Culture
A White Man’s Journey to Becoming an Ally
Ally (n) – one that is associated with another as a helper; (v) – to unite or form a connection between; to enter into an alliance. For background purposes, let me share my beginning point for this important journey. I was raised in a typical, white, middle-class, suburban neighborhood by a traditional family. We went…
Read More5 Steps to Making your Culture Real
We’ve all heard the nightmare stories of a business’s reputation being damaged by significant cultural attributes failures. Maybe the failure is with their values. Significant companies have faced huge fines, and executives have gone to jail for not living up to their published values. These companies include Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, General Motors, Purdue Pharmaceuticals, and…
Read MoreAir Travel, Leading and Stress
Stress is part of our lives. Outside forces can cause us stress, and we can cause stress for others and ourselves. Air travel is a source of stress; that’s what makes it a good metaphor for stress management behaviors. Many people find air travel very stressful. The stress surrounding air travel is not unlike the…
Read MoreThree Things That Go Wrong with Data Reports
A consistent issue most credit unions have is the lack of consistency from one report to the next. To diagnose why this inconsistency exists we should look first at these three elements of the report: Timing – two reports run at two different end times or interval times will tell different stories. But it’s not…
Read MorePreparing Your Culture Ready for Data Analytics
When most of us think about data, we think about numbers, charts, graphs, and reports. However, we need to talk about CULTURE. Collecting, aggregating, normalizing, manipulating, and presenting data seems to consume the conversation. However, here is the question we need to ask ourselves, “Is our culture ready to become truly data-driven?” Too often organizations…
Read More5 Reasons to Define Leadership
Leadership is often seen as the job of the chosen few dictated by the org chart. Let’s move past this arcane concept and change our paradigm. Leadership isn’t for the few; leadership is for the masses. Here is why I know this to be true: Marine Corps boot camp taught me that even though there…
Read MoreHow to Create a High Performing Team
The most extensive expense line on the income statement is compensation and benefits, and this expense must be maximized and leveraged. To get the most from your comp and benefits expenses, starts with performance management. Unfortunately, performance management has become an annual or semi-annual exercise in futility for too many organizations. When performance management becomes…
Read More5 Post-Covid Strategies
Everyone seems to be talking about the new normal, and I am not a fan of “new normal.” Normalcy has always been the siren’s call to irrelevancy and plateauing for credit unions. Here are the five things your credit union needs to consider as we move out of this pandemic: 1. Branches that don’t transition…
Read MoreSuccession Planning 2.0
It was noted recently that the cause of most of the 117 mergers the credit union movement has experienced in 2021, most were the result of a missing Succession Plan. Yes, Succession Planning can be daunting and laden with risk. This risk may be illuminated because of the “great resignation.” Companies worried about or experiencing…
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