating Focused Leadership in the Banking Context

• Directing attention and understanding different ways of focusing attention in banking leadership.
• Cultivating a triad of awareness: inward focus, focus on others, and outward focus.
• Leveraging open awareness, self-revelation, and True North groups for self-awareness and authenticity.
• The usefulness of open awareness in paying attention to how others perceive us
• The challenge of receiving input and the importance of self-revelation in achieving self-knowledge
• Matching our view of our true selves with the views of our most trusted colleagues as an external check on our authenticity
• Case Study Discussion

Day 4: Risk Management Strategies for Banks

• Introducing a new framework for managing risk in the banking industry.
• Understanding the three categories of risk and tailoring approaches to strategy risks.
• Managing major external risks and fostering open discussions on risk management.
• Challenges of Open Discussion in Risk Management
• Identifying and Preparing for Non-preventable Risks
• Case Study Discussion

Day 5: 21st-Century Talent Spotting and Effective Board Interactions

• The problem with the competency-based approach to talent spotting
• Shifting to potential-based talent spotting in the banking industry.
• Assessing potential through key indicators and developing talent for adaptability.
• Five key indicators for assessing potential in current and prospective employees
• Smart retention and stretch assignments for developing potential
• The four eras of talent spotting, from IQ to potential
• Enhancing CEO-board interactions for increased effectiveness and strategic planning.

Bonus Case Study: Group Chief Executive Ibrahim Dabdoub at the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK). He reflects on his past 30 years at the helm of the Bank. Under his leadership, NBK grew from a small local bank to one of the preeminent financial institutions in the region.

 by Linda A. Hill and Dana M. Teppert. Source: Harvard Business Review