“When we have presence, it creates space for trust, clarity, and a real, true connection.” - Jill Nowacki

Welcome to episode 217 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight.com, and Jill Nowacki, President and CEO of Humanidei.

This episode is sponsored by The Sheeter Group - a leading executive benefits firm that meets your retention and succession needs. This includes non-qualified benefit plans, short and long-term incentive plans, compensation studies, scorecard design, performance evaluation, and more. Learn more at sheetergroup.com.

In this season, Jill and I will have conversations centered around leadership, credit unions, and living our best lives. We will have some of the most respected leaders from around credit unions who we are grateful to call friends join us in the discussion from time to time too.

In this episode, we discuss all things presence and the importance of being present as a leader. Presence is the ability to truly show up mentally, emotionally, and energetically for your team and organization, and it’s something that all leaders struggle with at one point in time or another, ourselves included. We discuss how a leader’s presence shapes the team—without it, distractions, rushed decisions, and confusion take hold, but with it, trust, clarity, and connection flourish.

We also highlight the need for leaders to be intentional about creating space in their schedules, setting boundaries, and resisting the impulse to jump between tasks or immediately respond to messages. Listen as we share some personal stories and insights around the struggle to disconnect, stay focused, and resist the urge to constantly check devices.

We ultimately conclude that while presence may be one of the most overlooked leadership skills, it is also one of the most impactful, and by committing to regular practice and creating the conditions to truly show up and be present, leaders can unlock new levels of focus, connection, and effectiveness for themselves, their teams, and their organizations! We hope that you enjoy our conversation on presence!

Find the full show notes on cuinsight.com.
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Audiobook mentioned: An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow, et al.

Previous guests mentioned: Leo Ardine (episodes 21 & 150)