One of the most important decisions a leader can make in her/his role is “stay or leave,” but it is amazing how many otherwise very competent, seemingly successful people make a terrible decision. Be strategic with this decision. Is the feeling of career crisis due to a: Struggling business model? Bad boss? Acknowledge bosses change?…

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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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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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An increasing trend in the financial services sector is “pay for performance.” This practice shows up in several formats: Commission – rep is paid a percentage of balances acquired Incentive – rep is paid per closed referral Bonus – rep is paid based on goal performance over a set period (per month, quarter, bi-annually, annually)…

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#Metoo has created a new world of awareness and change in our society. After reading multiple posts from family, friends, and co-workers, I was shocked at how widespread gender and sexual harassment was in the workplace. When you see #metoo posts from your daughter and daughter-in-law, it saddens me to the core. Everyone needs to…

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Leadership is not for sissies. Leadership is not about you. Leadership has a price. Let’s diagnose each of these requirements. Leadership is not for sissies – To be an authentic leader takes courage. This courage is realized in many ways. Sometimes it is the courage to do what you don’t want to do, to do…

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If you were to describe your leadership style, what would you say? If you were to define the leadership style of your credit union what adjectives would you use? Like it or not, we all have a leadership style and if your credit union has not defined their preferred leadership style you have many varieties…

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We enter the business world with the expectation that we are starting up a trajectory that will always climb to the next promotion, a continual progression of responsibility and authority. This belief is a myth. Rarely is a career path a constant climb up the ladder. A career path is a “hero’s journey,” one beset…

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Although this may seem like an exaggeration, it is extremely hard and costly for a vendor to connect to the core provider. Credit unions are also frustrated by these challenges because they prevent or at best slow down the credit union’s ability to provide their members the best products, services or applications. This slowing down…

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