Patrick: I’m here again with Larry Barker, the president and CEO of Machias Savings Bank. Again, Larry, it’s probably been a couple of months, I think, since I first spoke with you about trying to get this set up. I had seen over the last year or so just a couple of the accolades, I should say, that your organization has won nationally. My background being in leadership development and employee engagement, I thought here’s somebody in my own back yard that obviously his organization is really doing things the right way.
Patrick: I wanted to bring you on board and really sort of explore what that looks like in regards to Machias Savings Bank and why you think your organization is where it’s at today in that regard. So again, thanks for being here.
Larry: Yeah, fantastic. It’s fantastic. We appreciate the opportunity, Patrick.
Patrick: I’ll let you take the lead here, in terms of gloating about your employees and the success you’ve had so far.
Larry: Well, I’ll just start off by telling you just a little bit about Machias Savings Bank. We’re a $1.4 billion in assets. We have 269 employees, 16 locations across Maine spanning from Caribou to Portland. We’re a mutual savings bank, and so creating shareholder wealth is not a priority for us. That’s not part of the equation. Our purpose as a company, Patrick, is to make a difference in our communities. Everything we do falls under that umbrella. We have an amazing culture that revolves around employee experience, customer experience, and ultimately community impact.
Patrick: How old is the bank?
Larry: 150 years in 2019. Started in 1869. Our original charter was signed by Joshua Chamberlain.
Patrick: That is incredible. You had mentioned, I had, just for the audience, I had sent out a list of questions earlier in the week regarding some of the topics that we might talk about. Larry got back to me to say he didn’t think it was really going to be appropriate, because the questions were all revolving around himself. I quickly got back to him to say that that’s exactly now … If he wasn’t willing to do it for that reason, which was probably more the reason I wanted to have him on was his sense of humility and sharing the success of the organization with the employees within the organization. Larry, you mentioned to be in terms of what some of your values are as an organization. I wonder if you could maybe mention those again.
Larry: One of our culture standards, and we’ve memorialized our culture standards, those are those key things that we think have made a successful committee is one of those is attitude. The first sentence of defining that standard is that Machias Savings Bank employees are friendly, genuine, flexible, driven, hard-working, and humble. It’s one of our culture standards, and it’s really important to us as an organization.
Patrick: Now I’m looking, some of the awards that you’ve won, obviously this is you’re in the top five companies to work for in the state of Maine. Once again, how does that process take place?
Larry: Yeah, so look, if I had to pick, say, the top two reasons that Machias Savings Bank is in that league, I would say the opportunity that our employees have to make a difference in our communities, which directly relates back to our purpose, first of all, and secondly, our family first philosophy. Again, I mentioned earlier our purpose and our passion as it pertains to the impact, this is something that our employees embrace and get excited about. We encourage all employees to be active volunteering in the community with the causes they’re personally passionate about.
Larry: In fact, Patrick, we don’t just encourage them to do that. We pay every employee in the bank up to 20 hours a year to volunteer with the community. We match employee contributions to their favorite cause up to $100 every year, every employee. Beyond that, we have a dollars for doers program where we match every 40 hours volunteered with a $200 donation.
Larry: The second piece, and we really put our money where our mouth is when it comes to making a difference in our communities, but we also have a family first philosophy. What we mean by that is if your child has a Little League game this afternoon, not only do we want you to be there, we’re going to be disappointed if you’re not there. Again, in fact, we’re going to pay you to be there, in addition to regular vacation time, we’ve added 16 hours of family flex time for every employee, so you can go to that game, that musical recital, or whatever it is, and even get paid while you’re there.
Patrick: That is incredible. I will tell you the reason why is that I will often, when I’m going in with some organizations is what’s the mission or the vision? You always hear somewhere along the lines that our employees are our most important asset, yet often times when I deal with the employees, most of them would laugh when they read that, because there’s not congruence. It’s not the walk and the talk that you’re talking about right now where this idea, we put our money where our mouth is, that you’re really able to do that through those things like matching and paying employees to volunteer, and the idea of family first, again, I think is one of those that often times doesn’t get a lot of real traction, but when you’re saying that you’re disappointed if they don’t make it there, then …
Larry: Well, and let me tell you, so if I was going to pick the third thing, and maybe the most important, Patrick, I would say that it’s listening. Many things that we do on this front, and I think listening is the most important, you’ve probably heard the Steve Jobs quote around hiring really great people, not so he could tell them what to do, but rather so they could tell him what to do. We practiced this philosophy, and I can attest to the fact that it works really well if you act on what you hear. Now if you don’t, then I think you’re better of not asking the question, because you’re doing more damage.
Larry: We participated in the Best Places Program, which is an annual employee survey. We don’t do that for the banner or the accolades. We participate so we can keep a really close eye on what’s important to our employees. I would like to share, one of the questions on that survey, Patrick, is I’m proud to work for this company. I’m proud to share with you that for the last two years in a row, 100% of our employees have answered yes to that question.
Larry: Now this year, we did have one out of 269 that answered no. So we broke our two year running record, but we still feel pretty darn good about those results. Six months later we do another internal engagement survey. This is our own survey, because we don’t want a whole year to go by without knowing what’s important to our employees. We identified the top two or three areas of concerns and opportunities for improvement based on those surveys, and we put plans together to improve those areas.
Patrick: In my experience in this regard too, and you hit the nail right on the head when you say if you’re not going to do something about it, you’re better off not to do anything at all, because all it does is it continues to build cynicism where people say, “Why are we doing this? Nothing happens with the information anyway.”
Larry: Exactly. Beyond that, every employee has a monthly what we call fireside chat with their manager. This is expected. We have town hall meetings across the different regions of the bank every year. We call these family gatherings, because we consider every employee to be a member of the Machias Savings Bank Family. We ask questions like what’s working, what isn’t. What’s your biggest frustration? What’s getting in the way of you providing an exceptional customer experience?
Larry: We have a culture champion program where upwards of a dozen employees are nominated by their peers every year as Machias Savings Bank culture champions. We host an off-site retreat with this group. We have a lot of fun, but we also do some work. The work piece, again, is around listening and discovering what we can do better to make sure we’re doing the best we can to enhance and promote this great culture that I told you about.
Patrick: It’s interesting there because, again, my experience in this area is to say that most people understand if they’re going to bring forward recommendations, not every recommendation can be implemented. Often times it’s that people just want to know that they were heard, that something was done, that it just didn’t go into a black hole and nothing happened. I’m curious, how do you work with your teams or whatever just to keep that or to close that loop on recommendations and things like that?
Larry: Well, like I say, we take it very seriously. We can’t wait to get our hands on those surveys, and we try to identify the biggest issues. Look, our family first philosophy, a few years ago, we added eight hours of family flex time, because in those surveys, our employees emphasized how valuable that family first philosophy is to them. The comments just kept getting more and stronger, so the next year we added eight more hours.
Larry: Look, our employees said our vision care isn’t very good. We fixed it. For two or three years, the past two or three years, our employees have said we need more training. This year we’re making a significant investment. We’re creating a training department. You have to act on that input. If you don’t, you’re wasting your time and doing damage.
Patrick: Yeah, I completely agree. One of the other rewards or recognitions that you’ve won was the American Banker Magazine, one of top 10 banks to work for in the nation for 2018, eighth overall. How did you end up with that recognition?
Larry: It’s the same process. It’s the Best Places Survey that gets submitted to the American Banker Magazine. It is that same survey. Now they have several other questions. They want to know what kind of programs that you have around employee engagement and satisfaction, and so it’s a very similar process. Then they take those results and compare them against other banks across the nation. They nominate the top 70 make the cut. To be in the top 10 is something that, again, we get very excited about, take great pride in.
Patrick: If I remember, was there maybe one other in New England?
Larry: In the top 70, I believe. I don’t think there’s any in the top 10.
Patrick: Yeah. Okay. I think I only remember seeing one that may be in just the top 70 or so. It was really very impressive.
Larry: Yeah, you might be right.
Patrick: Then the last one that I think was really what piqued this or prompted me to finally make the call to you was the last award that you won a recognition was around being a psychologically healthy workplace, which I never really heard of before, in terms of even being able to be recognized for that. How did that one come about?
Larry: I believe it was our branch manger in southern Maine that was aware of that program. She submitted, nominated our bank as somebody that should be considered as a leading example in that program. Shortly thereafter, this is a national program. We didn’t realize the significance of it, what an honor it was to be chosen really until after we had been chosen. We’re actually surprised to see that that award picked up significantly more PR and recognition than the best places. It was a pleasant surprise.
Patrick: Yeah, as I said, I know for me certainly being in this arena, it’s one that I had not seen before and certainly I think really it has such an impactful, just the wording of it I think really speaks to the commitment of Machias Savings Bank to be able to be recognized for this is really, really impressive. From a standpoint of management development and working, giving skills to them to be able to do this, what type of programs do you do for employees?
Larry: We [inaudible 00:12:18] significantly. We have a lot of different framings. We have some great folks that do that for a living. TJ Holloway, for example, at a bank or has been in and provided some incredible training for us. We have a gentleman out of Florida that’s been in this year. We have a leadership institute, we have a manager’s retreat. Look, we provide executive coaches to a lot of management level folks that want to lean in and have that level of employee growth and development. I personally have an executive coach. Look, my philosophy is Tom Brady and the Patriots have, what, eight or 10, maybe a dozen coaches? Why shouldn’t I have one?
Larry: I really enjoy that process. We’ve made that available to every member of the senior team. I believe every member of the senior team has taken advantage of opportunity to have an executive coach. Many of our managers have done the same thing. We don’t think we’ve got it all figured out, and we don’t think we’ve arrived. That’s, again, part of our culture. We’re constantly pushing the envelope. We’re always looking over our shoulder. We’re always trying to figure out what we need to be doing to keep this thing rolling.
Patrick: I’m going to change gears here for a minute, because again, organizationally from a standpoint of walking the talk, often times you can have organizations where they want to implement certain trainings or workshops at a mid level or ground level area. The question always comes up if this is so important, why isn’t senior management involved in this? Why aren’t they at the top levels involved in this? Everything that I hear you talking about is to say that no, there’s really congruence here, that you’re walking the talk, in terms of this filters all the way down within the organization. From that standpoint, maybe you can speak a little bit about how you started at Machias Savings Bank and how that has evolved, in terms of you progressing to where you are now?
Larry: Sure. I like to say my career at the bank began in the blueberry fields of Washington County. I grew up raking blueberries. In the summers of ’90 and ’91, I raked blueberries for the president of Machias Savings Bank, Ed Hennessey. In August of ’91, Ed approached me on the field and suggested that I should come see him if I ever wanted a job at the bank. At the time, I had no interest in banking. I wanted to be a state trooper, but I was in a serious relationship and figured I’d better get a job.
Larry: A couple weeks later, I took him up on that offer, and I began working at the bank in October of ’91. It’s been a great ride. It hasn’t disappointed at all. A lot of great people, and incredible culture. This culture, look, make no mistake, Ed Hennessey is the founder of the culture at Machias Savings Bank. I’ve been president for seven years now, and really my job is to make sure we don’t go backwards to enhance and promote the, like I say, the incredible culture that’s been around for 30 years.
Patrick: What are you most proud about?
Larry: I think, Patrick, I would say the 269 employees we have across the state, we’ve got an amazing group. I think that’s one of the … When you think of how have employee engagement levels impacted the bank from a financial performance and growth standpoint, that’s a difficult one to quantify, but I think common sense would lead us to believe that very happy employees contributes to happy customers. Happy customers equals success with both financial performance and growth.
Larry: I think being the best bank to work for in Maine in a large employer group is certainly adding to our ability to attract and retain really great employees. Look, I can say with confidence we have the best employees in the state. We’re attracting more exceptional, top-quality employees by the day. This investment, this culture of investing employee engagement and satisfaction has consistently led to strong growth and strong financial performance. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I think if you did the math, you would see over the past couple decades that our return on assets has consistently had us in the top third, when compared to the other banks in Maine.
Larry: For the first six months of this year, I don’t have September for the peers, but we’re in the top three out of the 20 mutual banks in Maine. We’re in the top six when compared to all Maine banks. It’s 26 total. Absolutely has a huge impact on the success of the company.
Patrick: Which is amazing at times when you hear of companies that they don’t invest in this, because there’s a financial benefit that organizations receive from employees that are happy. I think you would agree, and certainly this is first is that I really think there is an obligation that you have, in terms of people that work for you. There’s a huge responsibility, especially if people report to you, that you have such a responsibility to them, because your behaviors and how you treat them and what you do for them impacts them when they go home, but it’s not just-
Larry: Absolutely.
Patrick: If I’m mistreating somebody in the office, that goes home. Maybe it impacts the relationship they have with their spouse or with their kids or in so many other areas.
Larry: It’s such an important part of the equation. What you just said reminds me of the conversation between a couple of executives. One says, “What if we invest in our employees and then they leave?” Of course, the other says, “What if we don’t invest in our employees and they stay?”
Patrick: Yeah, and it’s-
Larry: It’s a no-brainer, in my opinion.
Patrick: It’s so true. I remember even 10 years ago when people were talking about, “Well, the economy was so difficult at that point. Well, people aren’t leaving companies.” My response to that was always the same is that the same number of people are leaving companies. It’s just that in really difficult times, they just quit and stay, which, for the organization, is far more costly, because they’re just underground. They’re just not leaving yet, but they will, as soon as they have an opportunity.
Larry: Yeah.
Patrick: In regards to daily routines for yourself, any rituals that you have, in terms of how you start your day out or how you end your day?
Larry: I do. I have a few, because again, I’m a big believer in personal growth and development. Look, I’m up at 5:00 AM every day. I practice winning the first hour. Now I didn’t make that up. I borrowed it. For me, to win the first hour means no cell phone, no email. If you get out of bed and pick up that cell phone and start reading email right out of the gate … Look, I’ve done it before. I did it for years, but you’re reacting. I don’t believe any executive could be most effective for their organization if they’re constantly reacting. I believe you have to have time for clear, uninterrupted thinking.
Larry: My first 20, 30 minutes of the day, I’m drinking my coffee and meditating. Next 10 to 15 minutes I’m reading inspirational stuff that’s personal to me, taking inventory of what’s going well, the promises I’ve made to myself, for example. Look, another ritual I try to practice every day on the drive home, and again, haven’t always done this. I used to practice the opposite for many years, but on the drive home, three wins. Take inventory of three wins. What did I have for three wins today? Look, I find this to be a great practice, as opposed to what I used to do, which is what did I screw up today? The three wins is much more beneficial in taking inventory of what’s going well.
Larry: The last thing I’ll mention is that consistent with what I said earlier, I try to schedule at least two half days a month off the grid, if you will, deliberately taking and scheduling time for clear, uninterrupted thinking. I find this time to be my most effective, some of my best work at this time off the grid. I find it very refreshing, energizing, and [inaudible 00:20:24]. I encourage every member of my senior team to do the same thing.
Patrick: Some of the things you just mentioned are certainly things that I fully believe in and try to follow myself. One of the things that you spoke to, I think we often are one or the other. We’re either a thermostat or a thermometer, in terms of what happens around that. By that I mean that just like a thermometer, all it can do is react to the environment that it’s in. If its too hot, it goes up. If it’s colder, it goes down.
Larry: Love it.
Patrick: Where really when we’re actively involved, we’re more like the thermostat. We have the ability if the room’s too cold, we turn it up. If it’s too hot, we turn it down. It’s in our control. When we can focus on not being acted upon, we’re responding versus reacting. I love that, what you said about that. The second is I don’t know if you’ve ever seen or heard of a gentleman named Shawn Achor. He actually was a Harvard researcher, and he did what was called the 21-day challenge. They really only did five exercises. There were five things that they asked people to do over 21 days. One was in the morning write three things they were grateful for. The next was do something for somebody else, just once, go out of your way to do something for somebody else. The next was to, at the end of the day, write down a couple sentences on what went well for the day. As you talk about your three wins, I was thinking of that.
Patrick: The other two things that they did was exercise only had to be 10 minutes a day, just 10 minutes a day of some type of exercise, so going out for a walk at lunch, whatever that might be, and the last one was around just finding at least two minutes of quiet time, some type of quiet time to meditate. That’s it. Five things [crosstalk 00:22:13].
Larry: Yeah. Look, if you asked me what I would do differently if I could go back and do it over again, I would … For years, I was in the Army, so 6:00 AM exercise has not been a priority for me, but I’m glad you brought it up, because that is part of my morning routine. Look, I’ll say more recently, so I’m going on three months in a row of a one-mile walk and 10 minutes of dumbbells every morning. I am here to tell you it’s a game changer. My levels of energy, I’m at the point now where I look forward to it every morning. That’s part of my goals with my executive coach is to really make the investment into my personal health and wellbeing. I strongly, strongly recommend that.
Patrick: Yeah. The research is so strong in this area of the psychological wellbeing that it provides us when we do that, just simple things that you speak to. I’ll give you just a cheat sheet on that that I use. I call those five things power. The acronym of power, and I will challenge people have a power day. Praise is the three things you’re grateful for, that’s the gratitude, the O is others doing something for somebody else, the W is writing at the end of the day, the E is exercise, and the R is relaxation or meditation. When you could think about it in terms of power, those are the five things. It really does. It creates such a difference for people.
Larry: I love the gratefulness practice. That’s on the list of things that I do every morning under the reading inspirational stuff is affirmations and asking myself a few questions, like what am I grateful for? Taking inventory of what’s going well, it’s powerful.
Patrick: It really is, because how can you be in a bad place when you’re thinking about the things that you’re grateful for? It’s like an on/off switch. It’s one or the other. They can’t work at the same time.
Larry: Exactly.
Patrick: They can’t work at the same time.
Larry: Well said.
Patrick: As you continue on your journey with Machias Savings Bank, what would you want your legacy to be?
Larry: We want to have an impact on our communities that’s a game-changer. It’s not just lip service for us. We want to make a significant difference. That’s something that we’re really focused on, we’re going to continue moving the needle on. We would like to be so impactful in that area that other companies across the state, other companies across the nation take their game to the next level as a result. Look, everybody benefits. Everybody wins.
Patrick: Without question. Right. I fully agree with that. Again, you’re living it, and the research backs up that you’re where you are because of the behaviors that your organization has demonstrated at each level. As we close out here, I always like to ask is there … You’ve mentioned several along the way, but I’ll be curious if there’s one in particular that is sort of a go-to for you, but a particular quote or saying that you sort of follow.
Larry: There is a quote that I’ve followed over the years that is really great. It’s a bit long, but I’ll go through it really quickly. This is Teddy Roosevelt. He said, “It’s not the critic who counts, not the person who points out how the strong man or woman stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, but because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions, spends him or herself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Patrick: I’m guessing you’ve read that before.
Larry: I have read it a few times. I love it. I love it. Look, I love to be in the trenches with my team fighting the fight. Look, in winning and succeeding as a team is one of the best parts of the job.
Patrick: Yeah. To me, you’ve got to be in the game to win the game and not be afraid.
Larry: Yeah, absolutely. The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Patrick: Yeah, easier to do when you’re around people that support you though, which certainly sounds like that’s what you have there.
Larry: Oh my goodness. Yeah, yeah. For sure.
Patrick: Well, Larry, thank you again for this. This really, I so look forward to having this. As we wrap this thing up, I’m glad I pushed forward on this, because it’s been everything I expected it would be from you. So thank you for that.
Larry: I appreciate your persistence, Patrick, and thank you for your interest in Machias Savings Bank. Appreciate it.
Patrick: Great. Look forward to talking to you in the future. Thanks.
Larry: All right. Absolutely. Take care. Thank you.
Thanks For Listening!
Increasing emotional intelligence: (How) is it possible?
Can emotional intelligence be trained? A meta analytical investigation.
To share your thoughts:
To help out the show:
- Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
- Subscribe on iTunes
Patrick: I’m here again with Larry Barker, the president and CEO of Machias Savings Bank. Again, Larry, it’s probably been a couple of months, I think, since I first spoke with you about trying to get this set up. I had seen over the last year or so just a couple of the accolades, I should say, that your organization has won nationally. My background being in leadership development and employee engagement, I thought here’s somebody in my own back yard that obviously his organization is really doing things the right way.
Patrick: I wanted to bring you on board and really sort of explore what that looks like in regards to Machias Savings Bank and why you think your organization is where it’s at today in that regard. So again, thanks for being here.
Larry: Yeah, fantastic. It’s fantastic. We appreciate the opportunity, Patrick.
Patrick: I’ll let you take the lead here, in terms of gloating about your employees and the success you’ve had so far.
Larry: Well, I’ll just start off by telling you just a little bit about Machias Savings Bank. We’re a $1.4 billion in assets. We have 269 employees, 16 locations across Maine spanning from Caribou to Portland. We’re a mutual savings bank, and so creating shareholder wealth is not a priority for us. That’s not part of the equation. Our purpose as a company, Patrick, is to make a difference in our communities. Everything we do falls under that umbrella. We have an amazing culture that revolves around employee experience, customer experience, and ultimately community impact.
Patrick: How old is the bank?
Larry: 150 years in 2019. Started in 1869. Our original charter was signed by Joshua Chamberlain.
Patrick: That is incredible. You had mentioned, I had, just for the audience, I had sent out a list of questions earlier in the week regarding some of the topics that we might talk about. Larry got back to me to say he didn’t think it was really going to be appropriate, because the questions were all revolving around himself. I quickly got back to him to say that that’s exactly now … If he wasn’t willing to do it for that reason, which was probably more the reason I wanted to have him on was his sense of humility and sharing the success of the organization with the employees within the organization. Larry, you mentioned to be in terms of what some of your values are as an organization. I wonder if you could maybe mention those again.
Larry: One of our culture standards, and we’ve memorialized our culture standards, those are those key things that we think have made a successful committee is one of those is attitude. The first sentence of defining that standard is that Machias Savings Bank employees are friendly, genuine, flexible, driven, hard-working, and humble. It’s one of our culture standards, and it’s really important to us as an organization.
Patrick: Now I’m looking, some of the awards that you’ve won, obviously this is you’re in the top five companies to work for in the state of Maine. Once again, how does that process take place?
Larry: Yeah, so look, if I had to pick, say, the top two reasons that Machias Savings Bank is in that league, I would say the opportunity that our employees have to make a difference in our communities, which directly relates back to our purpose, first of all, and secondly, our family first philosophy. Again, I mentioned earlier our purpose and our passion as it pertains to the impact, this is something that our employees embrace and get excited about. We encourage all employees to be active volunteering in the community with the causes they’re personally passionate about.
Larry: In fact, Patrick, we don’t just encourage them to do that. We pay every employee in the bank up to 20 hours a year to volunteer with the community. We match employee contributions to their favorite cause up to $100 every year, every employee. Beyond that, we have a dollars for doers program where we match every 40 hours volunteered with a $200 donation.
Larry: The second piece, and we really put our money where our mouth is when it comes to making a difference in our communities, but we also have a family first philosophy. What we mean by that is if your child has a Little League game this afternoon, not only do we want you to be there, we’re going to be disappointed if you’re not there. Again, in fact, we’re going to pay you to be there, in addition to regular vacation time, we’ve added 16 hours of family flex time for every employee, so you can go to that game, that musical recital, or whatever it is, and even get paid while you’re there.
Patrick: That is incredible. I will tell you the reason why is that I will often, when I’m going in with some organizations is what’s the mission or the vision? You always hear somewhere along the lines that our employees are our most important asset, yet often times when I deal with the employees, most of them would laugh when they read that, because there’s not congruence. It’s not the walk and the talk that you’re talking about right now where this idea, we put our money where our mouth is, that you’re really able to do that through those things like matching and paying employees to volunteer, and the idea of family first, again, I think is one of those that often times doesn’t get a lot of real traction, but when you’re saying that you’re disappointed if they don’t make it there, then …
Larry: Well, and let me tell you, so if I was going to pick the third thing, and maybe the most important, Patrick, I would say that it’s listening. Many things that we do on this front, and I think listening is the most important, you’ve probably heard the Steve Jobs quote around hiring really great people, not so he could tell them what to do, but rather so they could tell him what to do. We practiced this philosophy, and I can attest to the fact that it works really well if you act on what you hear. Now if you don’t, then I think you’re better of not asking the question, because you’re doing more damage.
Larry: We participated in the Best Places Program, which is an annual employee survey. We don’t do that for the banner or the accolades. We participate so we can keep a really close eye on what’s important to our employees. I would like to share, one of the questions on that survey, Patrick, is I’m proud to work for this company. I’m proud to share with you that for the last two years in a row, 100% of our employees have answered yes to that question.
Larry: Now this year, we did have one out of 269 that answered no. So we broke our two year running record, but we still feel pretty darn good about those results. Six months later we do another internal engagement survey. This is our own survey, because we don’t want a whole year to go by without knowing what’s important to our employees. We identified the top two or three areas of concerns and opportunities for improvement based on those surveys, and we put plans together to improve those areas.
Patrick: In my experience in this regard too, and you hit the nail right on the head when you say if you’re not going to do something about it, you’re better off not to do anything at all, because all it does is it continues to build cynicism where people say, “Why are we doing this? Nothing happens with the information anyway.”
Larry: Exactly. Beyond that, every employee has a monthly what we call fireside chat with their manager. This is expected. We have town hall meetings across the different regions of the bank every year. We call these family gatherings, because we consider every employee to be a member of the Machias Savings Bank Family. We ask questions like what’s working, what isn’t. What’s your biggest frustration? What’s getting in the way of you providing an exceptional customer experience?
Larry: We have a culture champion program where upwards of a dozen employees are nominated by their peers every year as Machias Savings Bank culture champions. We host an off-site retreat with this group. We have a lot of fun, but we also do some work. The work piece, again, is around listening and discovering what we can do better to make sure we’re doing the best we can to enhance and promote this great culture that I told you about.
Patrick: It’s interesting there because, again, my experience in this area is to say that most people understand if they’re going to bring forward recommendations, not every recommendation can be implemented. Often times it’s that people just want to know that they were heard, that something was done, that it just didn’t go into a black hole and nothing happened. I’m curious, how do you work with your teams or whatever just to keep that or to close that loop on recommendations and things like that?
Larry: Well, like I say, we take it very seriously. We can’t wait to get our hands on those surveys, and we try to identify the biggest issues. Look, our family first philosophy, a few years ago, we added eight hours of family flex time, because in those surveys, our employees emphasized how valuable that family first philosophy is to them. The comments just kept getting more and stronger, so the next year we added eight more hours.
Larry: Look, our employees said our vision care isn’t very good. We fixed it. For two or three years, the past two or three years, our employees have said we need more training. This year we’re making a significant investment. We’re creating a training department. You have to act on that input. If you don’t, you’re wasting your time and doing damage.
Patrick: Yeah, I completely agree. One of the other rewards or recognitions that you’ve won was the American Banker Magazine, one of top 10 banks to work for in the nation for 2018, eighth overall. How did you end up with that recognition?
Larry: It’s the same process. It’s the Best Places Survey that gets submitted to the American Banker Magazine. It is that same survey. Now they have several other questions. They want to know what kind of programs that you have around employee engagement and satisfaction, and so it’s a very similar process. Then they take those results and compare them against other banks across the nation. They nominate the top 70 make the cut. To be in the top 10 is something that, again, we get very excited about, take great pride in.
Patrick: If I remember, was there maybe one other in New England?
Larry: In the top 70, I believe. I don’t think there’s any in the top 10.
Patrick: Yeah. Okay. I think I only remember seeing one that may be in just the top 70 or so. It was really very impressive.
Larry: Yeah, you might be right.
Patrick: Then the last one that I think was really what piqued this or prompted me to finally make the call to you was the last award that you won a recognition was around being a psychologically healthy workplace, which I never really heard of before, in terms of even being able to be recognized for that. How did that one come about?
Larry: I believe it was our branch manger in southern Maine that was aware of that program. She submitted, nominated our bank as somebody that should be considered as a leading example in that program. Shortly thereafter, this is a national program. We didn’t realize the significance of it, what an honor it was to be chosen really until after we had been chosen. We’re actually surprised to see that that award picked up significantly more PR and recognition than the best places. It was a pleasant surprise.
Patrick: Yeah, as I said, I know for me certainly being in this arena, it’s one that I had not seen before and certainly I think really it has such an impactful, just the wording of it I think really speaks to the commitment of Machias Savings Bank to be able to be recognized for this is really, really impressive. From a standpoint of management development and working, giving skills to them to be able to do this, what type of programs do you do for employees?
Larry: We [inaudible 00:12:18] significantly. We have a lot of different framings. We have some great folks that do that for a living. TJ Holloway, for example, at a bank or has been in and provided some incredible training for us. We have a gentleman out of Florida that’s been in this year. We have a leadership institute, we have a manager’s retreat. Look, we provide executive coaches to a lot of management level folks that want to lean in and have that level of employee growth and development. I personally have an executive coach. Look, my philosophy is Tom Brady and the Patriots have, what, eight or 10, maybe a dozen coaches? Why shouldn’t I have one?
Larry: I really enjoy that process. We’ve made that available to every member of the senior team. I believe every member of the senior team has taken advantage of opportunity to have an executive coach. Many of our managers have done the same thing. We don’t think we’ve got it all figured out, and we don’t think we’ve arrived. That’s, again, part of our culture. We’re constantly pushing the envelope. We’re always looking over our shoulder. We’re always trying to figure out what we need to be doing to keep this thing rolling.
Patrick: I’m going to change gears here for a minute, because again, organizationally from a standpoint of walking the talk, often times you can have organizations where they want to implement certain trainings or workshops at a mid level or ground level area. The question always comes up if this is so important, why isn’t senior management involved in this? Why aren’t they at the top levels involved in this? Everything that I hear you talking about is to say that no, there’s really congruence here, that you’re walking the talk, in terms of this filters all the way down within the organization. From that standpoint, maybe you can speak a little bit about how you started at Machias Savings Bank and how that has evolved, in terms of you progressing to where you are now?
Larry: Sure. I like to say my career at the bank began in the blueberry fields of Washington County. I grew up raking blueberries. In the summers of ’90 and ’91, I raked blueberries for the president of Machias Savings Bank, Ed Hennessey. In August of ’91, Ed approached me on the field and suggested that I should come see him if I ever wanted a job at the bank. At the time, I had no interest in banking. I wanted to be a state trooper, but I was in a serious relationship and figured I’d better get a job.
Larry: A couple weeks later, I took him up on that offer, and I began working at the bank in October of ’91. It’s been a great ride. It hasn’t disappointed at all. A lot of great people, and incredible culture. This culture, look, make no mistake, Ed Hennessey is the founder of the culture at Machias Savings Bank. I’ve been president for seven years now, and really my job is to make sure we don’t go backwards to enhance and promote the, like I say, the incredible culture that’s been around for 30 years.
Patrick: What are you most proud about?
Larry: I think, Patrick, I would say the 269 employees we have across the state, we’ve got an amazing group. I think that’s one of the … When you think of how have employee engagement levels impacted the bank from a financial performance and growth standpoint, that’s a difficult one to quantify, but I think common sense would lead us to believe that very happy employees contributes to happy customers. Happy customers equals success with both financial performance and growth.
Larry: I think being the best bank to work for in Maine in a large employer group is certainly adding to our ability to attract and retain really great employees. Look, I can say with confidence we have the best employees in the state. We’re attracting more exceptional, top-quality employees by the day. This investment, this culture of investing employee engagement and satisfaction has consistently led to strong growth and strong financial performance. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I think if you did the math, you would see over the past couple decades that our return on assets has consistently had us in the top third, when compared to the other banks in Maine.
Larry: For the first six months of this year, I don’t have September for the peers, but we’re in the top three out of the 20 mutual banks in Maine. We’re in the top six when compared to all Maine banks. It’s 26 total. Absolutely has a huge impact on the success of the company.
Patrick: Which is amazing at times when you hear of companies that they don’t invest in this, because there’s a financial benefit that organizations receive from employees that are happy. I think you would agree, and certainly this is first is that I really think there is an obligation that you have, in terms of people that work for you. There’s a huge responsibility, especially if people report to you, that you have such a responsibility to them, because your behaviors and how you treat them and what you do for them impacts them when they go home, but it’s not just-
Larry: Absolutely.
Patrick: If I’m mistreating somebody in the office, that goes home. Maybe it impacts the relationship they have with their spouse or with their kids or in so many other areas.
Larry: It’s such an important part of the equation. What you just said reminds me of the conversation between a couple of executives. One says, “What if we invest in our employees and then they leave?” Of course, the other says, “What if we don’t invest in our employees and they stay?”
Patrick: Yeah, and it’s-
Larry: It’s a no-brainer, in my opinion.
Patrick: It’s so true. I remember even 10 years ago when people were talking about, “Well, the economy was so difficult at that point. Well, people aren’t leaving companies.” My response to that was always the same is that the same number of people are leaving companies. It’s just that in really difficult times, they just quit and stay, which, for the organization, is far more costly, because they’re just underground. They’re just not leaving yet, but they will, as soon as they have an opportunity.
Larry: Yeah.
Patrick: In regards to daily routines for yourself, any rituals that you have, in terms of how you start your day out or how you end your day?
Larry: I do. I have a few, because again, I’m a big believer in personal growth and development. Look, I’m up at 5:00 AM every day. I practice winning the first hour. Now I didn’t make that up. I borrowed it. For me, to win the first hour means no cell phone, no email. If you get out of bed and pick up that cell phone and start reading email right out of the gate … Look, I’ve done it before. I did it for years, but you’re reacting. I don’t believe any executive could be most effective for their organization if they’re constantly reacting. I believe you have to have time for clear, uninterrupted thinking.
Larry: My first 20, 30 minutes of the day, I’m drinking my coffee and meditating. Next 10 to 15 minutes I’m reading inspirational stuff that’s personal to me, taking inventory of what’s going well, the promises I’ve made to myself, for example. Look, another ritual I try to practice every day on the drive home, and again, haven’t always done this. I used to practice the opposite for many years, but on the drive home, three wins. Take inventory of three wins. What did I have for three wins today? Look, I find this to be a great practice, as opposed to what I used to do, which is what did I screw up today? The three wins is much more beneficial in taking inventory of what’s going well.
Larry: The last thing I’ll mention is that consistent with what I said earlier, I try to schedule at least two half days a month off the grid, if you will, deliberately taking and scheduling time for clear, uninterrupted thinking. I find this time to be my most effective, some of my best work at this time off the grid. I find it very refreshing, energizing, and [inaudible 00:20:24]. I encourage every member of my senior team to do the same thing.
Patrick: Some of the things you just mentioned are certainly things that I fully believe in and try to follow myself. One of the things that you spoke to, I think we often are one or the other. We’re either a thermostat or a thermometer, in terms of what happens around that. By that I mean that just like a thermometer, all it can do is react to the environment that it’s in. If its too hot, it goes up. If it’s colder, it goes down.
Larry: Love it.
Patrick: Where really when we’re actively involved, we’re more like the thermostat. We have the ability if the room’s too cold, we turn it up. If it’s too hot, we turn it down. It’s in our control. When we can focus on not being acted upon, we’re responding versus reacting. I love that, what you said about that. The second is I don’t know if you’ve ever seen or heard of a gentleman named Shawn Achor. He actually was a Harvard researcher, and he did what was called the 21-day challenge. They really only did five exercises. There were five things that they asked people to do over 21 days. One was in the morning write three things they were grateful for. The next was do something for somebody else, just once, go out of your way to do something for somebody else. The next was to, at the end of the day, write down a couple sentences on what went well for the day. As you talk about your three wins, I was thinking of that.
Patrick: The other two things that they did was exercise only had to be 10 minutes a day, just 10 minutes a day of some type of exercise, so going out for a walk at lunch, whatever that might be, and the last one was around just finding at least two minutes of quiet time, some type of quiet time to meditate. That’s it. Five things [crosstalk 00:22:13].
Larry: Yeah. Look, if you asked me what I would do differently if I could go back and do it over again, I would … For years, I was in the Army, so 6:00 AM exercise has not been a priority for me, but I’m glad you brought it up, because that is part of my morning routine. Look, I’ll say more recently, so I’m going on three months in a row of a one-mile walk and 10 minutes of dumbbells every morning. I am here to tell you it’s a game changer. My levels of energy, I’m at the point now where I look forward to it every morning. That’s part of my goals with my executive coach is to really make the investment into my personal health and wellbeing. I strongly, strongly recommend that.
Patrick: Yeah. The research is so strong in this area of the psychological wellbeing that it provides us when we do that, just simple things that you speak to. I’ll give you just a cheat sheet on that that I use. I call those five things power. The acronym of power, and I will challenge people have a power day. Praise is the three things you’re grateful for, that’s the gratitude, the O is others doing something for somebody else, the W is writing at the end of the day, the E is exercise, and the R is relaxation or meditation. When you could think about it in terms of power, those are the five things. It really does. It creates such a difference for people.
Larry: I love the gratefulness practice. That’s on the list of things that I do every morning under the reading inspirational stuff is affirmations and asking myself a few questions, like what am I grateful for? Taking inventory of what’s going well, it’s powerful.
Patrick: It really is, because how can you be in a bad place when you’re thinking about the things that you’re grateful for? It’s like an on/off switch. It’s one or the other. They can’t work at the same time.
Larry: Exactly.
Patrick: They can’t work at the same time.
Larry: Well said.
Patrick: As you continue on your journey with Machias Savings Bank, what would you want your legacy to be?
Larry: We want to have an impact on our communities that’s a game-changer. It’s not just lip service for us. We want to make a significant difference. That’s something that we’re really focused on, we’re going to continue moving the needle on. We would like to be so impactful in that area that other companies across the state, other companies across the nation take their game to the next level as a result. Look, everybody benefits. Everybody wins.
Patrick: Without question. Right. I fully agree with that. Again, you’re living it, and the research backs up that you’re where you are because of the behaviors that your organization has demonstrated at each level. As we close out here, I always like to ask is there … You’ve mentioned several along the way, but I’ll be curious if there’s one in particular that is sort of a go-to for you, but a particular quote or saying that you sort of follow.
Larry: There is a quote that I’ve followed over the years that is really great. It’s a bit long, but I’ll go through it really quickly. This is Teddy Roosevelt. He said, “It’s not the critic who counts, not the person who points out how the strong man or woman stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short again and again, but because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions, spends him or herself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
Patrick: I’m guessing you’ve read that before.
Larry: I have read it a few times. I love it. I love it. Look, I love to be in the trenches with my team fighting the fight. Look, in winning and succeeding as a team is one of the best parts of the job.
Patrick: Yeah. To me, you’ve got to be in the game to win the game and not be afraid.
Larry: Yeah, absolutely. The harder you work, the luckier you get.
Patrick: Yeah, easier to do when you’re around people that support you though, which certainly sounds like that’s what you have there.
Larry: Oh my goodness. Yeah, yeah. For sure.
Patrick: Well, Larry, thank you again for this. This really, I so look forward to having this. As we wrap this thing up, I’m glad I pushed forward on this, because it’s been everything I expected it would be from you. So thank you for that.
Larry: I appreciate your persistence, Patrick, and thank you for your interest in Machias Savings Bank. Appreciate it.
Patrick: Great. Look forward to talking to you in the future. Thanks.
Larry: All right. Absolutely. Take care. Thank you.
Thanks For Listening!
Increasing emotional intelligence: (How) is it possible?
Can emotional intelligence be trained? A meta analytical investigation.
To share your thoughts:
To help out the show:
- Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
- Subscribe on iTunes