Three Steps to Team Alignment

How often have you worked with a team that isn’t on the same page? This common work situation of being misaligned is not the team’s fault but the responsibility of the leader/manager. What Elements Make up Team Alignment? 1. Purpose 2. Culture 3. Values When any of these three elements are out of alignment, the…

Read More

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 More

Leadership: 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 More

The 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

Seven Steps to Collaboration in Disagreement

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…

Read More

Great Endings yield Great Beginnings

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…

Read More

Are You Running To, From, For or Against?

We’re all running 1000 miles an hour, but are we running in the right direction for the right reason? Running to – this is goal-driven running. It is having a valid endpoint and a commitment to get there. If you are training for a half marathon, your goal is distinct and specific. “I am going…

Read More

To Be a Great Leader Requires You to Be Wrong

Have you worked for a boss with all the answers and didn’t need new ideas or recommendations? In your humble opinion, was he/she that smart? Would the department, project, or organization have benefited from a boss that was not a “know it all”? As you start to add leadership to your job description, remember the…

Read More

The Eight Attributes of a Transformational Leader

I have been very lucky to work for CEOs who understood the principle that leadership is not about doing business as usual but about transforming the organization. Transformation is what differentiates a capable leader from a great leader. Transformational leadership is not easy. It is fraught with risk and reward, angst and celebration, stress and…

Read More