First published by CUInsight.com

Does the threat of not being reelected discourage incumbents from shirking their duties to be a high-performing board member or engaging in empire building with other board members and the membership at large? My hope is that all board members are committed to serving on the board to the best of their ability and adding value to the membership.

One of my favorite questions to ask a board member is “Are you willing to step aside and make room for someone who can add greater value?” One board member shared that every morning she asks herself, “Am I giving the value needed? If not, why? If yes, how do I know?” Self-reflection, such as these questions, is a courageous leadership move. How much do I live in the legend of myself?

Most credit unions have a semi staggered board of directors wherein a certain number of directors are up for reelection every year. A staggered approach to board elections has both benefits and potential problems. A major benefit is that the board has a constant supply of trained and ready board members for continuity. A potential challenge is presented when the chair and vice chair are up for reelection at the same time. In a high-performing board, this simultaneous reelection is not the same issue as when the boardroom is full of posturing and politics. If each board member is adding value, the membership will notice. Here are ways a board—and, hence, board members—can be seen as high performing.

• Elect a strong chair, one who provides leadership and direction; stay away from the “next-in-line” concept for electing a chair.
• Work in partnership with your CEO.
• Understand the role of the board.
• Hire and retain a high-performing and compelling leader as an expert CEO.
• Be in strategic partnership with the CEO; ask strategic questions and engage in strategic conversations. If you don’t know how, learn.
• Hold a compelling vision of the organization’s potential for serving the needs of the membership.
• Reflect the membership with relevant board diversity.
• Create a true strategic plan with emphasis on strategic.
• Stay in your lane and out of operations.
• Adopt a robust board meeting agenda.
• Establish a purpose to add value.
• Maintain an efficient board structure, including size of board, meeting agenda, 
committee structures, and officers who serve the greater good above and beyond 
self-promotion.
• Establish a strategic approach to board recruitment and composition to ensure the 
membership is represented.
• Adopt board learning plans and update them every year.
• Have frank conversations on how each board member adds value.
• Conduct periodic assessments to find out what you are doing well; invite the 
executive team to assess the board for effectiveness.
• Adopt a rigorous onboarding program.
• Create a plan to build the board with the right people and prepare them for their
• Identify and transition to the right board leaders for ongoing board renewal, 
development, and leadership succession planning.
• Dust off your governance structure and fine tune it for the board of the future, 
 
This is a long list, and yet, everything falls into place with a committed, high-performing board. My suggestion is to take time in the next few months to discover the true potential of your board and lay a solid foundation that holds up for many generations to come.

First published by CUInsight.com

Recently I had the honor of facilitating a group conversation for 80 board members.  The topic was how to be seen as an engaged, committed, and high-performing board member.  The organizing principle used as the basis of conversation was the board is responsible for strategy, policy, and advocacy.  This list of 15 common sense behaviors is both simple and provocative especially in the context that boards have a high degree of potential turnover in the next three years, 35%. Email me your thoughts and I will keep the stream going.

1. Believe in and advocate for the credit union
2. Know the vision, mission, and strategic plan
3. Passionately talk about the credit union
4. Show appreciation
5. Separate your personal and professional life from the work at the credit union
6. Invite members to the annual meeting
7. Update your black book list on potential board member nominees
8. Read the packet and be prepared to ask strategic questions with a lens of helping
9. Stay in your lane, focus on the big stuff
10. Proactively and brilliantly participate in strategic planning
11. Use the credit union products and services
12. Step into difficult conversations with passion for the member
13. Create your learning plan and take care of your board education requirements
14. Proactively support board decisions
15. Show up for your CEO

Posted on CBInsight and CUInsight

I have to pause and brag a bit because I am so amazed at what the younger generation does to advance its leadership skills. Our household has been busy the past several weeks. Five of my children test this month for their second-degree black belt in taekwondo or, more appropriately, their 2nd dan. Over the past six years, they have practiced 8 to 10 hours a week in addition to the requisite reading, essay writing, community service, annual 250 acts of kindness, a major project, and 20 plus hours of assistant teaching. Two weeks ago they took a 223-question written test, and they all scored between 94% and 98%. Next Saturday, they have their last two-hour physical test on patterns, sparring, and board breaking, followed by a black tie dinner. By now, I imagine you readers who are parents are remembering some similar event for your kids.

This morning, my children had to unlearn a practice, called emptying their cup, to take on a higher level of accountability and ownership for a new practice to advance their leadership skills. In the past, their teacher has provided the boards they would break with their hands, fists, and feet. This time, each of the five was responsible for cutting and bringing 24 boards, 1 x 10 X 12 inches. My contribution was to drive them to Home Depot; they were responsible for finding, cutting, and delivering the boards to the dogan for their test.

It didn’t take long for the level of engagement to ramp up. After a bit of debate about the math problem, they figured out how many boards were needed, located the lumber section in the store (yep, had to ask for help!), managed to get the boards to the cashier, and loaded the truck we had borrowed. Their appreciation for how the boards magically appeared for each previous testing gained momentum before we left the store. They had never considered the teacher’s effort to have the boards ready—the boards just always appeared! Historically, the focus was on the kick. Now the focus was on creating the environment to execute the kick. The phenomenon experienced today was definitely a mindset disrupter.

Still, the greatest learning came next: being taught how to use a table saw. This level of skill required a masterful teacher to guide my children in effective cutting without harming a finger or hand. A good friend, Dave, helped each of the kids manage the saw and expertly cut the boards. Eyes were focused, bodies centered, and awareness and attention enhanced.

What, you might ask, does this story have to do with credit unions? Frankly, everything! Credit unions are at a place in history that requires emptying the cup to make room for new methods and ideas. Emptying the cup does not mean letting everything we know to go down the drain; rather, it represents that we let go of perceptions, actions, and mindsets that hamper our ability to be masterful today and tomorrow. Entrenched mindsets, tired dialogues, and tactical focus at the board level will keep our cups full; yet, they may be full of lukewarm coffee with soured milk.

These five kids experienced a mindset disrupter today that led to new, shared learning; vast appreciation of a teacher; and, a desire to show up well in the final two-hour test next week. There was an alternative that would have saved all of us time and energy: Mr. Joe, their teacher, volunteered to bring the boards to the dogan. Definitely tempting! Yet, if we had said yes, a mindset disrupter would not have been possible; the cup would have stayed full, and the shared learning opportunity would not have been available.

I’ll make this relevant:

• Board agendas need to shift from tactical to strategic: Start with a blank sheet of paper and create an entirely new design.
• Board packets need to reflect a strategic board. Challenge the status quo.
• Strategic planning needs to move from an annual event to an ongoing, holistic way of doing business and include cross-functional and multi-level stakeholders. This level of robustness increases engagement, innovation, and ownership.
• Strategic succession planning should be front and center, all the time, throughout the organization. See quality coaches, mentors, and teachers.
• Talent development needs to be part of each executive’s performance expectations. Otherwise, good people are at risk and the level of disengagement rises.
• Board committees need to be fine-tuned so they reflect the current needs of the credit union.

Ask yourself:

How full is your cup?

When will you empty it?

What new leadership practices will you invite in?

Posted on CUInsight
By Deedee Myers

Confusing levels of strategic leadership were the focus of a post last fall, during a key season for strategic planning. Last week, strategic agility was the focus of speeches at a conference for credit union board chairs and CEOs. These interesting and robust conversations amongst conference attendees included reflections and speculative questions on how to acquire or enhance strategy and agility.

So, which comes first, strategic leadership or agility? This morning, I started to create a mind map called Strategic Leadership and Organization Agility, and I struggled until I realized what was missing! The leadership type is crucial. What kinds of leaders are needed to have a sustainable organization with a viable, living strategic plan and organizational agility?

The types of leaders in your organization influence its success in strategy and agility. An abundance of strategic and visionary leaders with minimal transactors, processors, and builders roadblocks innovative and strategic thinking,. A team comprised of all process-oriented leaders, on the other hand, draws attention away from the organization’s vision and purpose.

I dusted off a piece of research from a couple years ago on the eight basic leadership archetypes. Most boards have a significant percentage of process-oriented members, and many of those boards, however, want a strategically focused CEO as part of succession planning. This dynamic is both challenging and exciting, as the board wants to act more strategically yet also has process-oriented members.

An embedded organization culture, simplistically, either has an appropriate blend of leadership archetypes or is weighted toward one or two of the eight basic archetypes. Check out these high-level archetype descriptors. Which best represent your own, your overall executive team’s, and your organization’s leadership archetype?

The Strategist

1. Is excellent at abstract, imaginative thinking
2. Has a long-term orientation
3. Has the ability to see the big picture and to plan accordingly
4. Is a great conceptualizer and can present all the options
5. Has the capacity to think globally
6. Can think laterally; is a groundbreaker
7. Is excellent at aligning vision with strategy

The Change Catalyst

1. Recognizes opportunities for organizational transformation
2. Has a great capacity to identify and sell the need for change
3. Is talented at entrepreneurship and prepared to take on risky, independent assignments
4. Is always looking for new, challenging assignments
5. Possesses a great sense of urgency
6. Can make difficult decisions and is tough minded
7. Has aptitude at selecting talent to get the job done

The Transactor

1. Prefers novelty, adventure, and exploration
2. Thrives on new challenges
3. Is not very interested in day-to-day management
4. Makes a great deal maker or negotiator
5. Embraces change and has strong risk tolerance
6. has a great talent for spotting new opportunities
7. Is proactive, adaptive, and focused on the short term

The Builder

1. Greatly needs to be independent and in control
2. Has an enormous amount of energy, drive, dynamism, and enterprise
3. Possesses enormous perseverance and a great capacity to deal with setbacks
4. Can live with a great deal of insecurity and ambiguous situations
5. Has the capacity to thrive under pressure due to a long-term focus
6. Has a high but calculated risk-taking propensity
7. Possesses moderate social skills and has difficulty dealing with authority

The Innovator

1. Has a great drive to pursue creative and imaginative ideas
2. Is always on the lookout for new projects and activities
3. Is never satisfied with developing ideas and has difficulty with closure
4. Tolerates and even enjoys complex problem solving
5. Sets stretch goals for whatever needs to be accomplished
6. Is not political or is quite naïve about organizational politics
7. Is not interested in organization politics.

The Processor

1. Has a systemic outlook and a positive attitude toward authority
2. Is effective at turning abstract concepts into practical action
3. Is effective at providing structure, processes, and boundaries
4. Dislikes unstructured situations
5. Adheres to rules and procedures
6. Is self-disciplined, reliable, efficient, cooperative, and conscientious
7. Is excellent at time management

The Coach

1. Prefers novelty, adventure, and exploration
2. Is empathic (has a high EQ), is good at listening, and inspires trust
3. Has an affinity for people and is cooperative
4. Is excellent at handling difficult interpersonal and group situations
5. Has talent for creating high-performance cultures and teams
6. Is a great developer of people and is great at giving constructive feedback
7. Prefers participatory management

The Communicator

1. Is excellent at communicating broad themes and the big picture
2. Has impressive theatrical skills and talent at creating make-believe
3. Can reframe difficult situations positively
4. Has a talent for influencing others
5. Is good at networking, building alliances, and attracting others’ attention
6. Is excellent at managing various stakeholders
7. Is not too proud to ask for outside help and use advisors or a consulting firm

 Too much of a good thing
The above descriptors highlight the advantages of each leadership archetype. How do we know there is too much of a good thing? Too much focus on strategy or vision can leave people behind in the execution; the innovator can have less-than-desired communication skills; the coach could have issues with holding people accountable; and the communicator may talk too much or neglect effective action. You get the gist. . .

Now, we come back to the question: Which comes first, strategic leadership or agility? I appreciate having an understanding of the key participants: Which people are occupying the seats on a bus, and which seats are occupied with ineffective participants? When the organization’s leadership has a blend of archetypes, the subsequent strategic conversation is facilitated differently than if the team, including the board, mostly consists of just two of the eight archetypes. The strategic outcome still needs to be relevant and timely and to perpetuate value to the stakeholders.