Posts Tagged ‘cultural change’
Three Things Every Leader Must Know
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…
Read MoreFive Strategic Questions for the Board and Senior Management
It’s a strange time for credit unions. Credit unions face unprecedented pressures from regulators and examiners and capital pressures for net interest margins and fee income. Often they don’t benefit from “economies of scale” or the resources, people, and capital, to invest in the infrastructure demands of vendor due diligence, regulatory compliance, or technology demands…
Read MoreIs your Credit Union’s Org Chart Strategically Aligned?
Is your credit union organized for today’s consumers? Unfortunately, credit unions are often “stuck” in an organization chart that reflects the business of the past, not the company of the future. But what needs to change? Too often, the credit union’s org structure is aligned historically based on legacy roles and job descriptions. The problem…
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 MoreLeadership – “Its Lonely at the Top”
This saying strikes a chord and gets especially real when we are fond of the people you lead. It is difficult to keep business and friendship separated, and when we fail, the consequences are painful for all parties involved. So, how do you create a work environment that leverages the power of people who enjoy…
Read MoreStrategic Planning is the Easy Part
Working with organizations across the country, I see a familiar process when doing their strategic planning. A typical process I’ve observed is loosely following these steps: Once a year a strategic planning event is scheduled with the Board and a few key executives The event starts with a “state of the industry today” presentation, typically…
Read MorePay for Performance and Reputation Risk
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)…
Read MoreLeadership: Don’t leave it to Amateurs
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,…
Read MoreThe Basics of a Successful Career
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…
Read More