Credit Union Inspiration: Looking Beyond The Mark

Light and Inspiration
Have you ever been reading in a room as the warm afternoon light slowly dimmed? Often you don’t even notice the dimming of the light until someone walks into the room. Puzzled they ask you why you are reading in the dark and then flick on the light switch. In an instant a bright flood of light fills the room and shadows that had been advancing on you disappear. What previously had been dim and hard to see suddenly becomes clear and recognizable. In this experience the light can be characterized as immediate and intense. Compare that experience of an early morning sunrise. If we were to stand together and gaze at the horizon and watch night turn into morning what would we see? Almost every time I have tried this I always miss “the moment”. I seem to get lost in my thoughts and miss the slow and almost imperceptible increase in light on the horizon.In both cases the result is the same – increased light. In contrast to turning on a light in a dark room, the light from the rising sun did not immediately burst forth. Rather, gradually and steadily the intensity of the light increased, and the darkness of night was replaced by the rays of early morning. 

As we have all come to expect the sun did dawn over the horizon. Oddly though the visual evidence of the sun’s arrival was apparent hours before the sun actually appeared over the horizon. In this experience the light can be characterized as subtle and gradual.

From these two everyday experiences with light, we can learn much about the nature of leadership and inspiration. Inspiration can come in a variety of ways sometimes it comes in a flash of insight and it is immediate and intense. Yet, at other times inspiration can come in a much more subtle and gradual manner. The two experiences with light I described help us to better understand these two basic patterns of understanding our own inner voice and how we perceive inspiration.

A light turned on in a dark room is like receiving that bolt of insight from the universe all at once. Many of us have experienced this pattern of inspiration as we have been given answers to questions or business issues we have studied or pondered.


If you were to talk to other leaders around you and question them regarding their own experiences regarding inspiration you might hear words such as immediate and following a “gut feeling”. Many business case studies are filled with random flashes of insight that dramatically changed the course of the company’s strategy and direction. While there is no doubt this bolt of lightning can occur the reality for many of us is that this pattern of dramatic inspiration tends to be more rare than common.


If you are anything like me then the gradual increase of light radiating from the rising sun is like receiving a letter from the universe with a snappy joke at the beginning and then a much more subtle “line upon line, precept upon precept” type of instruction or insight. For me big, grand, strategic visions seem to come in small increments over time. They tend to follow according to my desire to move forward with the knowledge that I already possess. To take risks and then step forward knowing the next answer is around the corner. 


Looking Beyond the Mark
As leaders we tend to extol the dramatic flashes of insight so much that we may fail to appreciate and may even overlook the customary pattern by which the inspiration actually happens. Too often the simpleness in receiving small and incremental impressions from hallway conversations with peers or staff that over time act as breadcrumbs to a desired answer or the direction we need may cause us to look “beyond the mark”.

I have talked with many individuals who question the strength of their visionary abilities. They often underestimate their strategic capacity because they do not receive frequent, miraculous, or strong impressions on how they should lead their business units. I believe these individuals are being too hard on themselves and simply do not recognize how they receive inspiration.

Another common experience with light helps us learn an additional truth about the “line upon line, precept upon precept” pattern of inspiration. Sometimes the sun rises on a morning that is hazy or foggy. Due to the overcast conditions, seeing the light is more difficult, and identifying the precise moment when the sun rises over the horizon becomes a fool’s folly as it is not possible.

That being said even on such a morning we have sufficient light to recognize a new day and to chase after our widely important goals. In a similar way, we many times receive inspiration without recognizing precisely how or when we had our flash of insight.

Gathering Inspiration- One Bolt of Lightning at a Time
As we all come out of lending season it is time to start thinking about what strategic initiatives we need to be planning for. As you draw up your list I would challenge each of us in the credit union industry to look beyond the mark. Our members live in a world of payday lenders and big banks that are focused on building branches based on tiers that insure that the customers with the most money get the most service while those with no money get nothing but self service. 

As we look around for inspiration we have to be willing to widen our circles in which we collect knowledge. We have to be willing to look across channels and other artificial boundaries. As we do this we are able to find sources of insight that allow us to collect that "bolt of inspiration" one bolt of lightning at a time.

A place to start is to consider your own organization and how it mentors upcoming leaders? The reason this is critical to gaining personal inspiration is that it allows you, as a mentor, to formalize the lessons of your own career experience. As a nice side benefit you often will be surprised to find yourself learning from them as you recall life and leadership lessons you have not applied in some time.

As leaders we have to be able to stand ready for those moments of blinding inspiration. We have to be able as credit union thought leaders to be able to move those ideas into action. However, if we only stand ready for the occasional flash of insight then we doom ourselves to spend much of our working careers not looking for inspiration at all. We have to be able to discern inspiration in both its boldest manifestations as well as it most subtle.

Helping Our Members Live Up to Their Privileges

A Tale of Privilege
While attending a conference a former airline pilot related the following story to me. A man's lifelong dream was to board a cruise ship and sail the Mediterranean Sea. He dreamed of walking the streets of Rome, Athens, and Istanbul. The man worked diligently and saved every penny until he had enough for his passage. As his funds were limited, he brought an extra suitcase filled with cans of beans, boxes of crackers, and pouches of powdered drink mix, and that is what he lived on every day.

The man watched the others take part in the many activities offered on the ship—working out in the gym, playing miniature golf, and swimming in the pool. He envied those who went to movies, shows, and cultural presentations. He yearned for only a taste from the tables heavily laden with all the amazing food he saw on the ship. Every meal was by itself a feast! However, the man merely looked on and did not participate as he wanted to spend as little money as possible. He had used almost all his money on the ticket for the voyage. While he was able to see the cities he had longed to visit, for the most part of the journey, he stayed in his cabin and ate only his humble food.

On the last day of the cruise, a crew member asked him which of the farewell parties he would be attending. It was then that the man learned that not only the farewell party but almost everything on board the cruise ship—the food, the entertainment, all the activities—had been included in the price of his ticket. Too late the man realized that he had been living far beneath his privileges.

This story struck me when I heard it. I thought of so many of the people I come in contact with at credit union events who are so passionate about the world of credit unions and the value they add to their membership. Yet, we often spend our time on efforts that are driven by external forces like; free checking, lending volumes, or new legislation like the Durbin Amendment. We spend so much time saying the country needs credit unions but fail to really help our members understand just what their "ticket" for their cruise bought them. It was then I realized that membership had its own set of “privileges”. I could not help but wonder if many of us are like the person in the story.

The Man In The Story Sparked the Experiment
Many of us will conclude that I am speaking about the man who had not realized his privileges until the end of the voyage. I do think that part of the story is sad. However my focus is on the crew member who told the man of his privileges. If only he had spoken to the gentleman earlier. If only he had made it a point to greet each new passenger as they boarded the ship and had given them a flyer explaining the privileges that are part of being a passenger on the ship. If only somebody had cared enough to simply ask a question earlier in the voyage.

This sparked an idea that I wanted to try. So I pulled one of my best member service specialists and asked them to pilot a question for me. I wanted her to ask every member she interacted with what their favorite credit union membership privilege was. She was somewhat skeptical at first fearing that the members would not know what she meant by “privileges”. In fact on the 2nd day she emailed me the following as I was driving to a CUES chapter meeting, "My manager and I were discussing the verbiage. Could we change the word to benefits? Saying – Mr. Member, what benefits do you appreciate and utilize the most being a member/owner with the credit union? Or – What benefits do you find the most valuable to you being a member/owner with the credit union? PS. Don’t text me back while driving!”

I email her back (no, I wasn't driving – I was lost with four other credit union leaders in a minivan wondering if we would ever find a major road with a road sign again) and asked her to keep trying with the word privilege.

That word conveys something that people want to know about. What sounds more exciting to you, “Thanks, for joining our pool membership here are the features and benefits of your membership” or “Thanks, for joining our pool membership I want to make sure you are aware of the privileges you receive with your membership.” Now, maybe it is just me – but I want to know about my privileges!

The next day during lunch I check my mobile and get the following email from her, "Just wanted to let you know we have been getting fabulous feedback on all the conversations and we've been able to turn negative responses into positive ones by educating the member on whatever their dilemma is and have even been able to open some new accounts and insurance and investment referrals.”

What had happened was that most members when asked what their favorite privilege was could not answer the question. This then led the member service specialist to then explain other products or services associated with the credit union like investment advisors or credit union auto buying service. This is so much more powerful as a transition phrase from service to sales than the typical, “before I let you go” statement we all here all too often in from our staff.

Practical Application:

• So how are your passengers doing on your ship? 
• Are they sitting on the sidelines wishing they could enjoy eating at the table? 
• Does your staff find them in time for them to enjoy the voyage? 
• As our members are trying to make it through the financial storms that are looming on the horizon what actions could your staff take this week to help your membership understand the privileges that are theirs? 

Send this link to a credit union employee you know. Strike up a conversation with them on what question could they ask that would help your membership grab hold of the potential to improve their financial well being by really participating with your credit union.

Credit Union Blind Spots: Leadership Wedges

The Wedge
There is a story about an iron wedge that I recall hearing years ago. The legend was told by a white-haired farmer who recalled as a young boy finding a faller’s wedge. The wedge was flat, and heavy, a foot or more long, and splayed from mighty poundings.

[For those of you who do not know a faller’s wedge is, it is used to help fell a tree. It is inserted in a cut made by a saw and then struck with a sledgehammer to widen the cut.]

Now the young man who came across the wedge was already late for dinner, so he laid the wedge down between the limbs of the young walnut tree his father had planted near the front gate. As he headed for home he told himself that he would take the wedge to the shed right after dinner, or sometime the next day.

Filled with good intentions the young man meant to deal with the wedge, but somehow there was always something more pressing to attend to. Soon the wedge was firmly gripped as time moved forward and the man married and took over his father’s farm.

 The wedge, grown in and healed over, was still in the tree the winter the ice storm came. In the dark silence of that bitter night one of the three major limbs split away from the trunk and crashed to the ground. This so unbalanced the remainder of the top that it, too, split apart and went down.

The next morning in the light of dawn not a twig of the once-proud tree remained. It was to this sight that the farmer awoke. With time to only mourn his loss the man’s eyes caught sight of something in the splintered ruin of the once proud tree.

 ‘The wedge,’ he muttered reproachfully. ‘The wedge I found in the south pasture.’ A glance told him why the tree had fallen. Growing, edge-up in the trunk, the wedge had prevented the limb fibers from knitting together as they should.

Credit Union Wedges - The Core Group

Today like the farmer in the story many credit unions suffer from wedges that are embedded into the cultural fibers of their organizations. They have simply grown used to all decisions being made by a core group. Typically this group are the ones that have been with the credit union for thirty years and started as a part time teller and worked their way up to the lofty inner circles where all the real decisions happen.  

Instead of looking for ideas and solutions from others, this group sees creativity and insight as a privilege. You are either in or you are out of the process. This group of leaders unwittingly holds back the energy and talent of those around them. Instead of looking for new intellect to add to the dialog they fall back on recycled ideas that are simply versions of other recycled ideas from playbooks that worked for them “back in the day.”

Imagine what the other side of the spectrum could look like. Where would your credit union be if it had leaders that sought to unleash talent and to multiply the abilities of those around them? Picture a leadership team that actively sought how to double the brainpower of staff and managers for the good of the organization.

I came across an article that talked about how leaders can magnify and unleash the talents of others that listed the following attributes:

Attract and Optimize Talent:

When you hire talented people learn the capabilities of the individual so you can connect them to opportunities to improve the group. See beyond organizational titles and look for talent at various levels of the organization. Cultivate and reward people who seek to come up with solutions. Spot light them to the organization in a newsletter or with your internal media boards.

Create a Culture of Intensity:

The maze of titles and offices and small minded kingdoms that come with internal politics are the breeding grounds for mediocrity. You simply need to scan the newspapers for credit unions and community banks that invested everything into the talents of too few people to see this play out. They would be on the list headlined by the words “Regulators Seized”.  Peel back the label on many of these institutions and you would find managers that created tension and anxiety by suppressing the best ideas from those around them. At the first hint of danger they circle the intellectual wagons and stop communication to the very people they need the best ideas from.  

Great leaders do just the opposite by giving everyone the information they need with permission to voice their ideas on that information. This unleashing of ideas draws in people to the process. Spectators on the team are pushed to the sidelines and your natural leaders and creative thought workers get busy making things better.


Toss the Ball

If you were watching your favorite sports team (soccer, football, basketball, and baseball) you would be horrified if you saw the same person take the ball and try to win without ever giving the ball to anyone else. It would be baffling to even consider such a strategy.

Today in financial services too often the “thought police” do exactly that.  They rely solely on their own understanding when they consider what direction to set for the organization. This same mistake is then multiplied by each lower level of the organization as leaders are taught and groomed not to engage others. These leaders spend the majority of their time “telling” others instead of “asking” others.

Don't wait until it is too late and then look at the wedge you never took the time to deal with. A wonderful experiment is to spend your next week asking the hard questions that spark ideas in others. Instead of answering your own questions allow those around you to fill in the voids you have presented. Allow yourself to toss the ball and give those around you permission to catch the ball and run with it. Don't fall trap to one of the common credit union blind spots of not removing the wedge and looking beyond the people in front of you. Magnify the intelligence of your organization by engaging others and letting them fill the voids you know exist.  

Everyone Needs Some Work Place Passion

Recently I had the chance to attend a chamber of commerce  meeting in which the key note speaker mentioned that many financial institutions have paid a high tuition for a very painful education during this recession. That for many of us part of that education was in seeing what happens when people are extremely passionate in creating profit with no regard for how they make that profit. Sadly the lessons of Wall Street and the meltdown that followed are starting to cool on the political memory. TARP companies are back in the saddle and are moving forward with a renewed passion for finding ways to make more profit. 

While I do not approve of the means or methods of the Wall Street machine I do have to give them credit for being able to attract people who are willing to do anything to accomplish their goals. There is a zeal and energy you think of when you think of Wall Street titans and their hunter/skinners who are looking for the next big deal. No matter how poorly the industry is portrayed it is rarely portrayed as lazy or apathetic towards hitting business goals. 

What role does passion play in our work lives? All of us have seen them. Those coworkers who seem to light up when it’s time to get to work. I recall early in my career working with a lady who was the kindest, gentlest soul that I had ever seen. Not a harsh word or a sharp tone ever escaped her lips as she interacted with her coworkers. Her handbag had a cross-stitch of her grandchildren on the side.

Then the clock would hit the start time signaling that it was 8:30 am which meant it was now legal to call people at home and remind them of prior obligations that they had overlooked last paycheck (yep- Granny was a bill collector).  That sweet old lady was still sweet but her fingers were a blur on the phone, and as she spoke to each person she would light up as she would use her sweet voice and occasionally crack her knuckles and lean forward using hand gestures at the screen. Like some kind of auctioneer the sound of dollar figures would start going back and forth between her and the person on the other end of the phone. It was verbal swordplay to see who would get what they wanted. At the end of the call she would thank them and remind them in her sweet voice she was counting on them to not disappoint her. She loved the game and the challenge of the job and it showed. Each month this kind old granny took home the top collector incentive and top spot on the collections floor. 

That experience taught me a lot about not judging a book by its cover and what impact having passion for your work plays on your performance. It also taught me that in order to really obtain success you have to want to do more than the minimum. When you are passionate about what you are doing then you will find ways to do it better. On the other hand if it is a drudgery to do what you are doing then most of the time the minimum become the most you will do. Today companies need leaders who are strategic, proactive, principled, savvy, flexible, and authentic. All of that goes without saying. Yet, what often drives the business forward is the level of passion a leader feels and is able to inspire. Can anyone imagine Apple being the success it is today if its CEO was not passionate about its future and its products?

The power of passion cannot be over rated. Many of us have turned on the news each morning and seen the crowds of demonstrators who were passionately demanding change in Egypt. The ability of the people of Egypt to demand and receive political change is a stark reminder of the power passion can ignite. It brings diverse people together and pushes aside the boxes we like to put people into. Passion allows us to demand the ability to look forward. It ignites us to either fix some wrong or to pass along something we believe to be right. Passion helps us push past obstacles not because we have to but because we want to achieve that goal that fuels the passion we are feeling.

Consider your own teams. How would you gage the level of passion that is being displayed to accomplish the goals at hand?  Probably many of us work in jobs that do not appear to impact society in a manner that calls for passionate displays. After all, being a manager is hard enough without also having to be the official cheerleader for the group. Yet, what if…what if you could get people really excited about achieving that goal? What if you didn't have to do all the heavy lifting? What if you had someone on the team just waiting for the chance to do more?

Most of us are probably the type that when the goal is on the line we want to be the person in charge. We want to have control. Our internal passion to succeed blinds us to the potential passion in others. I remember one meeting in which I was feeling somewhat sorry for myself because I was feeling so overworked (que sad music for background). So I went and spoke to another leader (my mentor) about my situation. This leader offered sound advise but no matter what she said I kept hearing that I had to do more. Finally exasperated with me (I have that effect on people at times) she said, “ You are not that smart, not every answer has to come from you. You have extremely capable people around you and if you are telling me that none of them can help you then you are a sorry leader!” My pride in tatters I left that meeting angry with her lack of understanding. She obviously had no clue what it meant to be passionate about something and having to do it yourself. Luckily some hours later her words finally penetrated my fog of self pity and I was able to see what she was trying to tell me.

I took a fresh look at the staff roster and sure enough a name stood out. I scheduled a meeting with the person and explained that I wanted to place them on a special project to help me out. The person was thrilled and tackled it with fresh eyes and energy. Soon they had taken the project farther than my original expectations. To add to my lesson of personal humility the person sent me a thank you note for allowing them the opportunity to do more and made a small donation to a school in South America in my name. Clearly I had found the right person for the job.

Practical Application:

Who have you identified that could do more on your team?

How have you  encouraged a high level of autonomy on your team?

What assignment can you hand off to allow someone else to achieve success?  

Has your own level of passion ignited the potential passion in others?