Building a winning team for sustained results

The third evening presentation organised by the Research Development and Education Committee of the Association of Professional Bankers – Sri Lanka (APB) featured Chevron Lanka Managing Director Kishu Gomes. It was held on 7 July at the Bank of Ceylon Head Office Auditorium, covering the topic of ‘Building a winning team for sustained results’. The presentation was well attended by staff of all banks, who found the topic pertinent and thought provoking.

Gomes spoke of how staff should be aligned to the goals, vision and strategy of the organisation and the benefits of such alignment. He also advised the young bankers to know what you do (which is knowledge) and do what you know (focus and skills). He addressed the need to synchronise and synergise cross functional knowledge, while needing to weed out low performance levels and raise the performance of banks.

It’s often said that one needs to learn from one’s failures, but Gomes expressed a different view adding that one should learn more from successes and less from failures. He challenged the thought of staff being motivated by words and showed that feelings played an important role rather than words. He urged managers to forget the key performance targets and focus on the process or behaviour, which makes sure that managers control what is within their scope of control. He discussed the benefits of building a culture of engagement for people to come together and how spending time with all level of employees helps you to develop. 

APB organises evening presentations on a regular basis for the benefit of its members and there will be more presentations such as these in the future. They encourage anyone interested in attending any future events, to be in touch with their respective APB Bank Representatives. The next event is being planned to be held in Jaffna towards September.