Mohammd Safayet Hossain :
Newly recruited bank officers often get confused, how to progress in career only due to lack of proper guidance and knowledge. A diligent and punctual officer with high competence, adequate knowledge, and unquestionable integrity is greatly demanded in the career market and well appreciated in the professional environment.
Though there are no any fixed set criteria of a good officer, however, there are some common qualities that help an officer to be a good banker. One who holds an office of trust and authority (power), discharge duties and responsibilities under rules and codes set down by the entity and held accountable for failure of his assigned job may be regarded as an officer. An officer is therefore a management-level employee of an organization or company either of a government or non-government, autonomous or statutory body having a responsible position in the office, holding power and authority, acting in an official capacity on behalf of an organization, managing the day-to-day business of the office, carrying out the policies set down by the authority and ensure accountability to the administration. The acronyms of the word OFFICER as a BANKER may be elaborated as , O- Obedience (means Loyalty), F- Friendly (more appropriately Customer Friendly means Cooperative), F- Far-sighted (means prudent), I- Industrious with Honesty and Integrity, C- Committed to his jobs and responsibilities (means self-motivated), E- Enriched with professional knowledge (means Resourceful), R- Rational and Reliable (means Logical and Trust-worthy). Again the Word BANKER may be elaborated as, B-Busy with works always, A-Alert to rules and laws in discharging duties & responsibilities, N-Neutral to judgment, K-Keen to observation, E-Ethical to profession and R-Reliable to the customer and authority. If an officer as a banker possesses the above mentioned attributes and qualities that the acronyms of the word OFFICER and BANKER, along with mandatory educational and professional pre-requisite qualifications and some other common human qualities that an officer should have, he or she may be considered to be a good bank officer. To sum up, a dozen of qualities and attributes that a banker needs to possess to become a good officer may be as follow:
1. Obedient & Loyalty: Obedience and loyalty should be the first and foremost quality for a bank officer. Simple speaking, the term obedience in the job mean obeying the valid commandments of the senior, maintaining the chain of command, respecting the existing codes, rules and policies of both the recruited entity, instructions and regulations of entity’s regulator and acts and laws of the country at large and last but not least, honoring the very objective, mission and vision of the organization. Any insubordination, disloyalty, disownment and disobedience to any of the above mentioned phenomena may result in indiscipline and anarchy in working environment on the one hand and causes serious impediment in achieving organizational goal and objectives on the other hand.
2. Honesty and Integrity: This quality is highly desired and appreciated by the organization while entrusting an officer with fiduciary authority, pecuniary power, confidential assignment and higher responsibilities. A good employee must be honest about his/her qualifications, commitment and job. The branch managers, senior officials, controlling authority remain seriously busy all the time in discharging banking jobs, and if they had employees who are honest and trustworthy, then they feels reliable and less thing to worry about.
3. Resourcefulness: An officer must be enriched with professional knowledge, related laws and regulation, supporting soft-skills, data and information, running technologies, government policies and priorities, compliance of regulatory body’s requirement. Being resourceful of professional requirement combined with job experience will make an officer much more dynamic, smarter and leader in his/her profession. Apart from having generally required professional knowledge, conversance with extra ordinary knowledge in English, ICT, Business and Legal affairs pave the quick way to get succeeded in career.
4. Self-motivated: An officer must be self-motivated in respect of discharging duties and responsibilities so that management authority feels assured to get their targets and goals achieved by him/her up to their expectation. It is not expected by the authority that its officer are needed regularly to push and motivate, force and intimidate, allure and inveigle to get their job done continuously.
5. Self-Awareness: As part of self-awareness, an officer must-understand who they are and where their strengths and weakness or limitations lie, what responsibilities and target assigned upon him/her, become aware of their working environment, surrounding people, upcoming issues, future banking tools, products and technologies, character and nature of his or her authority and bosses, subordinates, colleagues, about his roles in the organizational performances, consequences of wrong doing and non-compliance, benefit of hard-working etc. Must be aware of the facts and tacts that would specially help in getting promoted in the profession, such as professional certificate, banking diploma, professional degrees, area of expertise, papers and publications, achievement and performance etc.
6. Good Iinter-personal Skill: Effective interpersonal skills are crucial for any employee to get succeeded in career. To develop better Inter-personal skills, one must need to have good listening and communication skills to be able to develop relationships with others that can promote his/her own objectives and the organizational goal as well. Employers are happy to hire employees who are able to communicate in a lucid manner when speaking or writing. Inappropriate or inaccurate employee-employee communication can lead to many complicated issues within the company and with clients as well that result in confusions and hurdles in achieving organizational goals.
7. Hardworking: There is no alternative to hard working for getting success in the career. Doing more than assigned responsibilities will add additional values to one’s career and create higher demand in career market. So “GO AN EXTRA MILE” to get quick success.
8. Smart, Disciplined and Punctual: Every boss loves a punctual, disciplined and conscientious employee. “Time is money”, the motto is appreciated in corporate world. Coming late to office, taking unnecessary breaks, procrastinating and leaving earlier than the usual hours cost money to the company. Being disciplined and punctual create nice image to the boss and authority. Every organization rewards the smart officers who are disciplined, punctual, hardworking, honest and self-motivated in their job.
9. Adaptability: Employees who know how to adjust themselves to new environment, willing to learn new things (quick learners) and perform their best in changes are likely to be the best performers in any organization.
10. Friendly and Cooperative: Everyone appreciates a helping hand. Do not hesitate in helping out others. This make the person establish friendly relations with the coworkers and keeps the office running smoothly. A friendly and Cooperative officer become highly beloved and reliable to other and gets huge popularity to all both colleagues and customers.
11. Positive attitude: Positive attitude means thinking positively that focuses on the bright side of life and things. A positive thinker always find silver lining in every clouds, clue to the lesson of success in every failure, seeks valuables and pearls in every ruins and havoc, gain energy and strength in every mourn. Being optimism and maintaining a positive mindset always result in sweet rewards. Power of positive thinking is really excellent in all spheres of life.
12. Contra-traits: Being over-smart, arrogant, deceitful, vindictive, fault-finder and lethargic in professional life is totally contradictory to become a good officer.
(Safayet Hossain is Principal, Rupali Bank Training Academy).
