Musings from the CU Suite

As first published in www.cuinsight.com.

Written by Anthony Demangone

There are days when work is exhilarating. The hours fly by in an instant. You tackle challenges. If some ask you if you liked your job, you’d grab them by both shoulders and say – “No, I don’t like it. I love it!”

When those moments happen, stop. And think.

What just happened? Why do you love your job? What about it excites you?

If you don’t have those moments, you have some self-reflection ahead of you. If we’re going to spend 40, 50 or more hours a week doing something, shouldn’t that something move you…even if occasionally?

Let’s assume you do have those moments. And from my discussions, most CEOs do have them. I think our job is to find ways to push that feeling down, up and all over our organizations. We should want everyone to feel that way.

Now, that likely is an impossibility. But don’t let that stop you from trying.

But what is it that you should push down? What is it that makes you feel wonderful as a leader?

Here are some guesses.

Ownership. You own your job. You own your day. You own your hours. You are given a goal, and you claw your way to completion. Does your team feel that type of ownership? And do you unintentionally chip away at it? I tend to goof up here. I’ll look at a marketing piece from my VP of Marketing. “What about this,” I’ll ask. Or “What if we did that?” I’ll muse. Chip, chip, chip. I just took away her ownership of that marketing piece.

White Space. Most CEOs I speak to try to get away and think. They clear their mind and think about their credit union’s future. Its strategy. They day-dream, in a sense. I think finding white space is a huge deal, especially in today’s world of texts and emails. Everything is turned around quickly. But strategy takes time and effort. Does your team have white space for themselves?

Clarity. You know what you want, obviously.  You have a vision for where you want your credit union to go. You know how that MSR should sound when he’s on the phone. But does your team have that clarity? Are your directions and expectations clear?

Responsibility. The buck stops with you. That has wonderful side effects. Like ownership, responsibility leads to attention to detail, hard work, and thoughtful preparation. Does your team have that same feeling? And if they truly are responsible, do they have the tools needed to do a good job?

I’m not sure all of these things are what drives us. But when we have them, life is good. Wasted effort is minimized.  And you have a purpose about you. And don’t we want that for everyone?