CUES Podcast

A lot of work and preparation goes on before a credit union board interviews a candidate it is considering as a possible next CEO. 

The board has considered multiple resumes, decided what questions to ask (and which director will ask them), and oftentimes spent time consulting with an executive search consultant. The candidate has gathered a wealth of experience, gone through such key development opportunities as CEO Institute, and committed to taking his or her career to a whole new level. 

If you are the interviewee, how can you hit the ball out of the park in your interview for the top job? In this episode, you’ll get guidance from Deedee Myers, Ph.D., and Peter Myers. They are CEO and SVP, respectively, of DDJ Myers, Phoenix, CUESolutions provider for succession planning, executive recruitment, leadership coaching. Both Deedee and Peter have supported many CEO searches.

Deedee emphasizes early in the show that the point of a first-round interview is to get the second-round interview. “It’s not to get the job, it’s to get through the gate,” she says.

Peter says preparing for the interview should include a deep dive into the organization conducting the interview. Looking at that CU’s National Credit Union Administration past and current call reports is a good step. 

“What really high-caliber candidates do is they paint a picture of where [the organization has] come from leading up to the current state,” he explains. He also suggests asking any executive search consultant involved in the process about the board members, their hot buttons and the CU’s business model.

Lastly, have some open-ended questions you want to ask the board, like what they are afraid of, he advises. “You want to ask questions that the board might have to think about or even talk about among themselves.”

The show also gets into:

• Insights about how a CEO interview will likely flow 
• The role of the executive search consultant during the interview 
• Tips for candidates giving a presentation during an interview
• Why internal candidates should prepare as if they were external candidates
• How to handle awkward silences that might occur during an interview
• Signs an interview is going well 

Links:
DDJ Myers
CUESolutions
CUES Leadership Development Guide
CEO Institute

Many mainstream credit unions have long thought that community development financial institution status wasn’t something they could or should consider. Our guest, Jamie Strayer, ICUDE, would beg to differ.

Founder of CU Strategic Planning, Tacoma, Washington, Strayer says CDFI status is a great thing for CUs’ ROA, members and communities, as well as for U.S. taxpayers. Strayer knows a lot about it because she has helped CUs get $103 million in CDFI funding in the last 10 years.

“That funding produced $5 billion in loans that the credit unions otherwise would not have done,” she explains. “High-yield lending with every penny covered by loan loss reserves drives ROA. 

“And this is where is gets really good,” she adds. “That ROA allows them to grow faster. They can accept more deposits while preserving their net worth. When they approve those loans, people tell their friends and family, ‘That credit union gave me a loan. You should go there.’ The organic growth occurs without spending more money on marketing. This program is rocket fuel for growth for credit unions.”

Strayer also says that the CDFI program reduces the number of people on federal entitlements. If a CU can make a car loan to a low-income worker, for example, that person may be able to stay off unemployment.

“CDFI status is the carrot for trying something new and even inventing new financial products,” Stayer adds. “What’s to prevent a credit union from trying something new when they’re not going to lose even a penny?”

The show also gets into:

·       The difference between CDFI status and a low-income designation 

·       The seven criteria for CDFI status—and how CUs almost always automatically qualify on six of them

·       Statistics about how much CDFI status boosts CU ROA

·       What to consider before applying for CDFI status

·       The current political situation around the CDFI fund

·       The most inspiring CDFI project Strayer has worked on in her career

·       What you’ll get if you attend Strayer’s session at Execu/Net in August in Big Sky, Montana

Links:

·       U.S. Treasury CDFI status

·       NCUA low-income designation

·       CU Strategic Planning

·       Execu/Net

Our guest, organizational scientist Jerlando F. L. Jackson, Ph.D., lives by the mantra, “Organizations are made up of people. It is the people and their decision-making that we want to change.”

The Vilas distinguished professor of higher education and the director and chief research scientist of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jackson starts off the show by defining the difference between “diversity” and “inclusion.” 

Diversity, he says, includes the full spectrum of human differences, such as race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic situation and political beliefs. He also says it’s valuable to consider lifestyles, family composition and education level.

“Inclusion is very different,” he explains. “It is not simply compiling a list of diverse characteristics, but rather an ability to cultivate a sense of community. An inclusive organization promotes and sustains a sense of belonging. It values and practices respect for the talents, beliefs and backgrounds as well as the ways of living” of its customers and staff members.

The magic comes from committing to both diversity and inclusion, according to Jackson. “When an organization commits to diversity and inclusion, it manifests itself through a bold mission, strategic priorities and high impact practices to support a diverse workplace and leverage the effects of diversity to achieve a competitive advantage with a highly skilled workforce and a capacity to relate to the full spectrum of customer.”

What’s the first step if you’re thinking of launching a D&I program at your CU? Jackson recommends an assessment of your culture and readiness.

In the show, Jackson also provides: five ways you’ll benefit from prioritizing D&I; five roadblocks you’re likely to encounter when launching a D&I initiative; and three powerful statements worth considering about D&I.

Links:

• JCF LLC
• Email Jerlando F. L. Jackson, Ph.D. 
• Coming soon: Organizational Disparity Institute
• Inaugural Diversity Insight column, “Not Intentionally Inclusive = Unintentionally Exclusive”
• Subscribe to CUES content emails to get a link to our monthly Diversity Insight column delivered to your inbox

The focus of credit union contact centers has changed a lot in 20 years. While once they emphasized helping members perform transactions, today they focus on helping members deepen their relationships with their credit unions. Our guest in this episode is Terri Panhans, VP/contact center solutions for CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke based in San Antonio, Texas. Panhans talks about how things have changed and what the changes mean in terms of the skills contact center agents now need, how to measure call center performance, and more. Special thanks to our episode sponsor, Harland Clarke.

In the show, Panhans says the contact center of the past was “more transactional in nature, really more viewed as a back-office function—one that was necessary, but it wasn’t perhaps driving value or being a part of the strategy of the credit union. Now I see that it is evolving into an engagement center and members’ expectations really drive that. … Many times, they will define their impression of the credit union by the experience they have when the contact the call center.”

Panhans provides two great checklists in the show—one for the skills credit unions should look for when hiring contact center agents and another about things to consider regarding contact centers when setting a credit union’s overall strategy.

The show also busts the myth that younger members don’t ever want to use the phone to talk with their financial institutions. Panhans says, “The desire among all generations of a personal interaction with their financial institution … has never been higher, especially in the event of an emergency or an issue or needing to specify a problem outside of the self-service channels.

“You need to offer the channel of choice and your members are going to decide which one that is,” she adds. “You can’t pigeon-hole or put members into one channel and expect that just because that’s what you think they should use, they will.”

In the show, Panhans also describes key performance measures that work well for today’s contact center and how to collect those measures.

Be sure to tune in to the full episode!

Links:

CUES Podcast

CU Management

Harland Clarke

The lead faculty of the 2019 CUES School of Strategic Marketing joined the CUES Podcast recently to discuss marketing through the lens of their specialties. In this episode, Amy Herbig, Anthony Burnett and James Robert Lay talk about everything from paper brochures to physical branches to digital delivery. They respond to host James Lenz’s “outrageous” statements; offer up best practices grounded in many years of experience; and give a preview of what they’ll cover during the school, slated for July 15-18 in Cleveland. Herbig is CEO of The BA Group; Burnett is customer experience director with Level5; and James Robert Lay is founder/CEO of the Digital Growth Institute. 

To pique your interest for listening to the full show, here is an excerpt of the discussion surrounding the first exaggerated statement: “Transformation at credit unions is only possible through technology delivery.” Listen to episode 69 to hear the rest.

Herbig says that for a CU to successfully transform, it must have technology delivery capabilities. In working with credit unions of all sizes, she has found many that are struggling to get a handle on their technology.

“Credit unions have to always remember their members have the option to bank not just elsewhere, but pretty much anywhere they want these days,” she says. “If we cannot leverage the loyalty in those relationships from a data standpoint, … we will be even more significantly behind other financial institutions who are stealing our members away.”

Burnett responds next. “Right up there at the top is that convenience of a digital channels,” he notes. “You just can’t put branches … in every location. There’s a scalability in digital that you just can’t get with the branch … . There’s also a big business case around mobile transaction cost,” 10 cents per digital transaction versus $4 every time a member comes to the branch. 

Lay says technology is only a part of the entire digital transformation equation when used correctly and in proper context within the consumer buying journey. 

“I believe technology should be one of the last things we talk about when discussing digital transformation because it’s so easy to get lost and overwhelmed and lose sight of where we’re going with all of this technology talk. … what good is the latest tech when we lack the most important element of digital transformation—and that is a digital growth mindset?”

And that’s just the first bit of this awesome show. Tune in to hear more, including:

• The three guests’ responses to Lenz’s two other outrageous statements: “Credit unions should never print another paper brochure” and “Credit union marketers will never be able to truly measure the results of their efforts.
• Each guest’s reflection on a best practice that they’ve seen borne out in their work with credit unions. 
• The guests’ one-minute run-down of what will be covered in the sessions at School of Strategic Marketing. 

Links

• CUES School of Strategic Marketing
• The CUES Podcast
• CUES’ CU Management magazine
• Amy Herbig, The BA Group and search for “thebagroup” on social media
• Anthony Burnett, Level5 and search for “level5” and “anthony burnett” on social media
• James Robert Lay, Digital Growth Institute

Jen Kuhn, CEO of Servistar Consulting, Franklin, Tennessee, describes how the good behavior of leaders and managers is key to employee engagement, which in turn is key to the success of credit unions. In this episode, she describes leadership behaviors that promote engagement—and those that promote disengagement. 

Why did CUES restructure its memberships for 2019? According to Jimese Harkley, CUDE, the change was made for two key reasons: to simplify membership and to enable more credit union leaders and potential leaders to benefit from CUES membership. Learn all about it in this episode of the CUES Podcast, also available on CU Management magazine’s podcasts page. 

In this show, Lynette Cupps, CIE, VP/organizational Development with $1.3 billion MAX Credit Union in Montgomery, Alabama, describes her excitement at being named 2018 CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec. Cupps also talks about her project—how to support non-profit organizations by partnering to provide training for their staff and volunteers; this year’s competition process; and where to go for information on participating in next year’s contest.

In this show, Kathleen O’Connor, Ph.D., defines what employee engagement really means. An associate professor of management at the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and a visiting faculty member at London Business School, O’Connor also defines a framework for how to think about engagement. She explains why engagement is worth pursuing and ways credit union leaders can boost engagement among their team members. O’Connor will present a related session at CUES Symposium: A CEO/Chairman Exchange, Jan. 27-31 in the Bahamas.  

A charitable donation account is a tool some credit unions use to be more strategic with their charitable giving. These accounts can help credit unions have more funds available to donate while also strengthening the credit union’s financial situation. In this episode, CUNA Mutual Group Executive Benefits Specialist Andy Roquet describes two steps to setting up a CDA, best practices for CDA programs, and how and when to talk with your board about these accounts.