Your next leaders are already on the payroll. Build them before you need them.
Guide Forward is the emerging leaders program for community banks: the twelve sessions of Guide Certification, run for your rising people with written commitments and weekly inspection, so they lead before the title arrives.
Why most emerging leaders programs produce certificates, not leaders
A bank picks ten promising people, sends them through a year of monthly classes and hands out certificates. Eighteen months later three have left, two supervise the way their old boss did, and the rest are still waiting to be told what to do. The content was fine. Nothing was installed.
What an emerging leaders program should install
Emerging leaders do not need more information about leadership. They need to govern their own behavior under pressure before they are responsible for anyone else's.
Own the standard.
Recover without rescuing.
Lead without the title.
How Guide Forward runs
Guide Forward is Guide Certification run for a bank's rising people: twelve live three-hour sessions over about nine months, one every three weeks, as a private cohort of eight to twelve from one bank or as open seats. Sessions one to six install how each person governs their own behavior (Guide Yourself™). Sessions seven to twelve install influence without authority, tolerance, culture, the weekly MMI rhythm and recovery (Guide the Leader™). Graduates are Certified Guides.
Between sessions each participant applies one behavior at work, writes down the commitment, and reports back on what held and what drifted. The executive sponsor sits in the first and last sessions, and each participant's own manager inspects the commitment weekly, so the program runs inside the bank's rhythm.
The private cohort is the stronger choice for a bank with eight or more emerging leaders: they hold each other to one standard and the bank watches its own bench for nine months. Smaller banks fill open seats and pair each participant with a sponsor inside the bank.
See Guide Certification · Guide Yourself · Succession planning
Who to put in it
Pick people for how they already behave, not for tenure. The teller supervisor everyone goes to when the line is long. The lender who tells a borrower no and keeps the relationship. The analyst who fixes the process instead of the symptom. Those are emerging leaders whether or not a title says so.
Tell each participant why they were chosen and what the bank expects after: a written commitment, weekly inspection with their manager, and a conversation with the sponsor at the end about what comes next. People who know the program leads somewhere stay.
Run the free DriftCheck™ with each participant before session one and after session twelve. The difference is the first evidence that the program installed something, and it is evidence a board understands.
Which offer fits
Guide Forward is priced two ways.
1 One client bank, shared with permission. Not the same bank as any testimonial shown. Results vary and are not guaranteed.
Common questions
How long is the emerging leaders program?
Twelve three-hour live sessions over about nine months, one every three weeks, with one applied behavior between sessions.
Is it run on site or virtually?
Both. Private cohorts run at your bank or online. Open seats run in Livonia, Michigan and online.
How many people should we send?
Eight to twelve for a private cohort. Under eight, use open seats so participants still get a peer group.
How do we know it worked?
Written commitments are inspected weekly by each participant's own manager, DriftCheck scores are taken before session one and after session twelve, and the sponsor reviews both. You get a record of what each person did differently, not a satisfaction score.
What does it cost?
$6,000 per seat for a private cohort of eight to twelve from one bank, so $48,000 to $72,000. Open seats in a mixed cohort are $12,500, the same as Guide Certification, because it is the same twelve sessions.
Is Guide Forward different from Guide Certification?
Same twelve sessions, same Certified Guide outcome, run for a bank's emerging leaders with the sponsor, the selection rule and the cohort price built in.
Start with the people you already trust.
Bring eight to twelve names to a 30-minute call. Steve will tell you which cohort fits and what to expect from each person by session six.