How Was Your Summer?

Well, that was quick. I can’t believe we just celebrated Labor Day marking the unofficial end of summer. Fall is upon us here in Michigan. The temperatures have dropped (seemingly overnight from a humid August), days are getting shorter, the college football season has begun, pumpkin flavored everything is available, and the kids are back in school. Conversation starters now include the question – How was your summer? I have always enjoyed the change of seasons from summer to fall. My only issue is that summer seems to go by faster and faster each year.

So, how was our summer? We had a wonderful productive summer at Greenleaf Trust. It started with our summer signature events in each of our markets. We began in June in Northern Michigan and ended in August in Kalamazoo. The events are held at unique venues with curated menus and live entertainment. The best thing about the events is we get to spend quality fun time connecting with hundreds of our clients and friends. If you haven’t attended one of these events yet, we look forward to spending time with you next year.

At the beginning of August, we got to spend some quality fun time connecting with our teammates. All those pictures you see in our Annual Report are taken on the same day in Kalamazoo. Ask anyone here, it’s one of their favorite days of the year. I know it’s mine. Teammates from all of our offices are in town for pictures and quality time together. I especially enjoy seeing groups of teammates from different offices interacting like they work side by side every day. There is even a dunk tank involved at the end of the day.

Our Up Periscope meetings were held at the end of June. They are an integral part of the execution of our strategic plan and ultimately the achievement of our goals. If we are going to put a written plan together at the beginning of each year, it makes sense to us that halfway through the year we lift our heads up and see where we are at. The Executive Council (EC) meets with all of the division leaders from our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to collectively assess where we are with respect to our annual goals. They are not come to the principal’s office type of meetings, but instead collaborative meetings to celebrate successes and discuss where any help is needed. I am happy to report that we are right on track for 2025.

Most recently, the Executive Council just returned from our annual Offsite. This year we met at our new office in Naples, Florida. Our Offsite is part of our strategic planning process and provides me and our senior strategic leaders (EC) time to focus and discuss our thoughts on what we need to do next year to achieve our long-term goal to Serve Clients More. These thoughts are then integrated with our team’s thoughts from our Strategic Planning Survey to construct strategic initiatives for our Executive Leadership Team to address at our annual Advance in early October. One of the highlights was spending time with our new Vice President, Senior Trust Relationship Officer in Naples, Jeannine Stetson. She has 24 years of experience serving families in Southwest Florida in trust and estate administration, and we can’t wait to have our returning “snowbirds” meet her.

I hope you get a sense of why we enjoyed our summer so much. It once again provided us with opportunities to nurture relationships with our clients and each other and continue to grow the breadth and depth of our capabilities to deliver more. I hope you enjoyed your summer as much as we did.