CUES Podcast

CUES Podcast 164: What It Takes To Be a Great CEOIn this CUES Podcast episode, host Carla Kalogeridis welcomes guests Deedee Myers, Ph.D., CEO of DDJ Myers, and Peter Myers, Senior Vice President at DDJ Myers, to discuss what it takes to be a great CEO in the credit union industry. The conversation covers several key aspects of CEO selection, onboarding, and performance. You'll discover: The process of finding and selecting a CEO, including vetting internal vs. external candidatesDifferences in interviewing internal and external candidatesThe importance of a robust onboarding process for new CEOsCharacteristics that distinguish good CEOs from great onesRegular practices that high-performing CEOs engage inDeedee and Peter share insights on: The evolving landscape of CEO searchesThe importance of emotional intelligence and strategic thinking for CEOsHow boards can prepare for CEO transitions years in advanceThe critical first 90-120 days for a new CEO and building relationships with staff, board members, and the communityFive key characteristics of exceptional CEOs, including having a clear vision and putting "points on the board"Regular practices CEOs should engage in, such as semi-annual development conversations with executives and regular strategy deep-dives"Never stop learning. Always be curious. Be open. Be hungry," Deedee advises aspiring and current CEOs.This episode provides valuable insights for credit union professionals interested in leadership development, board members involved in CEO succession planning, and current CEOs looking to enhance their performance.Links for this show: Transcript DDJ Myers

In this episode of the CUES Podcast, guest Lee Wetherington, senior director of corporate strategy at CUES Supplier member Jack Henry, discusses the impact that artificial intelligence is already having on credit unions. Two areas that will be improved by AI are member experience and service and fraud mitigation, he says.“The top two use cases are member service—specifically, in short to mid-term, generative AI assist technologies to real people in the credit union who are fielding members' moments of need in real-time through digital channels through the mobile app, etc,” Wetherington says. “The number two use case … is the application of machine learning to fraud detection, fraud prevention and fraud mitigation. Using new generative AI pattern detection technologies is being brought to bear and that space in more new and powerful ways.” Lee is the senior director of corporate strategy at CUES Supplier member Jack Henry. He directs the development of actionable insights, forecasts and strategy for Jack Henry and the financial services industry at large. To this end, he guides a team of analysts who track the trends and implications of the emerging technologies disrupting and transforming the banking industry. You may have seen Lee at a conference as he delivers keynotes nationwide, focusing on opportunities and challenges in fintech, payments and digital banking. In the show, Wetherington also discusses:What are the top use cases for AI right now? Where should credit unions start to dip their toes into using AI? What are the potential cost savings and revenue-generating opportunities for credit unions through AI adoption?Are credit union employees going to lose their jobs to AI?“I see generative AI … as more of a leveler of the playing field, between credit unions and the biggest banks in the country,” he says.Links for this showTranscriptJack Henry's 2024 Strategy Benchmark Making AI Work for You: 10 Steps for an Organizational ApproachLee Wetherington's LinkedIn profile What Is ChatGPT Doing ... and Why Does It Work? by author Stephen Wolframjackhenry.com

In this episode of the CUES podcast we talk about payment trends and strategies with guest Tede Forman, president of payment solutions at CUES Supplier member Jack Henry. He leads the company's strategy and solutions for payments and spoke about why Jack Henry actively participated with the Federal Reserve to help develop its real-time payments network, FedNow.“We wanted to offer this opportunity to all of our community financial institutions (and) specifically credit unions right from the start to give them the horsepower to drive innovation,” Forman says. “We also saw this as the foundation for meeting current needs, but also building future payment solutions.“There's going to be a lot of innovation and transformation with instant payments, from P2P to business. … (We knew) getting in on the front end would help the credit union understand the operational processes and also (help) think through use cases that could be leveraged in the credit union space with instant payments.“Probably around 30-33% of all the FIs that are live on the FedNow rail are actually a Jack Henry client,” he adds.In the show Forman also discusses: the most common questions about FedNow;common risks or barriers that make credit unions hesitant to implement instant payments;data about the use of and demand for instant payments;how instant payments can help credit union members improve their financial health;a vision for the future of instant payments;and much more.Links for this show:TranscriptEmail Tede FormanJack Henry: Payments Trends and StrategiesThe Faster Payments Council's Operational Considerations for Instant Payments Receive-Side Primer

In this episode we talk about human-centered leadership. Returning to the show as our guest is CUES' own VP/Consulting Services Lesley Sears, who heads up our CUES Consulting offerings.She explains the difference between a business-centered culture and a human-centered one and shares why centering your people will ultimately be better for the business.“In business-centered leadership, you're primarily focused on the numbers. You're focused on the ways of business that are outside of the people,” Sears says. “Are we strategically aligned? Are we getting our numbers? What is the data showing? What's the profitability?”“Then the counter to that is digging into and aligning leadership with what's best for the people who are getting the business done,” she adds. “They're the ones that are making the credit union successful. How can we develop our organization to focus on them first, and then let the success of the credit union come from that people focus?”In the show Sears also discusses: the difference between human-centered and business-centered leadership;why a human-centered approach to leadership works;what human-centered leadership looks like in action;signs that your workplace is struggling to be human-centered; and ways to evolve your culture.Links for this show:TranscriptCaveday.org: The resource that is saving Lesley's life right now by helping her find time to focus on deep work.From Fast Company: 7 Qualities of the Human-Centric Workplace for Innovative LeadersCUES ConsultingPurposeful Talent Development blog posts, podcasts and videos by Sears

Knowledge is key to success in business lending, according to Jim Devine, co-founder, CEO and chairman of Hipereon, a financial training company based in Washington state, and lead faculty member for CUES' School of Business Lending, which starts April 1.In this latest episode of the CUES Podcast, Devine says his aim with the school each year is to “make sure ... that everybody going out the back door has the foundational skills that give them confidence that they can take a set of financial statements from a prospective borrower, do a diagnostic assessment of the performance of that business, link it to their debt service coverage policies and guidelines, and determine whether” they're willing, as a fiduciary, to let their members' money fund the credit request.In this show, Devine demonstrates that his own knowledge of business lending runs deep—both in terms of the structures and procedures credit unions need to have in place to do it well and the impacts that the economy and other factors have on credit unions' success with it.The show opens with a discussion of the business lending environment and what to look out for in 2024, including interest rates and the repricing of loans. The show also gets into the importance of using analytics well to best determine if credit should be granted to a particular applicant.“You're not trying to figure out a way to say, ‘yes,'” Devine says in the show. “You're trying to figure out whether yes is the right answer. And again, in order to do that, you have to have the analytical skills to do it.” Devine also makes the case that credit unions need to consider how to broaden their business lending portfolios to also include loans for business operations.“People are going to have to start looking at the feasibility of figuring out how to make more operating loans to operating businesses and not have such a huge concentration risk in a loan portfolio linked to commercial real estate,” he says.The show also gets into:Key fundamentals of business lending, such as “If the cash don't flow, the loan don't go” and also the importance of researching whether a business has more than one source of possible repayment.More details about what's covered in the School of Business LendingHow Devine plans to personalize this year's school more than everLinks for this show:TranscriptSchool of Business LendingGoldman Sachs article about business lending at smaller financial institutions 

Fintech, including artificial intelligence, is at the top of many credit union leaders' worry list for 2024.The guest in this episode of the CUES Podcast, Scott Snyder, has ideas for how to approach these concerns that should be steadying. A recognized thought leader in technology and innovation, Snyder has more than 30 years of experience in emerging technologies, business strategy and innovation, and digital transformation for Global 1000 companies.When it comes to emerging and potentially disruptive technology, Snyder says, “the biggest fear of any leader, and I'll throw boards into that as well, is being on either side—either investing too early and too much or being too late and being caught flat-footed and … getting left behind.”Snyder recommends in the show two approaches leaders can take to best manage this kind of technology. The first is “bottoms up, rapid experimentation.”“Let certain populations in your company actually play with this technology … so they … (can) see what's possible and actually see, ‘Can it drive the impact we think?'” he says in the show.“Then we should work future-back, using things like scenarios of how this could play out,” he continues. “How could it fundamentally change the way we operate or make money? Because that will get us thinking about what's possible in the long term.(The) “bottom line is yeah, you need to do bottoms up, rapid experimentation. You can't just sit around and wait. You've got to play with these technologies,” he summarizes. “But also you need to think future-back of what they could really do to your organization to think of those ‘big I' innovation opportunities.”Snyder says credit unions will benefit from considering both short-term and long-term potential of fintech, including AI. "You have to start with responsible innovation,” he says. “And you've got to have your own responsible innovation framework that includes things like ethics and transparency and fairness.”He recommends sharing this responsible innovation framework across your organization, “because then that provides the backdrop of like, what do we really care about when we're innovating these solutions and make sure there's clear areas we don't choose to pursue technology use cases that fit.”He recommends evaluating possible fintech and AI initiatives with “three Rs”: responsibility (such as do no harm), reliability (the need to work right may be different for marketing brainstorming than for a virtual member assistant, for example) and return on investment. Links:Goliath's Revenge: How Established Companies Turn the Tables on Digital DisruptorsGartner hype cycleCUES Virtual Classroom: Leading in an AI-First FutureThe Looming Algorithmic Divide: Navigating the Ethics of AIEuropean Union Artificial Intelligence ActCEO Institute: FinTechTranscript

The 2023 CUES Emerging Leader says the best advice he got about the CUES Emerge program was not to go into it with a preconceived notion about what his business case for the competition phase would be.In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Jayde DelGado, CCM, branch manager for $1.8 billion Harborstone Credit Union, Lakewood, Washington, tells the story of a 1:1 meeting with his CEO, CUES member Geoff Bullock and the 2017 winner of the challenge, then called Next Top Credit Union Exec. DelGado brought several ideas for problems his business case could help solve."Forget about all that,” DelGado recalls Bullock saying. “Don't go in there with your business plan already done in your mind. Go in there with an open mind. Be open to learning. Be open to hearing. You very well might come out of this program with a completely different concept than you had ever thought, completely different than what you have in mind for your business case now.”“And I did just that,” DelGado says. “I put it all aside, went in there, was really, really listening to the problem identification lecture that we had on how to ideate what some of the challenges are, how to identify those challenges.“And it really helped because … I could see … how easy it would be to go in there looking through the lens of, ‘I have one problem. I know how I'm going to solve this problem.' But to be able to go in there with that open perspective and kind of see everything that came, I think really helped me get to the point where I was able to get the business case that I had.” DelGado's business case was a transitional housing loan program.DelGado also recalls Bullock encouraging him to apply for the experience. “What have you got to lose?” Bullock asked him.If you're considering applying for CUES Emerge, DelGado would say pretty much the same thing."I can't really think of a reason to not do it,” he says in the show. “It's professional development. It's something that needs to be invested in. At times it can be challenging with … the workload, but if it was easy, everyone would do it, and that's part of professional development … learning how to balance your time and learning how to prioritize.“If you've thought about it, if you're thinking about it, if you're considering it, just do it,” he emphasizes.In the show, DelGado also gets into:the three phases of the CUES Emerge program: application, education and competitionhow teamwork is important in all things, credit union work, the CUES Emerge competition and moredetails about his business case for a transitional housing loanwhy DelGado thinks credit unions are such financial services standoutsLinks for this show:CUES EmergeDelGado's pitch during the CUES Emerge 2023 pitch showDelGado won a free registration CUES Advanced Management Program from Cornell University and leadership coaching from Envision ExcellenceThe 5-second rule that DelGado describes in the showTranscript

Resilience is “about being tough, but it's also about being flexible, and truly resilient leaders know when to be which,” Heather McKissick, I-CUDE, says in the latest episode of the CUES Podcast. McKissick is the CEO of CUES.The decision about when to be tough and when to be flexible, McKissick explains, “depends on the forces that we are up against—because some things you can predict because of wisdom or history or experience, and other things are unpredictable. And there are times when you have no choice but to work with what you've got in order to withstand and … keep moving forward.”Being able to be agile, being able to forecast situations and “respond and test and pivot and change and not hold steadfast” to legacy policies or procedures is important, she says, “because if we hold too strongly to those things, we may get left behind.”“Some organizations that don't have that same kind of spirit of experimentation or transformation when it comes to how they serve their members and experience lag, … attrition, … a lack of engagement or satisfaction by their members because the organization that they're looking to to help them through some of the most challenging times in their careers or in their lives isn't able to keep up with the challenges and changes all around them.”In addition to resilient leadership, this show also gets intoMcKissick's vision for magnifying the good that credit unions and their leaders are doing all the time—and how CUES can support thatThe value of credit union industry players having conversations that would support taking the ongoing cooperative work of credit unions to the next levelHow McKissick applies her ideas about resilience to potentially disruptive technology like generative AIThe importance of learning about new technology from credible sourcesHow CUES can help credit union leaders and their organizations build resilience going forward, which in turn will build CUES' resilienceLinks for this show:McKissick's “banana bread column”McKissick is the guest in this video: Resilient Leaders Leverage Dynamic IntegrationCUES EmergeCEO Institute: FinTech Transcript

Erica Taylor says her best advice for credit unions on how to best further their DEI journeys is to listen, really listen, to staff and their communities. “Start with listening and truly listening to hear..., listening to understand people,” says Taylor, VP/communications and community relations for $20 billion Golden 1 Credit Union, headquartered in Sacramento, California. “It's powerful stuff. It builds trust. It empowers everyone that is listened to. … It's good all around.”Like all credit unions, Golden 1 CU was founded on ideas of equity and helping one another. More recently, the organization has formalized its DEI journey, starting with assessments of staff and leadership to really listen to what credit union team members had to say about their sense of workplace belonging. “We know that diversity of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, life makes us a stronger credit union and really makes us a stronger community,” explains Taylor, a CUES member, in the show. “That's something that's been a big part of our history. “But we want to ensure that we're acting on that right? It's not just a belief; we need to take actions, to make sure that we are fostering an inclusive culture that ... our tagline of ‘stronger together' is more than just a tagline, it's an ethos. It's something that we live every day.” Internally, Golden 1 CU has launched a podcast featuring the lived experiences of employees, formed six employee resource groups and undertaken unconscious bias training. “Being open to a history of background that's different than yours can really open doors to growth, to rich and honest conversations and help us be better leaders help us be better employees and help us be a better credit union,” Taylor says of the unconscious bias training. Externally, the CU listened to the needs of the Del Paso Heights area of Sacramento to find out what leaders thought was needed to address community needs, which include a safe park for birthday parties, an eyeglasses shop and a financial institution. The CU has dedicated $10 million over five to 10 years to the community and opens a financial resource center there this month. “These communities know what they need. We just have to listen. We have to ask and see where we can plug in and help,” Taylor says. “And I'm thrilled that we were able to do that. I really love how we designed this, and I can't wait to see it succeed.” Links for this show: John Pembroke Catalyst for Change Award application information and list of winners  CUES Net ERG Community, a benefit of CUESmembership CU Management magazine's DEI content collection CUES' DEI Resource Center Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Cornell Certificate Program (starts March 27, 2024) Transcript

In this episode, Lesley Sears talks about the implications of research showing that newly promoted employees are more likely to leave your organization—and what you can do to mitigate their flight risk.“When we promote somebody, we're assuming we're building loyalty,” says Sears, CUES' VP/consulting. “We're … really feeding into and developing this person. But statistics have shown us that that's not always the case.“ADP has come out with a research study that shows 29% of the people that were newly promoted left, transitioned out versus 18% that normally would have.”Spoiler alert: Sears says successfully fixing the problem comes down to strengthening your organizational climate.“The culture … is really … the byproduct of how everything in the credit union is working,” she explains. Whatever the challenges are at the credit union will show up in the climate and culture. “So, address the culture,” she asserts, “and thereby you can address a lot of your challenges in the credit union itself.”In the show Sears also discusses:Specific elements of climate/culture that might be leveraged to mitigate the flight risk of newly promoted employeesHow the nine elements of culture are highly intertwinedWhy it's important for credit unions to have the kind of climate/culture that makes newly promoted—and other—employees want to stayWhat results a credit union can get from doing a climate assessmentHow a credit union's climate ultimately impacts its membersHow CUES Consulting's Burn Bright offering can help develop resilent leaders at a credit unionLinks for this show:TranscriptCUES ConsultingPurposeful Talent Development blogs by Sears:A Culture of Learning Builds Resilience5 (of 9) Dimensions of Organizational ClimateFour More Dimensions of Organizational ClimatePodcast: The Nine Dimensions of Climate

Terrance Williams says it was his dad who taught him to be a leader who listens, an intern who asked him how he knows insurance is still the right career for him and his parents together who instilled in him his mantra of “paying it forward.”In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Williams, the new president/CEO of CUESolutions provider TruStage®, illustrates his leadership style by describing his approach to having lunch.“I want to make sure that everyone's comfortable engaging with me,” says Williams. “When I go get lunch, I talk to everyone in the cafeteria, regardless of their role, and regardless of what they do, and I want them to view and see me as someone that's approachable as someone that they can talk to and engage with—and give me feedback, give me a suggestion, give me a thought. (That) doesn't mean we're going to do everything that comes my way, but I always want to maintain that open forum, so that people are comfortable coming to me and approaching me."Williams explains in the show how he was able to respond to an intern's question about whether Williams had made the right decision to pursue a career in insurance. He is certain that he has.“I …  believe what we do genuinely matters,” he says. “When you think about the ability to transfer risk, the ability for me to live my life without the worry of being able to take care of the unexpected, without having to worry about what might happen with the loss of a loved one, … our role, when you boil it all down … is really to ensure that we can help rebuild lives to the degree money and caring can. That's what we do. And I would like us to talk about that more as an industry.”Williams adds that one of TruStage's strengths is its mutual structure. “This belief in this notion of people helping people, the ability for us to make long-term decisions that really are centered around the member, the ability to ensure that we can invest today with the recognition that we will benefit someone tomorrow.”The show also gets into:Williams' mantra, paying it forward, and how he wears that idea on his arm (see photo) How Williams won a national award for chief marketing officers without being a CMOThe job during Williams' career that was most formative for him as a leaderDiversity, equity and inclusionLinks for this show:TruStageTruStage's CUESolutions provider pageKey Strategies for Setting Up a Diversity & Inclusion Program with Angela Russell from TruStageCUESolutions providers are trusted credit union suppliersTranscript

Chris Jones and his team have formed a new company named to represent well what they do. Jones is a senior benefits consultant and partner in PARC Street Partners. PARC stands for plan, attract, retain and compensate—all key elements of the company's work to help credit unions create a succession plan, attract, retain and compensate key executives so that both the executives and the credit union “win the financial game.”In the end, he says in the show, the credit union's members win too.“If the credit union is winning the financial game, the executive should win the financial game,” he says. “And as the result of those two, ultimately, keeping the member in the center, … the member is winning the financial game. When the organization is healthy and moving forward, the member is winning.”PARC Street Partners specializes in helping credit unions, executives and boards put in place supplemental executive retirement plans so that everyone can win the financial game together. But in the show, Jones emphasizes that SERPs are just part of the larger succession planning picture.“Succession planning is a process,” he explains. “It's not a SERP. The SERP is a tool that is used to support the process. The succession plan should stand in and of itself, on its own. … And then the question is, do we need a SERP to support that? We think often you do, but the plan should stand on its own.”The show also gets into:How SERPs play into today's recruiting processesHow having conversations about succession planning and SERPs can help clarify details about executives' retirement plans that have previously not be discussedWhat will change and what will not change for Jones' team and clients of PARC Street Partners The difference between the two main kinds of SERPs—457(f) and split-dollar plans—and examples of situations when each might work bestLinks for this show:PARC Street PartnersArticle Bruce Smith of PARC Street Partners: Turn Your Credit Union's SERP Liability Into Net Income CUES Unlimited+ member video featuring Chris Jones: A Myth Boards Hold About Supplemental Executive Retirement PlansBecome a CUES Supplier memberDownload a transcript

Hybrid, remote and in-person work gets talked about a lot these days. The conversations are often about which companies are staying remote, which are calling every employee back to the office, and which jobs can truly be done effectively from someplace other than a physical location.But a topic that's been less talked about so far is the impact of our new choices about where we work in terms of career development. And this is the topic Deedee Myers, Ph.D., delves into deeply in this episode of the CUES Podcast. Myers is the president of DDJ Myers, an ALM First Company, the CUESolutions provider for succession planning and the sponsor of CUES' Advancing Women publication.In this show, Myers emphasizes the need to both slow down and focus on people in a variety of areas related to people strategy and career development.For example, Myers says executives are exhausted from having to manage several groups of people—those who are in the office all the time, those who are in the office part of the time and those who are in the office none of the time—and not having the training to lead in this way.“It's going to take some courage and commitment for us to slow down and relearn how to ... be effective leaders” in this environment, she asserts.She cites recent research that says people who are in the office a few days a week are more likely to get promoted than people who are fully remote “because they're seen, they're there, they're in the meetings, it's easier to have conversations.” Because of this, she recommends figuring out “how to be seen on those two, three days that you're in the office, or how you can keep connecting with others in a meaningful way.”The show also gets into:What kind of person is now needed to lead the people development and talent strategy parts of what was traditionally called “HR”How to connect more effectively with young employeesWhat aspiring CEOs need to know about the impact of hybrid work on their careersLinks for this show:DDJ Myers, an ALM First CompanyRecent CUES videos featuring Deedee Myers: Considerations for Women Who Want to Be CEOHow CEOs Can Design Organizations of the Future (Unlimited+ membership required)Become a CUESolutions provider

From a past episode of the CUES Podcast, we already know that Scott Hackworth is an able data guy. In this show, he talks about the compensation data and corresponding trends that stand out in this year's CUES Executive Compensation Survey and CUES Employee Salary Survey. He also describes the suite of data analysis tools included in the CUES compensation surveys and how they may be helpful to both credit unions and their team members.“The year-over-year comparisons are still very high,” in the latest survey data, Hackworth says in the show. He is a CPA and president of Industry Insights, CUES' partner in producing the annual surveys. This year's increases are in the “high single digits, whereas in ‘21, it had been the low double digits. But we're still in that 7, 8, 9% year-over-year change—and that's on a same-sample basis. So, looking at the same groupings of companies, same employees largely, we are seeing 7, 8, 9% pay increases. That's significant."In addition to the overall upward trend, Hackworth talks about significant increases for CEOs and chief member solutions officers. Then he describes how to use the data analysis tools included in the CUES survey offerings. Listen in to get all the details.Links for this show:CUES Executive Compensation SurveyCUES Employee Salary SurveyIndustry InsightsCUES' CU Management magazine's coverage of the surveys in its October 2023 issue   

Peter Glyman finds it fun to say “yes” to a fintech integration with a Jack Henry product.Glyman is managing director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry, a CUES Supplier member and the sponsor of this episode. In the show, he talks about his fintech experience as the co-founder in 2006 of personal financial management tool Geezeo, which Jack Henry acquired in 2019 and subsequently integrated with its Banno Digital Platform.In the show, Glyman says a best practice for credit unions when it comes to fintech might be “getting involved.” This could be watching fintechs directly; starting a credit union service organization to work together with other CUs in monitoring the environment; or partnering with a larger group like Jack Henry that's vetting fintechs and choosing which to integrate into its products. Glyman also talks about application programming interfaces—or APIs—what they are, why they're important and the value of knowing a fintech has published theirs. And in addition to talking about Jack Henry-fintech integrations he thinks are particularly excellent, he also describes financial technology he's been following.“I spent a fair amount of time the last couple of years looking at blockchain and crypto for Jack Henry and how that is relevant for our credit union clients,” he says in the show. “… We're looking at wealth tech as an area of interest, allowing credit union members to be able to buy fractional shares of stocks or create portfolios. I think that's a missing piece in the member experience with their credit.”He also invited credit union leaders to reach out to him via LinkedIn about the technology they're interested in—or just to talk fintech in general. “What areas are you interested in?” he asked. “What new technologies interest you? I'd love to hear that."Links for this show:Jack HenryJack Henry's Banno Digital PlatformPeter Glyman on LinkedInThree Important Findings From Jack Henry's 2023 Strategic Priorities Benchmark StudyFour Ways Technology Can Improve Efficiency for Credit Unions and MembersCEO Institute: FinTechTranscript

In the latest episode of the CUES Podcast, Lesley Sears defines the differences between climate and culture and explains how they together create the workplace your staff members experience every day. VP/consulting for CUES, Sears then rises to the challenges of describing each of the nine elements of climate in two minutes or less. In that short span, she defines each, explains what to look for if they're healthy or unhealthy dimensions, and what to do to bring each along toward health. The nine dimensions of culture Sears highlights are: Challenge and engagement Freedom Trust and openness Idea time Playfulness and humor Conflict Idea support Debate Risk-taking Credit unions want high numbers for every dimension except conflict, Sears says.. “Debate is different than conflict,” she explains. “Debate is healthy conversation. Conflict is not healthy. So, it's the sniping. It happens when people genuinely don't like each other. There's a dislike in the climate. So again, as much as playfulness and humor ... can be a good representation of a healthy climate, conflict can often be a very good representation of a not very healthy climate.”What are some things you can do to promote low conflict at your credit union? Sears suggests identifying common goals. “Distract the attention from the conflict itself and focus on the healthy stuff,” she advises. “How are we all moving toward the same goals? How are we doing that? What dimensions around conflict can we do better at?”Listen to the full show for more about each dimension.“I love how a climate is made up,” Sears summarizes. “And I love that behavioral psychologists have really been able to bring these dimensions together. So, I'm passionate about them. I think they are truly a way of measuring who you are as a credit union.Sears advises using the results of a climate assessment to help you focus your talent development efforts. “Like we've got ‘x' number of resources,” she says. “How can we get the most that we possibly can out of those resources? And I think these dimensions help us really do that well.”Links for this show: TranscriptMore content from Lesley Sears CUES Consulting From new CUES CEO Heather McKissick, I-CUDE: Addressing Talent Challenges Requires a Holistic and Innovative Approach

According to Deedee Myers, Ph.D., in this latest episode of the CUES Podcast, more and more CEOs are looking at their organizations and asking themselves, “What does it need to be in the future?” The answer to that question, she says, has to be put in the context of unprecedented times with the hybrid remote work environment taking hold and the need for leadership skills really changing.“As humans, we need to ‘North Star' right now,” says Myers, CEO of DDJ Myers, an ALM First company, a CUESolutions provider and the sponsor of CUES' Advancing Women publication. “We need a reason to come to work. We need to come together with one voice and have a place to go. Call it a vision or North Star organizing principle, we need to know why we matter every day. That's lost right now in a lot of organizations. That's why a lot of CEOs are looking at the organization of the future. What is that compelling reason?”Myers suggests that when CEOs are designing the organization of the future, they should talk with many stakeholders about “three time zones.” That is, they should have conversations about the credit union's past, where it has been, what it has done; the credit union's present, where it is, what is working, what is not working, what has stayed the same, what is changing; and of course, the credit union's future, what it could be.Myers suggests CEOs listen to not only what board members have to say but also executives, middle-level leaders, front-line staff and trusted vendors, including fintechs.Going on such a “listening tour,” Myers emphasizes in the show, requires CEOs to look to remove their biases so they can get a fresh perspective and practice really good listening skills.“I think the CEO has to shape themselves in a way that people will want to share and go below the surface,” she says. For example, it might seem simpler to have this conversation with the whole board at once. “But when we pick up the phone and talk to each board member, we get to hear really what they care about, and what they're concerned about.”The show also gets into:How to set the ground rules to support a successful listening tourThe value of CEOs having a personal centering practice to help them listen to all feedback, even the difficult-to-hear feedbackThe value of intention and awareness in being a good listenerSpecial considerations for new CEOs and female CEOsWhat to do with the information collection on a listening tourIdentifying both low-hanging fruit leaders can address readily and deeper work the organization needs to doLinksDDJ Myers, an ALM First companyBecome a CUESolutions providerDDJ Myers sponsors Advancing WomenPodcast 73: How to Smash a CEO Interview, with guests Deedee and Peter Myers

Omar Jordan says a mantra he lives by personally and professionally is, this one from Tony Robbins: "Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited of what could go right." As founder/CEO of the credit union service organization Coviance, Des Moines, Iowa, Jordan believes that credit unions would benefit from not being afraid to take a risk to see what good could come of it—especially a calculated risk related to home equity lending, lending automation and working with fintechs. “In this industry, as you know, … we're good at managing risk,” Jordan says in the show. “And that's primarily what I hear. ‘We manage risk, we manage risk.' And to that I say, … 'Everything is scary until it's not.' And so, it's okay to take risks every now and then as long as we're not putting one out of business. Let's … continue along the path of innovation.” In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Jordan talks about trends in the HELOC market. “We've been actually predicting home equity lending demand to rise, and our predictions became reality,” he says. “We're seeing industry headwinds such as high interest rates, home values being on the rise [and] lack of demand for refinance and purchase mortgage turn into opportunity or tailwinds for credit unions, and especially credit unions who are looking to expand on their TAM, their total addressable market and their member share of wallet.” In addition to describing Coviance's lending automation offering and its potential to bring a credit union a return on its investment, Jordan also offers his thoughts about partnering with fintechs that will enhance your core business versus compete with it. “There are competing fintechs, and they … are going after our credit union members—and not just on the lending side but nearly every product that credit union offers,” he says in the show. "And there are fintechs, such as Coviance, [that] … are primarily focused on providing credit unions the technology solutions, the product … they need ... to lend at ... the speed of today's borrower—because your members' expectations today aren't what your members' expectations were five years ago.” The show also gets into: the difference between lending automation tools and loan origination systems—and how credit unions can benefit from having both.  what the Coviance system offers Jordan's big-picture thoughts about how credit unions can best partner with fintechs ideas worth considering regarding digital transformation, digital optimization and innovation. Links for this show: Coviance Transcript 

In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Lesley Sears says she loves the commercial in which “Polly Pratz wore many hats.” While the commercial is for an online university, Sears loves the many hats idea as it relates to having an organization-wide skills taxonomy—a system for deeply understanding the skills of each employee and the organization overall. Having a skills taxonomy can help an organization not just think about their people within the boundaries of their position or role (such as teller or chief marketer) but rather think broadly about what they can or could do—their current and developable skills (such as accuracy or setting marketing strategy), explains Sears, , CUES' VP/consulting services who heads up CUES Consulting.In the commercial, the female protagonist “has on a firefighter's hat and the coach's hat and … all of these different things that she has done in the past,” Sears says. “The skills taxonomy really begins to identify that for the organization, … so people really understand who their workforce is and what they're bringing to the table on any given day.”In the show, Sears says a skills taxonomy is like a biological taxonomy that classifies plants or animals into kingdom, phylum, class and so on. The difference, of course, is that a skills taxonomy organizes people's skills.Having an organizational skills taxonomy opens the door to being better able to address skills gaps both in the organization overall and in individual employees; understand the skills big picture when hiring new team members (e.g., what additional skills would we like in the new loan officer to fill out our organizational taxonomy?); and knowing how to build better cross-departmental teams, Sears explains. Skills-based talent strategy built on a skills taxonomy can help streamline people processes, saving both time and money.“So, you, the CEO, the CFO, … everybody within the credit union, understands what the objectives are, … the mission, the vision, … the objectives and anything that the people strategy can do to make that work better, or … make your resources go further,” she says. “You've got a team of people that want to move toward that objective.” In other words, focusing on skills helps to align the organization and move it toward its overall goals.Sears acknowledges that developing a skills taxonomy might seem overwhelming at first. But fortunately, talent development research has illuminated a set of common skills that your organization might have—or might want to have. So, it's just a matter of finding out. And again, research has helped refine effective ways to dig in and find out, Sears says.Links for this show:TranscriptCUES ConsultingMore content from Sears, including her monthly Purposeful Talent Development blogs TalentNEXT, for HR, talent and people execs

A decade before CUES member Dana DeFilippis, CCE, became CEO of Merck, Sharp & Dohme Federal Credit Union in Chalfont, Pennsylvania, she decided she wanted the job.Coming to credit unions from public accounting, DeFilippis prepared for the CEO role by adding leadership of the IT department to her duties as VP/finance of the $825 million institution, excelling at opportunities her CEO gave her to present to the board, attending CUES' CEO Institute and earning her certified chief executive designation, and getting to know every part of the organization.Now CEO for two years, DeFilippis has leveraged the knowledge she gathered to help her use technology and teamwork to promote staff innovation and better serve members.“So, our ultimate goal is that we free up our employees' time (from) doing mundane things, so that they can be more innovative; they can think about how things are being done and how do we, you know, continue to improve our processes, improve our products and services that we're offering to our men members,” DeFilippis explains, noting that automating month-end close by implementing SkyStem's ART month-end close system was one way that's been done. “So yes, the ultimate goal is because we're … pretty lean … to be able to really free up people's time so that they can be more innovative and think about ways to be more productive."CUES thanks SkyStem for sponsoring this show and for being a CUES Supplier member at the supporting level.The episode also gets into DeFilippis' advice for aspiring CEOs, including strategies for learning; the benefits she got from attending CUES' CEO Institute; her deep-seated belief in teams with representation from across the organization; Merck, Sharp and Dohme FCU's recent mobile banking implementation; and inspiration for taking on new challenges.Links for this show: Merck, Sharp & Dohme Federal Credit UnionSkyStem and ART, its month-end close systemCUES' CEO InstituteFive Signs It's Time for Your Credit Union to Automate Month-End CloseWhy Every Credit Union Should Value and Optimize Flux AnalysisPodcast: Easing the Pain of Month-End CloseTranscript

Tyler Leet takes credit union cybersecurity very seriously. For him, it's not just a job. It's a duty.“We have an obligation,” says Leet, director of risk and compliance services for the regulatory compliance group at CSI, Paducah, Kentucky, the sponsor of the latest episode of the CUES Podcast. “Businesses have an obligation, credit unions have an obligation to keep their members secure, their data secure, their money secure.”In this show, Leet shares his 20 years of experience in information security, risk and compliance by describing best practices in “going on offense” to defend your credit union and the data it generates against hackers. These best practices include knowing:The key differences between “vulnerability assessments” and “penetration testing” as well as between “compliance” and “security” The value of assessments and tests—and how to put each in contextHow to build a well-balanced cybersecurity programLeet urges credit unions to not be afraid of the results they might get from doing vulnerability assessments and penetration tests—even though it might be disappointing to find holes in your defenses against cyberattacks.“It's a learning exercise,” he explains. “I mean you're looking to improve. It's not about just making the document to make examiners happy. It's: ‘What are we figuring out along the way? What insights are we gaining into our organization?'”Leet also reminds every listener that they contribute to overall organizational security, even if they're not in IT:“You are an end user, whether you're a teller or a loan officer or an executive,” he says. “You have access to systems, and you are a potential target. You are a potential avenue into that network and can make a mistake that could cost your organization. So, while you're not expected to be a security expert, you can learn basics about good security hygiene and to avoid being one of the reasons your organization gets compromised.”Links for this show:CSIMore great content on cybersecurity from CU Management magazineTranscript

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations are central to the corporate social responsibility program for $8 billion United Nations Federal Credit Union, New York.These goals such things as living wages, clean water, ending poverty and empowering women and girls, explains Yma Gordon in this episode of the CUES Podcast. Gordon is VP/Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact for UNFCU and the Executive Director of the UNFCU Foundation. “Credit unions are known to have purpose,” Gordon says. “And so for us, it's about really living that value to put people, planet and prosperity ahead of profit.”Gordon makes an important distinction between “CSR” and another common buzzword, “ESG”—or environmental, social, governance. To Gordon, CSR has to do with the work of delivering on the mission of its members—employees of the United Nations—to leave the world a better place. So that includes “our collective action, our policy, our investments,” work done both internally and externally.“Corporate social responsibility is an extension for us of our mission to serve the people who serve the world, and that we first of all hold up sustainability, for example, as a value,” she explains. “And so for us, that means really conducting business as a good corporate citizen. That's important to us.”In contrast, Gordon says, ESG is more about measuring the work of CSR. “It is how we see that our stakeholders can understand, rate and score our risk and value of the work … that we're doing in terms of CSR,” she says. “Increasing in our ESG journey makes total sense in terms of the (overall) journey that we're on.”The show also gets into:the history of UNFCU's CSR programthe work of the UNFCU Foundationhow the United in Sustainability Network supports other credit unions in their effortsUNFCU's sustainability-minded product offeringswhat's next for UNFCU's CSR workLinks for this show:TranscriptUnited Nations Sustainable Development GoalsUN Global Compact Action Manager (free assessment tool)United in Sustainability NetworkUnited in Sustainability SummitGet added to the United in Sustainability email list or ask a question about UIS United in Sustainability on LinkedInABCs of ESG whitepaper

In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Alex Johnson underscores the idea that knowledge is power when it comes to credit unions' success in understanding and making decisions about fintech. The creator and author of the Fintech Takes newsletter, Johnson describes ways credit union leaders can track trends in fintech and even recommends several of his favorite fintech resources. In the show, Johnson also emphasizes the importance of credit unions staying strategic as they contemplate fintech and how to engage with it.“I think when you're trying to decide … what's hyped or overhyped or maybe not hyped up enough, … it needs to be done through the lens of … who are members or customers and what problems are we trying to solve for them? And how does this technology contribute to that goal?” he says.“We don't have unlimited resources to throw at this stuff,” he adds. “We don't have an unlimitedly large technology staff or sometimes any technology staff at all. We don't have a huge budget for this stuff. And so you do have to pick your spots very carefully."In the show, Johnson uses P2P, digital account opening and chatbots like ChatGPT as examples of technology that might be super interesting to credit union leaders. And yet, he says, sorting out where to spend your time in fintech must be driven more by member needs than by a keen interest in any particular technology or a desire to keep up with a competitor.“If you ever find yourself making a decision around technology or fintech that is in any way motivated by a feeling of, ‘We're missing out, oh, it's embarrassing that we don't have this and our peers do,' that's just a terrible motivation,” he says in the show. “And I would try almost to sort of train your brain to recognize that motivation because it's very natural, and it creeps in that drives all of our decision-making all the time. But to the degree you can identify and sort of stamp out that motivation when making these decisions, I think that'll help in focusing on the things that really are strategically the most important.”The show also gets intoFintech trends Johnson recommends credit unions follow most closelyThe value of looking to solve members problems in “financial services-adjacent” spacesWhether credit unions should be partnering with fintech companiesLinks for this showTranscriptFintech Takes by Alex JohnsonWhat 4 Wildly Optimistic Visions of P2P Tell Us About the Future of Moving MoneyCUESolutions provider Cornerstone Advisors‘ report, “What's Going on in Banking?”Andreeson Horowitz fintech newsletterFintech Business Weekly podcast by Jason MikulaThis Week in Fintech newsletterCEO Institute: Fintech, prework due March 21, in-person event April 17-20 in New YorkCEO Dialogue, a place to get perspective on financial service-adjacent spaces

This episode of the CUES Podcast covers the key connection between skilled and authentic leadership and management and organizational and employee well-being. “This is really what we need to focus on ... as leaders and as organizations,” says guest Laurie Maddalena, MBA, CSP, CPCC, CEO of Envision Excellence. “How do we support the well-being of our cultures and create cultures that cultivate well-being and also well-being for our employees in their personal lives? In the show, Maddalena offers these concrete steps to take: Audit your culture. Is what's in practice what you say it should be? Assess the quality of the work of your leaders and managers. Are they modeling the behaviors you want to be part of your culture? (eg, Are they constantly connected?)  Know your business model. This will help you determine which ways you can offer flexible work and to which employees. Root out such traditional and unhealthy leadership practices. Micromanaging, not giving feedback, reprimanding rather than coaching, and not investing in an employee's growth may have worked 30 years ago, but they don't anymore, Maddalena says. Stop promoting people into managerial and leadership roles based on excellent technical skills and/or tenure. Also, prepare potential managers and leaders for managing and leading long before you promote them into such a role.Maddalena says making sure the right people are managing and leading “is a place that executives and CEOs can really shift your culture.”  “It doesn't happen overnight, obviously, and it's really a slow shift, but (you) can accelerate it if you make sure that you're evaluating your management quality,” Maddalena explains. “That is the biggest piece in my mind of creating a great culture, keeping your employees engaged, keeping your talent and creating this sense of well-being. “And all of these challenges and the complexities that come with leadership will become easier because you have people in place who ... really understand it at the fundamental level of why this is important,” she adds. The show also gets into: how to know which of your team members can develop into good leaders and managers whether leadership and management ability is innate or whether it can be taught The constant evolution of leadership Links for this episode:Laurie Maddalena has hosted CUES' RealTalk! Programs Maddalena and her team have provided coaching for the CUES Emerge program Get Maddalena's Beware of Compare Reframing Tool  (free with registration)Find Maddalena on LinkedIn In the episode, Maddalena recommended all of Ryan Holiday's books, especially Courage Is Calling: Fortune Favors the Brave and Discipline Is Destiny  Check out a related CUES video: Level-Setting Expectations for Yourself and Others 

Bruce Bauer understands how credit unions sometimes push establishing a charitable donation account down on their list of priorities. But Bauer, an executive benefits specialist with CUESolutions provider Cuna Mutual Group, rather wishes they wouldn't. In this episode, Bauer explains that credit unions that have charitable donation accounts can get additional revenue from the same budget line item for their philanthropy. That's because CDAs allow them more investment flexibility (and potentially more return) both on the dollars they plan to donate plus a specific amount of additional funds.In the show, Bauer details the rules and regulations the National Credit Union Administration has in place to govern credit unions' use of CDAs. He also talks about some cool successes in charitable giving that have been facilitated by the use of one of these accounts. In all, Bauer thinks using a charitable donation account is something every credit union should at least consider, as it can set them up for a triple win—to “help charities in their communities, help the credit union brand and help credit unions dominate the community banking space.” Links for this episode: TranscriptHow to Make Charitable Donation Dollars Work Harder by Cuna Mutual Group Charitable donation accounts through Cuna Mutual Group CUES Symposium 

CUES member Jeff Disterhoft became passionate about advancing diversity, equity and inclusion after his son took a class about race at the University of Iowa and started asking his dad questions about DEI.“A few things became clear over the course of the semester,” Disterhoft says in the show. “One, I didn't have it all figured out in terms of the systemic oppression of people of color in our country for hundreds of years. Two, I had a lot of unconscious biases that had not been properly addressed. And three, I could do more as an individual, and I felt like GreenState could do more as an organization.”DIsterhoft is president/CEO of $11 billion GreenState Credit Union, North Liberty, Iowa, the recipient of CUES' 2022 DEI: Catalyst for Change Award.With its CEO and board both passionate about DEI, GreenState CU launched last year a 10-year initiative to help close Iowa's racial homeownership gap, which ranks sixth largest in the nation. The goal is to fund more than a billion dollars in mortgage loans to people of color in the communities GreenState CU serves. The CU also has committed 10% of its assets over the next decade to support home lending to people of color in the state of Iowa.“To date, we're about $275 million in not quite the first two years and so we're in a good spot today,” Disterhoft says. “But I don't want to just rest on those laurels. We're actually encouraging other credit unions, at least right now anyway, in the state of Iowa, to join us in that effort."GreenState CU established its emergent bilingual strategy back in 2020. The goal at that time was to address financial disparities and earn the trust of bilingual communities.“Taking better care of the Latino community is, I think one of those rare intersections where doing right also intersects with doing with good business,” Disterhoft says. “In other words, it's, it's right for those communities that may have been historically marginalized. But those are also growing communities, and so that's good for our business.”Listen to the episode for the full story about why Disterhoft is passionate about DEI, plus more details of his credit union's programs and his advice for other credit unions on their DEI journeys.Links for this episode:TranscriptCUES awardsDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion Cornell Certificate ProgramDEI content on CUmanagement.comCUES DEI Resource Center

If you're building a team, you want players who are humble, hungry and people-smart. Zachary Churchill says this is not his idea—it's from Patrick Lencioni, founder of The Table Group—but Churchill seems not only to espouse it but embody it. The winner of the 2022 CUES Emerge competition, Churchill is not afraid to say he previously entered the competition in 2013 and didn't advance. So that's pretty humble.“For me, ego is the obstacle to personal progress,” says Churchill, CUDE, CMA, CFE, CCM, in the show. “I tend to think my way is good enough, so why change? But the truth is, we're not going to change unless we want something bad enough or the pain of doing things the way it is now, that status quo, hurts enough. ... I desperately wanted to do a great job in this year's competition. And that meant I had to let go of my ego ... and just do things the way that the experts advised me.”Churchill is hungry, too, interested in learning and growing—to the point where he would like to become a credit union CEO one day. He's already been sharing everything he learns about leadership with other leaders and staffers at his credit union. As for people smart? There are lots of examples of this in the show, including how Churchill showed how his business case about building an analytics team was really all about people.“A key learning that I took away from the CUES Emerge program came from one of our speakers who said, ‘Humans are wired for story,'” he says. “... as someone on the finance side of the business, I just figured that data and facts will win the day. ... But that just isn't how we're hardwired as a species. And so, if telling stories matters, then we need to find the story. ... And so, I really had to think about, ‘How could I translate this sort of abstract concept into something concrete?'“I'm like, ‘How do I bring this alive?' ... And then finally, I stumbled across the example of our member, Mrs. Rose ... the idea of her situation and how we could help her ... What is more powerful, if I said, ‘There's strong financial and member benefits to implementing my proposal,' or ‘We can transform the lives of our members through data? Let me tell you about Mrs. Rose'?”Churchill gets into lots of other great topics in this episode, including his experience with the CUES Emerge program; a sketch of his CUES Emerge business case; advice for writing a solid business case and building a winning online presentation; ideas on how to be more receptive to feedback.He also offers advice for up-and-coming credit union leaders.“I'd say step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. ... The great things in life, they just don't come easy. And you don't know how much potential you have until you test yourself and see what are you capable of. What are your limits? So, give things a shot, try and get involved.”Links for this show: CUESolutions provider Strategic Resource Management (SRM), show sponsor CUES Emerge program: finalists, pitches and moreCUES Virtual Classroom, free to members Churchill's prize is an educational package that includes registration to CUES Advanced Management Program 

Episode 137 of the CUES Podcast tells a story of CEO succession that includes two leaders splitting the president and CEO roles for about six months;  doing additional planning for the expected retirements of the longtime CFO and CIO; consideration of several merger options; and a merger. This is the story of Charlotte Metro Credit Union, which just as we were about to publish this episode announced its new name will be Skyla Credit Union. Our guests for this episode are CUES member Bob Bruns, retiring president/CEO, and Eric Gelly, incoming president/CEO for the $1 billion institution in North Carolina.“It was quite a learning experience for our board to be very open-minded about what the options were,” in terms of choosing a new CEO and leadership team through either a recruitment process or a merger, Bruns says in the show. In the end, the board decided to hire Gelly and merge with a credit union of similar size, Premier Federal Credit Union, Greensboro, North Carolina. Gelly describes the handoff from Bruns as very well done. “I've compared it before to it's almost like he had a dimmer switch,” Gelly says. “And he was making the light brighter on me and reducing the light on him and doing it in such a well-orchestrated way that I didn't really notice until we got through the process that he had handed everything essentially over to me.” Gelly talks in the show about how all these big changes were communicated to staff in a way that helped secure their buy-in. “We drove home what we were trying to build with, we call it, the new credit union,” he explains. “And the whys of bringing our two very healthy and strong, thriving credit unions together. And what we would have with that achieved scale. "The staff really bought into what we were building and the rationale for why we were doing," he adds. "Both shops, being in that 300 million to 500 million size, know the frustrations of that no-man's land. So, the concept of being larger, more robust, eliminating some redundant expenses, and in turn, just … serving our members to the best way that we possibly can. “They bought into it, and they believed in it,” he says. "And they're very excited about the credit union that we've put together.” The show also gets into: The impact the pandemic had on this transition Why and how having co-leaders worked so well in this transition How leaders can leave a legacy by facilitating succession planning The economy of scale that can be gained from merging The value of open-mindedness about big decisions as part of the learning process  The value of dialog among leaders, such as at CUES Symposium Links for this show: TranscriptCUES Symposium Our commercial sponsor CSI Podcast 130: Mergers Have ‘Roots and Wings' Podcast 117: Merge for the Right Reasons 

Sponsored by SkyStemClosing the books at the end of the month can be a lot of work. Doing it month after month can be grueling. And when the organization is growing and adding new technology, well, that can just make an already tough job that much more difficult, says our guest in this episode of the CUES Podcast.Jennifer Stein, CPA, CGMA, is senior project manager for SkyStem, a CUES Supplier member based in New York City and the sponsor of this show. A former corporate controller, Stein has been through the ups and downs of the month-end close many times, and that experience has driven her passion for making the process easier for accounting teams.Her top tip? Standardize the process. This is especially helpful during this era of turnover caused by the Great Resignation, she says.“By standardizing your processes and your reconciliation templates, for example, you're helping new people learn the exact same way that other people are doing things,” she says in the show. “So, by having standardization in process and templates or forms, not only are you … teaching these people the best way to do what you're doing, but also helping on the flip side, the reviewer who's reviewing these things, because they're used to the same format. If you were to give three new employees three different blank spreadsheets and say here, go reconcile … prepaid insurance, you're going to get three different-looking reconciliations back. So, it helps on both sides.”In the show, Stein also talks about the importance of leaders setting the pathway then designing and fine-tuning the process and aligning technology that can assist.What does Stein think the future looks like for accounting professionals? Her answer is about digitization and digital skills. She recommends accountants be willing to grow their skill set in the digital area, how it “can complement and amplify what you're already doing.”“It just goes beyond debits and credits,” she says. “It's about being able to maximize and leverage what you have to make your job easier and less stressful.”Links for this show:CUES Supplier member SkyStemCUES Supplier Member DirectoryAccounting Teams: Effectively Handle the Growing Demands of Month-End Close by Ally MasonSkyStem's Month-End Close Solution: ARTSkyStem CPE webinars  (free with registration)

Got grit? According to the guest in this episode of the CUES Podcast, getting grit is about having passion and perseverance in pursuit of long-term goals. It's about going outside of your comfort zone and taking risks to live your best life. As a bonus, the process of getting grit will likely inspire other people to want to behave that way as well. “Grit is really defined also by the fact that these are your goals, your unique goals that you want to accomplish,” explains Caroline Adams Miller, author of the books Getting Grit and Creating Your Best Life. “And why is that? Because it's this passion, this inner passion that keeps you going when the going gets tough. And if it's someone else's goal, you're not going to have that. So it has to be your why not someone else's why. “People have what I call authentic grit simply by virtue of how they live and how they do hard things,” continues Miller, who will present a keynote about grit at Directors Conference, slated for Dec. 4-7 in Las Vegas. On the other hand, it's a good idea to try to avoid having what Miller dubs “stupid” grit. “Stupid grit is marked by arrogance and a lack of humility,” Miller explains in the show. “Stupid grit is when conditions have changed and you refuse to take in information or data from the environment or other people that would caution you to change course or think a little bit differently about how to behave.” Fortunately, authentic grit is contagious. Miller tells in the show about how West Point roomed cadets with somewhat lower grit scores with cadets with higher grit scores. Over time, the overall grit scores went up. It's a great idea to embed people with the qualities of authentic grit “into your organization, on your team, in your school environment, in your family because we know that simply observing and being around it .. has that effect of elevating and uplifting other people's behaviors,” she says. The show also gets into: Selfie grit and faux grit The dangers of having raised a “self-esteem” generation Who does not need to develop more grit Links for this show:Directors Conference Books by Caroline Adams Miller, including Getting Grit More content from Directors Conference speakersVideo: Five Things Boards Need to Know About Data Governance If You're Not Thinking About Next-Generation Board Leadership, You Should Be 

James Hunter, CCM, not only has deep knowledge of credit union lending best practices but also a passion for diversity, equity and inclusion. In fact, Hunter says in this episode of the CUES podcast that he strives to put the two together every day—to be an “equity injector” that helps all members of his credit union be more able to live their best financial lives.“I want to be the equity injector,” Hunter says in the show. “I want to find ways that we can creatively come up with the resources and tools to help individuals get what they need so they can stop worrying, but also have peace of mind and live their best financial life.”A CUES member, the CUES Emerge runner-up in 2020, and a CUES Emerge mastermind in 2021 and this year, Hunter is chief diversity officer for $243 million New Orleans Firemen's Federal Credit Union. He comes to that role having previously served as a credit union chief lending officer and a senior vice president of mortgage lending, as well as a board member for Inclusiv.In the show, Hunter talks about the importance of listening to members as a way to learn how best to serve them.“We talk to people at different grassroots organizations,” he says of his work at New Orleans Fireman's FCU, and ask key and sometimes difficult questions, such as, “What's hindering you? What is this impeding you from being your best financial person, your best financial future?”Even though these can be uncomfortable conversations, Hunter says, “We ask the questions readily, and we listen for the common ground, the common themes resonate from that. We go into religious organizations, and we ask questions about … what the members want. We take every opportunity we can to find out what it is that makes a person tick. If we understand what they value, if we understand what motivates them, we understand what they are trying to achieve, we can help because we listen.“You know, diversity is the one thing that we all share,” Hunter says. “We need to celebrate it.”The show also gets into:Hunter's experiences both as a participant in and a mastermind for the CUES Emerge programProducts and services offered by New Orleans Fireman's Federal Credit Union in response to diverse member needsHow credit unions can get started with looking at member service through a DEI lens—whether or not they have community development financial institution status or a low-income credit union designationHow to connect with diverse members through community groups and nonprofit organizations in your marketHunter's advice about how to start a DEI team at your credit unionLinks for this show Hunter's CUES Emerge presentation recording and slidesTranscript of this showDiversity Insight: Addressing Racial Bias in the Home Appraisal IndustryDiversity Insight: 3 Financial Challenges LGBTQ+ Community Members FaceSecondary Capital Helps Boost Financial Well-Being for Credit Union Members, Communities       

Sponsored by FiservWant to compete better with fintechs? Reduce friction. Want to make more loans? Reduce friction? Want to become more appealing to young people? Reduce friction.The opportunity that lies in reducing friction across the credit union is a key theme in this episode of the CUES Podcast. Our guest is Bill Handel, general manager and chief economist at Raddon, a Fiserv company. Fiserv, based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, is a CUES supplier member and the sponsor of the show. “How do we build that relevancy within those younger generations?” he asks. “It's not just mortgages. It's everything.“We have this historical mantra of 'Do business on my time, in my place and with my processes,'” he explains. “The older generation says, ‘Okay, the bank hours are here, and the bank locations are here, or credit union locations are here, and (I) have to go through these steps to get this process done. (The) younger generation says ‘no,' and they want to do it differently. … And that's the thing that the credit unions need to spend more time on is how do we reduce friction?”In the show, Handel lends his expertise in analytics and the economy to identify some specific areas in which credit unions might benefit most from reducing friction. The first is the purchase mortgage market. Another is home equity lines of credit, including hybrid HELOCs, which give consumers more choices about how they borrow.Buy now, pay later is a great illustration of this notion of reducing friction, Handel adds. “… Merchants are willing to fund to BNPL because it makes people more likely to buy today as opposed to tomorrow, right? In some ways, it's very akin to indirect lending in the sense that if you create that incentive and put that incentive in front of the consumer, then they might buy it today as opposed to walking out and then maybe coming back tomorrow to buy. That's what indirect lending does. “I would argue that the hybrid lending, the hybrid HELOC, can potentially serve that same process here on the consumer lending side because what it does is it helps you to eliminate friction,” he explains. “The idea is that if you've got a home equity line of credit, which is essentially your way to buy everything, and then you can carve off pieces of that and treat them like that fixed-rate loan.“This is not a new product, but it really has never taken off in significant ways,” he adds. “We do think that there's more opportunity in that space.”The show also gets into the impact of the pandemic and the long tail of COVID, including:How Main Street has sufferedGrowth in the nonresidential real estate marketThe impact of hybrid workThe Great RetirementMobile deposit acceptanceBranch network optimizationLinks for this show:FiservCUES Supplier membershipMore recent content by FiservHow Future-Ready Technology Helps Credit Unions Pivot in a Changing MarketManaging the Risk of Real-Time Fraud in Real-Time PaymentsThe Strategic Cryptocurrency Opportunity for Credit Unions

When considering a core conversion, Tami Webb, who is VP/sales for CUES Supplier member United Solutions Company, Tallahassee, Florida, suggests first asking: Why do we want to change? What's the objective? What's driving all this work? Webb is our guest for this episode of the CUES Podcast. She has helped about 30 credit unions convert to a hosted core or remote data processing system. At USC, Webb works with clients to convert and use XP2 or DataSafe. She also has experience working with other Fiserv core solutions as well as Jack Henry's Symitar Episys and Ease solutions. No matter what core system you are converting to, the first step is building the right conversion team, she says, starting with the project lead who will serve as the liaison between the internal team and the vendor. In addition to the project lead, the core conversion team should include an IT lead and subject matter experts for each area of the credit union. Take care to select the right SMEs for this project, someone who can rally their coworkers to be excited about the change. “I call them like a cheerleader, or the go-getter person,” says Webb. They are frequently someone who “doesn't mind change and that wants to be in that leader role. [They] can help encourage the team and get them to be excited about what's going to be happening.” When deciding on the project lead, someone who knows the system intimately will be better able to guide the team and stay organized, says Webb, as long as they have the full confidence and support of the top leadership team. “I truly believe by building the right conversion team and being prepared and working closely with a new core provider, credit unions can't help but have a successful conversion,” she says.Links for this show:TranscriptUnited Solutions Company

When G&F Financial and Aldergrove Credit Union merged, they started with a cultural assessment to see if the combination was a right fit. And they followed up with “roots and wings” sessions designed to honor the history of both credit unions and to create alignment around their joint future.“We did some reads to see exactly where individual employees were at, what were their values, what was important to them, and try to align what they liked about their previous organizations and what they hoped for the new organization,” explains CUES member Bill Kiss, CCD, co-CEO of G&F Financial, a $5 billion credit union in Burnaby, British Columbia, and a guest on the show. “So that was a fascinating exercise to go through. And after the merger, we went into ‘roots and wings' sessions. So those were, from the root side, you're honoring your past. You're recognizing the great things where you've come from, and all of the accomplishments of the organization. And then the wing side is the future about where you can go, what you can benefit from doing together.”This process aligns with the professional mantra of CUES member Jeff Shewfelt, CCD, co-CEO of G&F Financial, who says in the show that his organization strives to do things for and with people, not to them.The show gets into more depth about how G&F Financial and Aldergrove determined a merger would be a good thing for the members of both organizations, insight into how to handle the “merger” of two boards and how the 2021 flooding in British Columbia gave the continuing credit union, G&F Financial, an opportunity to show it really does take care of its members and its communities.Tune in and you'll also get to hear Shewfelt discuss the four lenses through which he views every merger and Kiss talk about how consumer needs are speeding up in ways that impact credit union member service. Links for this show:TranscriptCanadian CUs Think Big About CollaborationPodcast: Merge for the Right ReasonsMergers Shouldn't Be Your Organization's Primary Tool for GrowthSix Steps for Evaluating Merger Opportunities Early On

During this episode of the CUES Podcast, Matthew Bidwell, Ph.D., talks about the employee engagement at NASA leading up to the lunar landing. If you asked an employee who was sweeping the floor what they were doing, they would have said, “I'm putting a man on the moon,” notes Bidwell, associate professor of management at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and a speaker at TalentNEXT in May in Austin, Texas. Sharing the vision and how each job played into larger organizational achievement was clearly successful at NASA during that time. And it can be a useful tool to leaders working to boost or sustain employee engagement today. During the episode, Bidwell talks not only about what employee engagement is, but also some do's and don'ts for creating and sustaining it. He also talks about the importance of keeping people at the forefront of business efforts. “If we're going to be very process-centric, how do we engage people in actually creating these processes rather than having them as something alien that comes from outside that's imposed on people?” he says in the show.  Some organizations say, “We'll make the most profit by driving our payroll costs down the furthest in terms of how we schedule people, in terms of how much we pay them, and so on” while other organizations say, “We're going to pay more, and we're going to expect more of our people in return,” Bidwell explains. “I tend to think that latter strategy tends to drive much higher engagement.” Bidwell also shares insights into how leaders can impact their teams' engagement, as well as what they can do to boost their own engagement.  Listen to the show for more on: The PERMA acronym for factors affecting employee engagement Do's and don'ts of employee engagement How “job crafting” may help leaders when they apply it to their own work, but be detrimental if leaders apply it to the work of the people they supervise Links for this show: Transcript of the audioTalentNEXT, a gathering for teams of credit union talent strategy leaders in May in Austin, Texas CEO Institute I: Strategic Planning is held at Wharton, University of Pennsylvania CUES Consulting for talent development solutions including improving organizational alignment, fostering stronger leadership and creating more cohesive teams 

“Learn and earn” has proven to be a great strategy for getting the attention of Gen Z, according to Bolun Li, CEO of the financial education app Zogo. In this episode, Li describes the incredible growth his company has seen from creating hundreds of bite-sized financial education modules, getting them out to Gen Z on an app for their phones, and then rewarding them with pineapple points that are redeemable for gift cards and donations to charity.According to Li, this “learn and earn” strategy has taken Zogo from launch to half a million users in just two years. In this latest episode of the CUES Podcast, Li describes the company's growth and how credit unions can get Zogo in the works for their members He also gives some very practical advice about how to better understand Gen Z—and how to reach them.A member of Gen Z himself, Li suggests that working with parents to become their children's first financial institution is a great way in. He also recommends becoming active on college campuses.The show also gets into:How Li and Zogo define “Gen Z” and the characteristics of members of this generationLi's belief that credit unions and Gen Z can "grow together"How cryptocurrency is Zogo's newest “reward” and Gen Z's response to thatThe most popular bite-sized learning modules in the appLinks for this show:ZogoPodcast 110 with Bolun Li: Personal Finance App's ‘Pineapple Points' Connect Credit Unions to Gen ZHere's How to Bring Gen Z Into the Credit Union MovementThree Actionable Ideas From Gen Zers on How to Reach Their Peers

In the latest episode of the CUES Podcast, Kimberly Wright says she feels like she has made it past the proverbial glass ceiling that's long been a metaphor for a system that holds women back from rising to top leadership roles.Senior vice president and executive director of the American Heart Association in Atlanta, Wright says, “I feel like I have busted through the glass ceiling in my current position. And I will say that I have opened it up for others.”But all is not rosy.“Now, whether or not they patch up the ceiling again afterwards? I don't know. They might,” Wright adds. “They may not like my style of kicking through or busting through the glass ceiling. But I think I have. Hopefully, it stays open.”Wright and a second guest on the show, Andrea Brown, share the stories of how they have become top Black female leaders and what helped them along the way. Brown is executive director of the Black Mental Health Alliance for Education and Consultation in Baltimore.Both women say that while they have arrived, the playing field at the top is far from level.“Whether that's on our boards, whether that's in our board rooms, whether that's in our cubicles, some of what we see (is unfair), and so no, the playing field has not been leveled,” Brown says. Plus, Black women face racism as well as sexism, Wright and Brown point out. Both say they have to be two or three times as good as their white male counterparts.Brown and Wright also say the time is now to take action to keep opportunities open for female leaders of color and to work on leveling the playing field. Their suggestions include having a think tank to make recommendations and setting up great coaching programs.“We've got to move with intentionality, and we've got to be quick,” Brown says.The two say things have improved for Black female leaders who aspire to top roles, but still have a way eye on the situation.“I just hope that I don't end up being the token and this isn't a fad or a phase,” Wright says.Links for this show:Black Girls LeadBuilding Bold, Effective Black Leadership at PSCUSimply Increasing Staff Diversity Doesn't Equal More Top Black LeadersWhen You're the ‘First' or the ‘Only' at the Leadership Table

Marvin York was watching videos with his granddaughter when a clip came on of graduation ceremonies at historically Black colleges and universities. “And I saw all of these professionals getting ready to launch,” says York, VP, contact center member engagement for CUESolutions provider PSCU, a credit union service organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The video York and his granddaughter watched showed Black engineers, doctors, lawyers and others celebrating the completion of their degrees and getting ready to enter the world of work. “And I said, ‘Wow, that is impressive,” York recalls. “And what struck me was in this industry..., it was always told to me we just cannot find people of color to be in these leadership roles, in these key positions. And I'm watching this video and I said, ‘We got to do better.'”  From this experience, PSCU Bold, Effective Leadership, a CUES Strategic Leadership Development Program, was born. In this episode of the CUES Podcast, York describes how the program went from idea to action, the experience of the 12 participants and the impact it has had. York says in the show that the PSCU-CUES partnership worked well because CUES was listening to PSCU participants' needs with an aim for meeting them. He notes that the eCornell and Harvard ManageMentor courses that were part of the program were exceptional, as were the opportunities afforded to program participants to interact with top PSCU leadership. “You got employees that want to shine. They want to help. They want to be a part of the difference, to actually broaden their horizon, their education, their knowledge and grow,” York says in the show. “And if they can do that, then guess what? The company grows. “And having that mindset of ‘I can help the company and the company helps me grow,' … it's a win-win. It's amazing.” Links for this show: PSCU CUES Consulting CUESolutionsTranscript

CUES member Steve Bugg is very clear that the diversity, equity and inclusion journey that his credit union is on makes his organization stand out in the competitive financial services market and for talent as well. “We know today everybody says they deliver great number service or customer service, have to have competitive products or services, and have to have a great technology plan,” says Bugg, president/CEO of $1 billion Great Lakes Credit Union in Illinois, which was recently named the first-ever CUES DEI: Catalyst for Change Award winner. “But if everybody else can say the same thing, and a lot of institutions that we compete against ... can outspend us, what's the one thing that makes us unique and different? This is what it is: It's our initiatives and our efforts under DEI.“We all know there's a war for talent right now as well,” Bugg adds in this episode of the CUES Podcast. “And where we sit in the suburbs of Chicago … our employees can look at ... other financial institutions or other companies. … So we've got to tie what we do into a cause. … And if we can then appeal to those that are out there looking for opportunities ... and can see the greater good, they're going to be more loyal employees, because they have that in their heart.”While the formal business reasons for embarking on a DEI journey are clear, Bugg says it's actually the DEI lens' positive impact on his CU's members and communities that most motivates him. “So certainly we've helped a lot of individuals and small businesses throughout GLCUs field of membership gain access to additional products and services, education, and in some cases, even basic resources through COVID," he says in the show. "We really helped with the three most vulnerable needs that we were seeing our community, which were housing relief, food relief, and then also support of minority-owned businesses. “And an initiative that percolated out of that was an opportunity to work on an incubator project ...  We were the only financial institution that came to the table ... to help in this incubator project. ... Now those business owners are up and running. … Even though bringing all these initiatives together is recent for us at Great Lakes, we can already see the impact that that's made in a very short time.”In the show, Bugg also suggests that starting your DEI journey may not be so scary as you think. Many CUs have a long history of serving a variety of members well. Bugg says GLCU has been doing its best to meet the unique needs of each of its members for the eight decades since its founding. Its current DEI journey simply formalizes and centralizes something that already existed. Another interesting outcome of the DEI journey for GLCU has been its new view of partnerships. The CU now asks about a company's commitment to DEI to see if it aligns well with the CU's. It also has established mutually beneficial partnerships with community organizations.Learn more about all this, plus hear about the great tie Bugg wore when accepting the award when you tune in to the show.Links for this show:Subscribe to CUES' DEI e-newsletterCUES 2021 Member Appreciation and Awards EventCUES Recognition ProgramsDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion Cornell Certificate ProgramTranscript

Innovation is that flash of an idea—and it's happening all the time. Disruption, on the other hand, might stem from innovation, slowly making changes in a marketplace until the whole landscape is different, according to Steve Hewins, senior vice president of CU Members Mortgage, a CUESolutions Bronze provider based in Texas. “A disruptor eliminates something that's in the market today,” Hewins explains on this episode of the CUES Podcast. “And it normally comes in a phase. “Typically, it'll start off with initial disruption,” he continues. “And then you'll have very quickly some rapid or sequential evolution of that. And then … everything kind of starts coming together because people recognize it; they try to copy it; the status quo tries to adapt. And then basically, the status quo typically doesn't adapt and then gets replaced with the ‘new normal'.“And so disruption does have innovation in it,” he adds. “But it's more about the market dynamics of how it impacts the rest of the market.”During the episode, Hewins walks through each step of the mortgage lending process, talking about shifts in the marketplace that are happening right now—plus what credit unions might be able to do to compete with them—or to join them! Importantly, he emphasizes that credit unions should think about more strategically hiring lending staff going forward—that they should look to hire people who are natural innovators and ready to be part of marketplace changes.Currently, credit unions aren't hiring for lending innovation or disruption, he notes. “We don't have credit unions that are out there hiring disruptors. … if you start hiring those people, you have to have a culture in the organization to retain them.”The show also gets into:Changes in home buying and how they are affecting mortgage lendingChanges in how appraisals are doneChanges in the closing processChanges in the post-closing phase of mortgage lendingLinks for this showCU Members MortgageTranscript of this showThe New Normal of Mortgage Lending by Steve HewinsMore content by Steve HewinsBecome a CUESolutions providerSponsor the CUES PodcastPlansmith

In a speech prepared for John F. Kennedy to be given on that fateful day in Dallas in 1963, we were to be reminded that “leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”In this episode of the CUES Podcast, the 2021 CUES Emerging Leader, CUES member Alex Hsu, CCM, cites this quote as among his favorites. And he lives it.“When I completed my Gallup Strengths Assessment, for instance, my top strength was achiever, which is great for someone who leads projects, right?” says Hsu, VP/strategy and change management for  $25 billion SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union outside of Los Angeles. “And my second top strength was learner. So really, throughout my career, I've sought to blend learning into everything that I do, which included going to grad school while working full-time and also pursuing these certificates” in everything from IT to change management to diversity.Hsu won the CUES Emerge challenge with a project about how to establish a “Center of Innovation” at a credit union. He says he designed his project for his own credit union to consider but also built it to be flexible so that other credit unions, including small ones, could use the same template.  Hsu seems happy to have won a seat to continue learning for CUES Advanced Management Program from Cornell University as part of the CUES Emerge program. In the show he also describes how the 2021 CUES Emerge cohort interacted during the learning and competition phases of the competition, as well as what they're doing now to stay in touch.The show also gets into: Hsu's thoughts on how to best manage change;The value of having a structure to support innovation at your credit unionThe challenge of staying ahead of members' needs in an Amazon world; andHsu's readiness to talk with other credit union leaders about building a Center for Innovation and change management.Links for this show:TranscriptCUES Emerge overview (with pitch show video toward the bottom of the page)More about Hsu's business caseBecome a CUESolutions providerBecome a CUES Supplier member

Andy Saner lives by the idea that asking questions is important. In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Saner, senior vice president of product engineering and data services at CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, a Vericast business, describes the value of applying such curiosity to help match members with appropriate credit union offerings during the moment when they're opening an account. “When you've got employees that during the time of account opening ..., you're asking questions, you're learning more about that member's needs and what they have to have,” he says in the show. “You understand … through those questions … insight into the member's needs. Maybe they're open to trying something different in managing their money or a different vehicle for payments and the like.”Being curious, asking good questions and applying the data you have on the new account opener has two main purposes, Saner explains. “It helps you match up better the products and services,” he says. “But it also deepens that relationship. That's really what we're all after. … It creates a deepening, long-lasting engagement that really becomes not only profitable for the credit union—let's be honest, that's part of it—but the other extent is that you really feel good about helping your members serve their needs.“It's a noble profession, financial institutions, you know, in the work that we provide,” he continues. “You're getting people into … their first home, (helping them) the first time that they buy a car, (providing) student college loans…. Maybe they're taking a … trip for the first time and they're needing just a little bit of help getting through that. It's really kind of a unique opportunity where you meet people at the point they may need you most.”In the show, Saner also gets into:The role of credit union staff in helping members connect with appropriate products and servicesHow to re-engage with members after the moment of account openingThe balance of digital delivery with high-touch personal serviceLinks for this show:TranscriptGuest sponsor: CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, a Vericast businessRecent related content from Harland ClarkeCommercial sponsor: CUES Supplier member PlansmithBecome a CUES Supplier memberBecome a CUESolutions providerBecome a sponsor of CUES content

In recent times, such high-profile sports figures as tennis player Naomi Osaka and gymnast Simone Biles have made headlines by announcing they were stepping back from competition to take care of themselves and their mental health. In this episode of the CUES Podcast, guest Dee Baker Amos applauds these actions. VP/marketing and communications for Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Amos also points out that taking care of your mental health isn't—and shouldn't be—reserved for world-class athletes. “We all have to work on it, famous or not,” she says. “And I want to actually repeat that because I think that it's something that people have to hear: We all have to work on our mental well-being, famous or not.” In the show, which is hosted by Tony Covington, CUES VP/new markets and a former pro football player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks, Amos describes the importance of leaders sharing their own vulnerabilities since this helps create a safe space for employees. “Leaders must be willing to share and personalize their own journey and what they're going through,” says Amos, whose role includes communications to all airport employees as well as the members of her own team. “What I have found is when I am willing to be vulnerable and to share, ... they (team members) will always come back to me via text or individually and say, ‘Thank you. I'm feeling the same way.' And so, leaders must decide that it's not just about leading people for the work but it's leading people for the lives that they live.” The show also gets into:  How Amos developed new self-care routines during the pandemic—and continues to keep an open mind about what she might need going forward How perspective helps people get through life, told through an airplane analogy Links for this show: Transcript Selected mental health resources from CU Management magazine Video: Why Leaders Need to Manage Their Energy Video: Why Managers Need to Sometimes Say: 'Keep It Real; Tell Me How You Feel' HR Answers: Why Leaders Need to Model Good Mental Health Practices The Value of Valuing Mental Health

A new ebook from Experian, Navigating in a New Era of Credit Risk Decisioning, suggests that one out of three consumers remain concerned about their finances at this stage of the pandemic, while at the same time, some individuals have more cash than they had when the pandemic started—and now they're ready to spend. In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Harry Singh talks about how credit unions might best serve their members with loans and other products considering this “two-lane” economy. SVP/decisioning products and solutions for CUESolutions provider Experian, Singh says this situation may get even more pronounced as government stimulus aid ends. He says financial institutions need to consider three areas in their response:1.      Data and advanced analytics: Credit unions need to create a “comprehensive understanding” of members to be able to best serve them. Singh suggests they need to ask: “What are what are consumers doing differently? What are they adopting differently, such as in digital channels for lending? Are they are they shopping in different ways?”2.     Personalizing offers to members to boost their engagement: “People always think it's about buying something new or obtaining credit to do something,” he explains. “We're thinking about the needs of that consumer at point in time. And it may be they're getting married and maybe they need to buy a car but it may be they're in financial difficulty and they need a different type of offer or treatment that helps them through a difficult period, such as the pandemic. But as they come out the back end of it, you know, they become a very, they become a very profitable customer for the lender. So we're really encouraging our clients to proactively engage their customers.”3.     Prepare for a wave of delinquency: Some consumers have been taking payment holidays and relying on government stimulus to help them get through the pandemic. As government aid ends, some people will be more challenged to keep up with their credit commitments, Singh points out.Singh emphasizes that helping members move forward financially will be more reliant on digital delivery than ever before simply because necessity drove more people than ever to use remote service options during the height of the pandemic.The show also gets into:What digital delivery needs to look like going forward Why using both traditional and nontraditional data—including synthetic data—is becoming importantThe roles of subscription services and cryptocurrencyThe difference between digital self-service and a true digital experienceWhat the next trend in consumer finance and payments might beLinks for this show:TranscriptCUESolutions provider ExperianNavigating in a New Era of Credit Risk DecisioningBecome a CUESolutions provider

Pay increases found in the CUES Executive Compensation Survey this year range from 3% to 7%, depending on the position. Scott Hackworth says in this episode of the CUES Podcast that these figures are significant considering how much uncertainty is present in the overall economy right now. Even though no one knows what's going to happen next, “this urge or this need to maintain consistency, especially amongst the top executives, that need has really risen and become more prominent than ever,” explains Hackworth, president of Industry Insights Inc., CUES' partner in doing both the CUES Executive Compensation Survey and CUES Employee Salary Survey. “And because of that, there's the increase in compensation.”Hackworth said that the pandemic has shown many employees and executives that working from home works for them, at least some of the time. He says credit unions that want to attract and keep top talent will need to consider flexible work in their offering compensation programs.“Some of those pieces, the wellness packages, along with the overall compensation will win in the long run,” he says in the show. “The power of the employee has become larger than it has been in a really long time. And definitely (consider) the shakeup that happened, where anytime there's change, there's new thoughts, there's new developments. And so certainly having the employee now feel empowered, and being able to say, “Hey, you know what, I've been working from home five days a week. I think I can still work from home three days a week and get, you know, I'll be in the office, can we make that work? Can we do this flexibility?” And those are all parts of that discussion that were they would have been laughed at five years ago.”CUES products and services manager, Laura Lynch, explains in the show how both CUES member and non-member credit unions can get access to customized compensation data.“Our credit unions can go online to pull reports,” Lynch says. “It's a nice tool that allows you to cut your data as you want it—so, choosing your own peer group, whether that be by asset by region, things like that. “Any credit union that is a CUES Unlimited+ member gets complimentary access to the executive compensation reports as well as the employee compensation report, so they can go to the CUES website to find that. “Anyone who's not a CUES Unlimited+ member can purchase access. And they can also do that via our website. And those subscriptions that are purchased are good for 12 months, and the credit unions can run as many reports as they need throughout that year.”The show also gets into:Adding a new diversity, equity and inclusion executive position to the surveyHow the two surveys are conductedThe value of using data to help make compensation decisionsLinks for this showTranscriptThank you to our sponsors, CUES Supplier member Plansmith and CUESolutions provider SRMCUES Executive Compensation SurveyCUES Employee Salary SurveyCUES membership

Ancin Cooley, CIA, CISA, is originally from New Orleans and likes to think that he's a decent gumbo cook. He even distributes his mom's gumbo recipe to audience members when he speaks, which he will do at CUES' Directors Conference in Florida this December.Principal of Synergy Credit Union Consulting, Chicago, Cooley says in this episode of the CUES Podcast that “one of the things that's unique about gumbo is that you combine a lot of different ingredients to make an amazing, flavorful dish.”Similarly, he notes, governance isn't just composed of any one ingredient. “It's made up of enterprise risk management,” Cooley explains. “It's made up of board relations. It's made up of interactions that happen between the board and the CEO. It's comprised of different ingredients. But when combined together and seasoned properly, it makes for an amazing credit union.”In this show, Cooley touches briefly on some top “ingredients” for a great dish of governance. These key considerations include the relationship between the board and supervisory committee, the value of having an enterprise view of risk, the difference between process optimization and strategy, the connection between good governance and strong executive compensation programs, and when and how mergers might fit in the context of a cooperative credit union movement.Knowing more about which of these ingredients would help your credit union improve the flavor of its governance gumbo? Listen to the whole show, sponsored by CUES Supplier member Plansmith, for more on each or download the show transcript to find timestamps for the start of particular sections.Links for this show:Show transcriptCUES Supplier member PlansmithAncin Cooley on LinkedInSynergy Credit Union ConsultingDirectors Conference, Dec. 5-8, 2021, Marco Island, FloridaOther CUES content by Ancin Cooley

What do you say when you hear from another credit union interested in talking about a merger?Hopefully, you don't say “Yeah, we'll talk so long as our chair and our CEO are the surviving leaders after the merger.”To Deedee Myers, Ph.D., MSC, PCC, the fate of the chair and CEO is the wrong thing to think about first when considering joining up with another credit union.“We shouldn't be talking about who the survivor is, you know, the CEO or the board chair,” says Myers, CEO of CUESolutions provider DDJ Myers, Phoenix. “It should really be about the synergies between the two organizations to unlock parallel value for the membership. It really should be what is the membership going to see in terms of additional value, what's going to go on in the community, not just about the chair and the CEO. It has to be about how we're going to add more value.” Myers and her business partner, Peter Myers, share lots of ideas about mergers in this episode of the CUES Podcast, including:tips for paving the way to a merger conversation  what needs to be done after a merger to truly complete the process and enable the emerging new organization to truly take shape andwhat to be cautious about when considering a mergerThe two also discuss how they stay in forward-thinking mode, focused on future possibilities, both within DDJ Myers and with their credit union clients. “Just because we can't touch that future in this moment, because I don't understand it, doesn't mean that we couldn't, we shouldn't simmer in it, and really see what could come out of it,” Peter Myers says in the show.Be sure to tune in!Links for this show:Show transcriptCUESolutions provider DDJ MyersWhitepaper series: Credit Union Leaders Plan Post-Pandemic Merger & Acquisition Strategies CUES content from DDJ Myers:If You're Ready to Be CEO, It Will Show, Plus A Lot More on CEO Succession for Both Boards and CandidatesThree Execution Elements Your Strategic Planning Likely OverlooksStart Your Board Assessment With a ‘BOP'How to Smash a CEO Interview 

Emerging leaders have a great opportunity to impact organizational cultures in a way that supports the evolution to modern leadership, says Laurie Maddalena, MBA, CPCC, PHR, in this episode.“They bring in these expectations and these values that I think are more modern,” says Maddalena, a certified executive coach, leadership consultant and founder of CUES Supplier member Envision Excellence LLC in the Washington, D.C., area, which provides coaching to participants in the CUES Emerge program. “We need more of this modern type of leader” who is focused on getting results through people rather than on just getting results at all costs.During the show, Maddalena talks about how generational, technological and family trends are pushing the evolution of leadership. “The reason … I bring those up is because those impact our workplaces … our cultures and what people expect now compared to 25-30 years ago,” she says. “And that type of leader doesn't work anymore, the traditional command and control, more results-focused, very little empathy, check your personal life at the door. It doesn't resonate with today's generations and what people's expectations aren't work today.”Despite all the changes, Maddalena emphasizes the importance of leaders building trust with employees.“Trust is built over time,” she explains, “and it's the small actions we take or sometimes don't … that build trust and cohesion or break trust and cohesion down …. The first way you develop trust is to get to know each individual on your team and understand that they have their own goals, their own preferences and needs beyond the workplace, and get to know them as people and what's important to them and then learn to adjust your management style to be able to ignite ownership in them and bring out their best.“Another (way to build trust) is to model great leadership,” she continues. “If we're expecting our employees to follow through and be on time and serve our members exceptionally, we also need to be modeling that behavior for employees.“A huge way to build trust to make sure that we're developing them, coaching them, taking an interest in our employees, investing our time and energy in them,” she adds, noting that young people in particular want meaningful work.Maddalena says most organizations aren’t making the shift to modern leadership fast enough to be exceptional workplaces. In the show, she gives several suggestions for evolving your leadership, including letting go of promoting people into leadership based on technical ability rather than leadership ability and making sure to teach leaders how to lead.The show also gets into:How Maddalena  identified the key shift toward modern leadershipWhy some credit union employees were actually more satisfied with their work during the pandemic than beforeThe pandemic's silver lining for the evolution of leadershipLinks for this show:Laurie Maddalena on LinkedInEnvision Excellence LLCCUES EmergeMaddalena’s  video on kind leadership and podcast on how modern leaders must be facilitators, not fixersShow transcript

When you can help members avoid being scammed—or at least help them overcome it, they’ll be grateful for your actions in the long run.In this episode of the CUES Podcast, Andy Shank talks about things credit unions need to keep in mind when it comes to preventing and mitigating fraud. Shank is VP/fraud and risk management for CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, San Antonio, Texas, the sponsor of this show.“A lot of folks in the banking world kind of treat fraud as this, you know, scary little animal that we just try to shut in the closet and not talk about,” Shank says in the episode. “But if you don’t talk about it, and you don’t approach it, and you don’t, you know, really attack it head-on, you allow it to win.”In the show, Shank spells out his definition of payments fraud: “anytime a bad guy electronically finds a way to move funds from point A to point B without authorization and without setting foot in a branch.” This could include contact center fraud, social engineering, wire transfer fraud, account takeovers and card skimming. “Basically, it’s the bank robbery of the 21st century,” he says.Shank says everyone loses when someone gets scammed—the financial institution, the member, even society.  A former task force officer with the FBI and state police detective, he talks about his passion for stopping bad guys from stealing other people’s money. To him, helping a member avoid a fraud attempt or overcome being scammed is a true act of service.“There are surveys and studies out there that say, … digital detection of fraud on accounts is one of the bigger factors for acquisition and retention of customers,” he explains in the show. “So, they may not appreciate it at the moment when you’ve told them that they’re being defrauded—and that the money may be gone forever. But at the end of the day, they will appreciate or at least they should appreciate the fact that their credit union was looking out for them and that they use they got that kind of personal attention to hopefully stop them from losing any more money.”The show also gets into:Shank’s background in criminal justice and law enforcement as it applies to his work today for Harland ClarkeThe value of cooperation among law enforcement agencies and among credit unions in the fight against fraudThe impact of the pandemic and remote work on fraudThe financial institutions most targeted by fraudstersShank’s most eye-opening experience while working to fight fraudLinks for this show: CUES Supplier member Harland ClarkeCU Management magazine feature about collaboration as an aid to fighting fraudTranscript of this show

Michael Bach lives in Toronto, a  diverse city, which has as one of its mottos, “Diversity is our strength.”Bach, CEO of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, added onto the city’s slogan. He made it: “If diversity is our strength, inclusion is our superpower” to illustrate that it’s not enough to have diversity.“We have to create spaces where people can not only exist but can be welcomed,” he says in Episode 114 of the CUES Podcast. “They won't face racism, violence, sexism, homophobia, etc.—and I think that … to make sure that our spaces are welcoming, we need inclusion as our superpower. It's our special strength, this thing we can do that will get the most out of our people, that will create higher levels of engagement and productivity. It is the secret sauce, if you will, on top of diversity … .”Bach defines “diversity” as being about difference and “inclusion” as being about creating a space where differences are welcome. Diversity “is about all of the things that make a person unique,” he says. “We tend to historically look at underrepresented or marginalized groups: women, people of color, people with disabilities, Indigenous people or Native Americans, LGBT people. But the truth is, the word diversity is about difference of all kinds. And that includes straightway, able-bodied men, not to say that they're marginalized or underrepresented. That's not the point. It is to say that they are different from me. As a gay man who lives with a disability, they are different from me. And so, diversity is about all the things that make you different.”In contrast, inclusion is about creating a place “where people can come to work or go to a community center or a school or a credit union and be welcomed and be embraced for who they are,” with all of their differences, from everyone else.Bach cites talent as the No. 1 reason organizations need to focus on diversity and inclusion. “If you look at the numbers, and I'm going to do these off the top of my head … people of color in the United States make up roughly about 40-42% of the available workforce, and in Canada, it's about 23%,” he explains. “If you look at the number of women who have graduated with undergraduate degrees, it's now 60% of undergraduate degrees are taken home by women … . If you just look at the sheer numbers, you cannot tell me that if you look at an executive team that is predominantly or exclusively straight, white, able-bodied men, that you actually have the best and the brightest. You don't. Statistically, you don't because you don't have a representative amount of talent. So, the No. 1 reason (for diversity and inclusion) is about talent. It's about making sure that you are in fact hiring and promoting the best and the brightest.”The show also gets into:Bach’s other top reasons for focusing on diversity and inclusionThe services provided by the Canadian Centre for Diversity and InclusionAnswering the question of CUES member Russ Siemens,  director at Innovation Credit Union in Saskatchewan about systemic racismLinksCanadian Centre for Diversity and InclusionBirds of All Feathers Doing Diversity and Inclusion Right by Michael BachDiversity, Equity & Inclusion Cornell Certificate ProgramCUES Advanced Management Program From Cornell UniversityTranscript of this show

The U.S. economy may soon be poised for takeoff, according to Dan Berger, our guest on episode 113 of the CUES Podcast.The efforts of credit unions to serve members at a time of need will continue to be a key factor, says Berger, president/CEO of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, Washington, D.C.“I think that we got some more stuff to get through in 2021 in regards to COVID and cranking up the economy and getting more people and to be financially inclusive with the economy,” he explains. “I equate it to laying the runway in 2021 so you can really take off in 2022. But I'm so pleased with this industry, in the CEOs I speak to across the country, in the jobs that they're doing. I mean, it's really been an incredible effort across the board, and I don't see it stopping.“The stories I hear from across the country with, you know, skip-a-pay programs and workout loans and things along those lines,” he continues, “ … that’s the difference between us and the big banks. When people were helping folks even before Congress said they had to do it …. and, in terms of forbearance, this industry has really responded to their members as well as their communities. “Credit unions have come up with very innovative programs to help their members through this,” he says. “And that's where, in the long run, people are going to remember that institution that was there that did a workout loan for them or did some loan modifications for them. They're going to remember that. You can't buy a full-page ad like when Wells Fargo does to try to re-establish trust. You have to build that over time. "And that's what credit unions have," he underscores. "They have this incredible amount of trust, and it's even built upon even further through 2020. And you'll see it throughout 2021 as well.”Berger also says in the show that continued vaccine distribution and targeted stimulus to people who need it will play key roles in getting the economy back on track.The show also gets into:The unemployment situation in 2020, now and going forwardThe importance of taking care of employee so they, in turn, take care of membersThe likely impact of remote work as the world reopensThe increasingly important role of community development financial institutionsHow increased liquidity from deposits of federal stimulus program funds and increased savings due to the pandemic might impact credit union operations and financialsLinks for this showB. Dan Berger on LinkedInNational Association of Federally-Insured Credit UnionsShow transcriptTwo other recent episodes about the economy: 111 with Steve Rick of CUNA Mutual Group and 112 with Bryan Yu of Central 1High Performing Boards Digital SeriesStrategy and Digital Marketing Cornell Certificate Program