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JEFF’S THOUGHTS ARCHIVES
The articles below have all appeared in Jeff's Thoughts, and they are simply listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent articles at the top. Each title has a brief summary description to help you browse the articles of most interest to you.
These articles make great discussion starters, whether for the members of your association, the participants in your internal training program, or the employees at your next staff meeting. Use one of these reprints to stimulate questions, to bring an outside voice to issues that concern you, your staff, or your membership, or as an ice breaker to get people talking at your meeting or workshop.
I invite you to reprint any of these articles for use with your staff or association membership, whether as handouts or in a newsletter, free of charge as long as you meet the following requirements:
- Keep the article intact, as is. Please do not edit what I said in the article in any way.
- Acknowledge the source, with words similar to the following: "By Jeff Judy, reprinted from the Jeff's Thoughts newsletter".
- Include a link to my web site at www.jeffjudy.com.
The easiest way to meet those requirements and save yourself some time and effort is to put the following introduction at the top of each reprint you distribute to your staff or members:
The article below is reprinted from Jeff Judy's biweekly banking e-newsletter, Jeff's Thoughts. Principal of Jeff Judy & Associates, Jeff has more than thirty years' experience as a banker, trainer, and consultant. His conversations with hundreds of bankers, support staff, board members, and bank managers every year reveal what is really going on in everyday financial services practices. A nationally known trainer serving individual banks, bank holding companies, major banking schools, and trade associations at state and national levels, Jeff also consults with bank leadership on policy, process, and culture. Visit www.JeffJudy.com or e-mail Jeff at jeff@jeffjudy.com.
You may want to visit my Press Kit for standard "author's bio" blurbs and photos.
If you want to reprint my content in trade journal, or as a handout at a workshop or convention, please contact me with details.
Articles from Past Issues of Jeff's Thoughts
- Culture Definitely Matters
Why Culture Truly Makes a Difference to your Business Success - Trust vs. Avoidance
Why Are So Many of Us Keeping Mum About the Recession? - Preparing to See Where Your Portfolio is Going
First Steps to Help You Determine Your Portfolio's Future Risk Profile - KISS Your Staff
Lessons Are Not Learned Until They Live Inside Your Head - Problem Loan Workout: A Team Project
Guest Column by Brad Stevens: Building the Right Workout Team - The End of the Story
Every Loan is a Story, and You Have to Know How It Will End - You and Who Else?
You Can Serve Customers Better by Finding Natural Allies in your Marketplace - Simple Democracy, Or Thoughtful Leadership?
True Leaders Know the Difference Between What Shareholders Want and What They Need - Are You Doing More Unsecured Lending Than You Think?
If You Are Not Monitoring And Managing Secondary Exposure, You Really Are Not Managing Risk - ALLL: Are You Post- or Pre-Cyclical?
Timing is Everything, Especially When It Comes to ALLL - Banking in the Next Decade: Are You Building Your Response Infrastructure Now?
How Will your Processes, Systems, and People Adapt to Banking Conditions in the Next Decade? - Why Not Why?
Why Asking "Why?" Won't Get You the Answers You Need - Social Media Revisited
Facebook? Twitter? Social media? Make your own decision . . . - Is ALLL Well with You?
A Number Unlike Any Other in Your Financial Statements - New Year's Resolutions
Is It Time for You to Make a "Credit Style Change"? - Risk and Response: Avoiding Potholes or Adapting to Conditions?
It's Time to Broaden the Horizons You Scan for Risk - Of Measurement and Management
How Precise? Or How Often? - The New World of Legal Risk
A New Legal Landscape Means Greater Legal Risk - Building On Recession Lessons
Secure the Benefits of What You Have Learned in Tough Times - Seeing Culture
Former Skeptics About "Culture" Converted by the Recession - Are You Competitive?
Make Sure Staff Who Go to Training Bring Something of Value Back to the Bank - Your Job Description
Manage Risk at Every Level of Your Organization - Idle Hands are an Angel's Tools?
Could "When We Have Time" Be Right Now? - Too Big to Succeed
Tough Times Open Opportunities in your Small Business Market - The Lowest Number, or the Right Number?
Your Approach to Efficiency May Be Too Simplistic - Pick a Number
Numbers Are Important, But They Don't Replace Thinking - Cross . . .
Selling? Solving? Customers? - I Take Exception . . .
"Zero Tolerance" for Loan Exceptions may NOT be your Best Option - Congratulations?
Stability . . . Experience . . . big advantage, or big risk? - Let Me Ask You a Trick Question
Defining your Stakeholders Broadly Can Head Off a Lot of Trouble - Are You Two-Faced? Good!
What about your customers who are doing well in the downturn? - Ever Have a Number Pay You Back?
Creditworthiness? Or merely "financialworthiness"? - We Pause for a Message from this Virus . . .
Appearance of swine flu reinforces recent discussions on preparing for disaster - Disaster Recovery: Treat the Symptoms!
Prepare for a variety of catastrophes by looking for common leverage points in your operations - Are You Prepared to Be Prepared?
Disaster recovery plans can save the day. Will yours? - Is Your "Green" Only Skin Deep?
Customers are smart enough to see if you really mean it - Your Customers Know How The Wind Blows
Your customers watch the "telltales" that show how well you're doing, even if you don't - Invest Time in Educating Your Business Customers Now!
EEC: Customers need realistic Expectations, financial Education, and ongoing Communication - Responding To Risk
Think more about the impact and less about the probability of negative events - Everybody Knows . . . or Should!
Do your staff and your customers know where you see challenges ahead? - Probability or Consequences?
"How Likely?" is not enough to define "risk", and can lead you to catastrophic results - Another Year Gone, Another Year Coming . . .
A look back at what I heard, in the classroom and boardroom, and learned, in 2008 - Challenges To Repayment
How recognizing "covariance" helps you uncover hidden risks in your portfolio - Serving Your Senior Customers Better: Life Settlements
Bob Cohen: A valuable tool for the financial benefit of your older customers - Your Diverse Portfolio: Fact or Fiction?
"Covariance:" if all your customers are joined at the hip, you have a "hidden concentration" - Your Pricing Model
Phil S. Rowley: The key considerations every pricing model must address - What I've Learned:The Generations (II)
Gen X, Gen Y, etc.: Insight or stereotype? - What I've Learned:The Generations (I)
Effective communication with younger employees is a two-way street - What I've Learned: "Best Practices"
Why "best practices" can be dangerous! - Dealing with Un-Banks:
Ostrich, Skeptic, Copycat, or Realist?
Peer-to-peer lending is here. How are you responding? - Planning Your Future, or More of your Present?
Are you building a better future, or just extending the present? - Financial Literacy III: Call a Friend in Marketing
Different customers have different literacy needs, and your marketing people probably already know about them - Fail? Survive? Thrive?
If all your planning is "getting through" tough conditions, prepare to be lose out when times improve - Financial Literacy, Part II: Confidence, Comfort, Conversation
Customers are grateful to bankers who actually help them see what they need to learn - Unique? Are You Joking?
You can't become a market leader by constantly aping the competition - Financial Literacy, Part I: Not "One Size Fits All"
Does "literacy" always mean the same thing? Should it? - You Need a Crash!
Maybe if you couldn't get to your spreadsheets, you'd make beter decisions - How Do You Know?
You give great customer service? Says who? - Who Knows What Makes You Different?
Just claiming to be different or unique is not enough - Do You Have the Youth Vote?
Are you starting too late to start helping your future customers? - How Do You Handle Customer Tax Returns?
Mike Jellison: the quick first steps that help you find out what tax returns really say - Doing More With More . . .
You have a lot of information on your long term customers. Are you using it? - It's All My Fault
Pointing the finger at your colleagues does nothing for your customers or for your bank - Competitive Advantage, or Suicide Pill?
You bank has low turnover, highly experienced staff. Uh-oh! - Take the Heat, You Can't Get Out of This Kitchen
Bill Stansifer: Provision and reserve are back on the front burner - Information vs. Action
Small business survey, and how to apply its findings - Market or Markets?
Smart businesses in other industries understand niches, as should you - What I Learned This Year
Looking back at what I learned in the classroom and the boardroom during 2007 - Taking Your Eye Off The Next Ball . . .
Focusing on one type of credit problem at a time will cost you in the end - Assessing Leadership From Afar
You can learn a lot about abank's leadership long before you meet them - Do Your Small Business Customers Feel Like Business Customers?
There are few things that mean more to the small business owner than respect - Can You Handle Something Really Scary?
When problems get media coverage, don't wait for your customers to ask about them - Get Smart About Credit Day . . . For Bankers
What do you need to know about your customers to help them learn about financial management? - Like Museums?
Is your strategic plan a relic on a shelf, or an active element in your business? - Who Sets Your Standards for Customer Service?
Hint: It isn't your direct competition! - Educating the Rest . . .
You can make credit education a part of every customer interaction - Pet Peeve: Striving for Mediocrity II
What do you have to do to be better than a "typical bank" in your market? - Pet Peeve: Striving for Mediocrity I
"We'd like to do that, but we have to match the competition." - Ripples in Your Pond from Distant Stones . . .
New rules of the game can be established almost overnight, in practically any business - Comfortable? That's too bad . . .
Why, at seminars and banking schools, do so many people sign up for more of what they already know? - Relationships: Your Idea, or the Customer's?
Customer loyalty comes from working with customers the way they want - Is Culture Dead?
Culture makes a difference, whatever we call it - Is Your Worst Case Scenario Bad enough?
A "worst case" is more useful than a "bad case that is reasonably probable"