CUES Podcast

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 union
• The challenge of staying ahead of members’ needs in an Amazon world; and
• Hsu’s readiness to talk with other credit union leaders about building a Center for Innovation and change management.

Links for this show:

• Transcript
• CUES Emerge overview (with pitch show video toward the bottom of the page)
• More about Hsu’s business case
• Become a CUESolutions provider
• Become 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 services
• How to re-engage with members after the moment of account opening
• The balance of digital delivery with high-touch personal service

Links for this show:

• Transcript
• Guest sponsor: CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, a Vericast business
• Recent related content from Harland Clarke
• Commercial sponsor: CUES Supplier member Plansmith
• Become a CUES Supplier member
• Become a CUESolutions provider
• Become 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 important
• The roles of subscription services and cryptocurrency
• The difference between digital self-service and a true digital experience
• What the next trend in consumer finance and payments might be

Links for this show:

• Transcript
• CUESolutions provider Experian
• Navigating in a New Era of Credit Risk Decisioning
• Become 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 survey
• How the two surveys are conducted
• The value of using data to help make compensation decisions

Links for this show

• Transcript
• Thank you to our sponsors, CUES Supplier member Plansmith and CUESolutions provider SRM
• CUES Executive Compensation Survey
• CUES Employee Salary Survey
• CUES 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 transcript
• CUES Supplier member Plansmith
• Ancin Cooley on LinkedIn
• Synergy Credit Union Consulting
• Directors Conference, Dec. 5-8, 2021, Marco Island, Florida
• Other 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 and
• what to be cautious about when considering a merger

The 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 transcript
CUESolutions provider DDJ Myers
Whitepaper 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 Candidates
• Three Execution Elements Your Strategic Planning Likely Overlooks
• Start 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 leadership
• Why some credit union employees were actually more satisfied with their work during the pandemic than before
• The pandemic's silver lining for the evolution of leadership

Links for this show:

• Laurie Maddalena on LinkedIn
• Envision Excellence LLC
• CUES Emerge
• Maddalena’s  video on kind leadership and podcast on how modern leaders must be facilitators, not fixers
• Show 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 Clarke
• The value of cooperation among law enforcement agencies and among credit unions in the fight against fraud
• The impact of the pandemic and remote work on fraud
• The financial institutions most targeted by fraudsters
• Shank’s most eye-opening experience while working to fight fraud

Links for this show: 

• CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke
• CU Management magazine feature about collaboration as an aid to fighting fraud
• Transcript 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 inclusion
• The services provided by the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion
• Answering the question of CUES member Russ Siemens,  director at Innovation Credit Union in Saskatchewan about systemic racism

Links

• Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion
• Birds of All Feathers Doing Diversity and Inclusion Right by Michael Bach
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Cornell Certificate Program
• CUES Advanced Management Program From Cornell University
• Transcript of this show