Wells Fargo is in full-on damage control mode. Unless senior leadership changes – I’m not buying it. Here’s why you shouldn’t either.

When I was 19 I was a delivery driver for an auto body supply store. It was winter. We had been going through a freeze/thaw cycle. The roads were very icy and dangerous.

I clearly recall being given a delivery run. Given the conditions the run would normally take about 40 minutes. I was told, “You have 20 minutes to make this. We aren’t telling you to speed. Don’t speed. But you need to be back here in 20 minutes.”

The smile on the face of the manager told me that he thought he was being clever. Neither the managers or owner of that store were concerned for my safety or guided by integrity.

This wasn’t the only situation where they demonstrated a disregard for safety or integrity.

I quit shortly after. Hated that job.

Leadership knew unethical practices were happening. Leadership condoned it.

For those who haven’t been paying attention – Wells Fargo was recently caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Their customer’s cookie jars. Actually, about 2,000,000 cookie jars.

What was happening was wide spread abuse of customer trust and funds. Employees, throughout the company, would sign up customers for services, products and credit cards that they didn’t know about. This would do three things:

• Trigger commissions and fill sales quotes for employees.
• Generate revenues for the bank.
• Completely violate the trust of their customers.

Leadership was aware. Leadership created the environment for this to happen. They only “stopped” when caught.

Wells Fargo has admitted they’ve made “mistakes” and they are going to fix it.

We’ll see.

I’ll believe it when I see firing and turnover at the top of the company.

The same kind of thinking that got them here isn’t going to be the kind of thinking that can get them someplace else. They need different leaders who think differently.

If the board retains the senior leadership, they have – then that tells you something about the board. And in that case, you should move your business elsewhere.

Back in 2009, I wasn’t aware of the fraud. But I was aware of the culture that might encourage fraud. (Farther back than the “It all started in 2011” currently claimed.)

A friend of mine was a banker at Wells Fargo. He frequently communicated to me the stress that he was under to fill sales quotas. “How would you like to buy a new boat?” “Thought about a new credit card?”

He was essentially pitted against other bankers to compete for the business of whomever walked in the door. His future at the bank depended on making a certain quota of sales. This included promotion and even employment.

In 2009, when my wife and I married, she banked at Wells Fargo. We were figuring out how to consolidate our banking and finances.  I was shocked at the aggressive and misleading sales tactics of her banker at Wells Fargo. I immediately urged my wife to close down her accounts and get out. Glad I did.

Upsells were not the problem.

“Supersize it?” “Wash your car after the oil change?” An “upsell” is the sales practice of offering a buyer an additional option or value. There is nothing wrong with it. Someone is already interested in you or your service or product. They might be interested in an option that brings additional value to them.

Upselling works best when you are offering real, additional value that the other person might want. Upselling goes off the tracks when you play on a customer’s lack of knowledge, fears or attention.

The issue wasn’t that employees were encouraged to upsell. It isn’t even an issue that they might have been incentivized to upsell. The issue was a culture, created by leadership at Wells Fargo that set a quota for upselling products that customers clearly didn’t want.

Customers weren’t buying enough of what was being sold. Employees had to hit quotas. They began widespread fraudulent practices.

It was obvious to me that this was a culture that did not place value on the intrinsic relationship customers have with banks: We trust you with our money.

Instead, Wells Fargo said, “We can’t possibly get enough of your money.”

If Wells Fargo was smart – they’d focus their efforts on helping customers prosper. That way they’d have more money to bank. Instead, they focused on how to squeeze fees, products and percentages out of people.

As leaders, we need to face the mirror of the patterns of behavior among our people.

John Stumf is the CEO of Wells Fargo. He was elected to Wells Fargo’s board of directors in June 2006, named CEO in June 2007, and has been president from August 2015-2017.

He claims to not have “orchestrated” the fraud. I believe that. But don’t doubt for a second that he wasn’t precisely as aware, condoning and profiting as much as he wanted to be.

Unless he changes Wells Fargo won’t.

Take Aways:

• Leaders shape and define culture and values. Common employee behavior reflects that culture and those values.
• Leaders who allow unethical practices to emerge and exist are they, themselves, unethical.
• Mistakes do happen. But patterns of behavior are not mistakes. They are reflections of character and priorities.