When all parties are agreeable, collaboration is easy. It is when the parties are not agreeable that a leader goes to work. Disagreements can come from many sources and for many reasons, but the key to connecting opposing positions starts with understanding all sides. How can a leader create a collaborative effort when disagreement is…

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Life would be great if we had a “life GPS.” You know, “Darn, I missed that exit,” followed by an immediate “recalculating” from a calm voice. It didn’t matter how I failed to follow instructions; the beautiful GPS voice kept me from losing sight of my goal and helped me readjust my tactics with that…

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Change is in my DNA. We don’t need to face change; we also need to embrace change. If you feel your credit union or CUSO needs to look at change differently and would like the steps to implement change,  my core competencies include the following:Digital transformation – building a digital strategy, the tactics, the organizational…

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Condoleezza Rice once said, “When you’re in a position of authority, you need truth-tellers around you.” Did she hit the mark? You bet.First, let us agree that one element of leadership is the authority. To be a leader, you must have some authority. This authority isn’t determined by power but by your ability to motivate,…

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All teams have three participants: change agents, change neutrals, and change resistors. The key to leading change is empowering the change agents, influencing the change equivocators, and helping the change resistors understand the WIIFM (what’s in it for me). Here are the critical steps to leading change. First, identify who fits into these categories because…

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Many of us have seen this from afar, some of us from close at hand. The CEO is getting close to retirement and has set a course for the organization of just “drifting off into the sunset.” This syndrome happens when the strategic leader and driver of the credit union have decided to retire but…

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When doing a strategic plan, most organizations really are good at thinking with aspiration, hope, and promise. Where the “failure” happens is on the execution of the plan. If you think about engaging movies, they all seem to be stories that include a variation of the hero’s journey. “Lord of the Rings”, “Star Wars”, and…

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It’s a strange time for credit unions. Credit unions are facing unprecedented pressures from regulators and examiners, and capital pressures for net interest margins and fee income. Often they don’t have the benefit of “economies of scale” or the resources, people, and capital, to invest in the infrastructure demands of vendor due diligence, regulatory compliance…

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Mobile utilization is now the preferred method for consumers to manage their money and make deposits, transfers, and payments. Too often, credit union staff is not keeping pace with member adoption of the digital channels. What can a credit union do to prepare their team to support their member’s digital needs? Nurture a digital culture…

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