Not Silencing New Voices: Creating Competitive Advantages for Credit Unions

Recently I was reading the Wall Street Journal and I came across the following sentence which I have paraphrased, “[Management] never seemed eager for me, or others, to actually take the initiative and start something. I was never challenged to lead—only to “serve.” As I reflected on this sentence I could not help but wonder how many of us in leadership positions inadvertently request the same type of activity from our front line staff or front line managers?

Throughout my career the topic of management or leadership has come up. The consensus generally was that managers where inept, drab, and dull individuals who focused on preserving their small circles of power, maintaining the status quo, and planning and budgeting resources. Conversely, leaders are portrayed as people who focus on setting direction, motivating others, coping with change, and creating vision. When you stack those two lists up and put them side by side it is no wonder than the lowly manager comes out lacking.

When we think of “leadership” we all want to follow someone who could lead us to Hell and back. While I agree I do think many of us would also like to have a person who could not only lead us to Hell and back but also make sure we had fireproof suits and fire insurance for the trip. Those trivial concerns squarely fall under the less popular manager category. My point is that leadership and management are not mutually exclusive fields to one another.

This is also true when we consider who should be taking the lead, starting the initiative, or creating something new. Too often we rely on "managers" who are focused on executing goals or members of senior management who are focused on big picture items to come up with the new and innovating. The group that tends to be forgotten is the very group who has the best understanding of what needs to be fixed-the front line staff.

Now some would argue that front line staff simply do not understand the complexity of the business. While I agree there are times when they might not understand all the moving pieces I have found over the course of my career that most of the staff are keenly aware of their piece of the puzzle and possess a solid understanding of the connecting dots around them.

So why have so many leaders and managers avoided empowering front line staff? I believe it is because many companies made difficult decisions that involved giving up benefits, freezing pay increases, introducing compensation cuts, doing away with pension plans, and reducing hours. After having to make those difficult decisions many management teams simply “circle the wagons” as they buy into the two camp philosophy of “us” versus “them”. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. No wants to have things taken away and then not have a voice in how to bring them back. Most companies are more than willing to have all of those things in place if they can have them and stay in the black.

In today’s "new normal" each company has to understand what is its competitive advantage. As people are more apathetic towards large institutions local community financial institutions have a window of opportunity to grow membership and introduce new innovative products or services. Now is the time to fire up front line staff, to engage them and paint a vision of how the company can succeed.

If you are one of many financial institutions that had to make hard decisions the last thing you want to take away from your staff is their insight and voice on how to make things better. Allow the natural leaders and managers of others to rise to the top. Create a means to allow for job enrichment.

This is a competative advantage to not being a "Too Big To Fail" Big Bank. Do you really think senior management of some Big Banks are actually going to sit down with tellers or call center agents and ask them how they could serve their customers better? Ask them what products members are using and not using ? What processes are clogging up process flow and creating service failures?  This is where being, "Too Important To Disappear " becomes a distinct advantage.  You have a whole credit union of operational experts waiting for you to just ask them their opinion on how to make the credit union better. What are you waiting for ? As Big Banks add fees and restrict contact by charging for teller visits or call center calls now is the time to get your people engaged and talking about what they can do to make a difference to your membership.

Practical Application:

When was the last time you had a focus group with your front line staff? It is amazing what an 1 hour focus group with front line staff will uncover. Take note of those in the group that rise above the band wagon and offer clear and distinct perspective.

Hold two or three rounds of 1 hour focus groups. Hold 1 for new hires, one for your call center or branch staff, and one for your support staff.

Compile the results and look for common themes. 

Report back to the groups on action you are taking. Engage those natural leaders and managers who were discovered in your focus groups to help lead others to create solutions. 

What you will gain is a stronger management bench, a clearer understanding for staff on the mission, participation in solving the problems and gaining market share in your markets. All of which allows you to give back those other things staff value like pensions, benefits, or pay raises.