2 minutes
From the editor
“What are the most critical credit union leader behaviors needed to drive effectiveness and relevancy for the industry in the next three to five years?”
That is the question CUES asked credit unions last year in a joint research project with TalentTelligent.
Responses came from across asset sizes and geography, all staff levels and functions, and board members. The top three leadership behaviors identified as critical were vision and strategy formation; leading change and transitions; and critical thinking. View the full list of 11 top practices in our story, “Leadership Competencies for Credit Unions .”
The researchers stress that the competencies needed will vary by credit union and depend on each organization’s strategy and goals. For example, leading change and transitions will be more important for a credit union that includes mergers as a strategy or one that needs to update its core processor soon.
This list of competencies is a great place to start when planning your own development and that of your teams. How would you rate yourself and your team members against each skill? What areas need improvement? Where are your personal gaps, and where does your credit union have gaps?
To aid your thinking, CUES has a free resource at content.cues.org/plan23 that you can use to create a personalized development plan for 2023. At that link, you’ll find resources, online courses, designation programs and in-person events for everyone on your team, including emerging leaders, executives and board members.
If dedicating time to development next year seems daunting with everything else that’s going on, keep in mind that most of our Harvard ManageMentor courses take just two hours to complete, and the topics cover each of the 11 competencies identified in the research as important for leading a credit union. That’s not a lot of time to commit to developing the leadership behaviors your credit union most needs for the future!
I recently took the Harvard ManageMentor time management and delegating courses and have already implemented new practices from both. For example, writing this column was on a Post-it note as one of the three most important tasks I needed to complete today, a tip I learned in the time management course. Those two courses work really well together, and I highly recommend taking them back-to-back.
September is back-to-school time, and I plan to take at least one more Harvard ManageMentor course before the month is up. Won’t you join me?
P.S. Join your fellow CUES members for our 2022 Member Appreciation and Awards Event on Oct. 20. Sign up at cues.org/mae.
