Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

All of us at credit unions are paid to produce something. When I was in the call center at a credit union, I was expected to answer calls, be polite, help members, and educate them on what we had to offer. 

As you move up the organizational chart, the expectations become less tangible. What are many of us expected to produce? 

Results. 

And that's tough. You can work hard. You can bust your hump. And you may not get results. It sounds harsh, but that's the name of the game. 

You see it in football all the time. Recently, Will Muschamp was fired as the football coach at Florida. It seems he was a nice man, who worked his tail off. Muschamp understood why he was fired, though. He talked about it in the press conference devoted to his firing.

“A great example in life,” Muschamp said. “You can work really hard and you can be diligent in what you do, but you’ve got to have results in life, whether you’re in the business world or in the coaching profession. Doesn’t matter. You have to produce.  Players tell me all the time, ‘I'm tryin' hard.’ I know, but you’re not producing, so we’ve got to go with somebody else.  So that’s the message I had for them. Learn the lesson that you’ve got to produce in life. If you’re a salesman you’ve got to sell. If you're a football coach you need to win.”

As I often do, I'll end this with a few questions.

What were you hired to produce? Are you getting the job done?