New CEO Greets Members via YouTube
When Eric Dillon became CEO of $4.4 billion Conexus Credit Union in Saskatchewan in October 2011, he wanted the credit union’s 118,000 members to get to know him and his goals. Getting his message out to every member would be a daunting task, he realized, given that members were scattered all over the Canadian province and used some 46 branch locations.
So Dillon and the credit union’s marketing department decided they would reach members where they were—both via traditional and newer social media means.
“We went to YouTube,” he explains, adding the CU’s messages also reach members via other social media sites like Facebook, as well as the credit union’s website, in addition to traditional media such as in-branch banners, advertising and the credit union’s mailed Experience newsletter.
YouTube allows billions of people and businesses to share originally created videos. “We saw YouTube as a way to reach out to members who wouldn’t get to otherwise meet me or hear my message in person,” Dillon says. “Our strategy is to give members another channel to touch the credit union and get to know us, our products, and services.”
The credit union invited members to view the new CEO’s video message in banner ads on its home page, through Experience, and via other marketing channels. In just two weeks, more than 600 had checked out Dillon’s video.
The credit union has expanded its YouTube offerings by uploading credit union ads—as well as a Jingle Bells holiday message featuring some of the credit union’s 900 employees—to its YouTube site.
The YouTube message appealed to Dillon because he likes, embraces and uses social media personally and professionally. “Like a large and growing number of our credit union members, I am reasonably active on social media fronts and already communicate with friends and credit union colleagues all over the world via Facebook and other social media.”
He adds that he is planning to blog regularly to employees via the credit union’s myconexus intranet site.
Also read “Broadcast Your CU” about using video to market your credit union at cumanagement.org/1211broadcastyourcu.
Understand Your Leadership Style
Which of these leadership styles sounds like you—or your boss?
Charismatic: The charismatic leader is an excellent vision-caster and elicits a loyal following but isn’t so good with attention to details.
Technicians lead by being the best producer of what their organization produces, but leading the best and being the best are not the same.
Strategic: These leaders are conceptual thinkers. They see the end destination and know the path to get there must be identified. This style can be marred by the blues, because not only do they see what could be, they see what is not.
Team Builder: Team-builders look at people individually and find individual roles for them. At the same time, they align these individuals into a cohesive whole.
Managerial: This is leadership by systems and focuses on doing things right. Unfortunately, this can lead to a culture that prizes “right” at the expense of effectiveness.
Directive: This is leadership by control, the style favored in the industrial revolution and less revered today. Still, any organization in crisis loves to have a directive leader step forward and bring order out of chaos.
Glenn Gutek is a speaker, CEO of Awake Consulting & Coaching, and author of Wide-Awake Leadership.
"The primary barrier to retail financial institutions serving the ‘underbanked’ is a misperception of the market. … According to Webster, ‘under’ means inferior or beneath, so translated literally underbanked means ‘beneath banking.’ That traditional perception is probably not the best starting point for deeply understanding the needs of the next major growth opportunity for your financial institution."
George Hodges, managing director of New Market Partners, in “The Value of Deep Customer Knowledge: Understand Your Customers”
Should you Shop for a new Core System?
When do credit unions need to take a look at choosing a new core processing system?
According to Scott Hodgins, senior director with CUES Supplier member Cornerstone Advisors, Scottsdale, Ariz., a CUES strategic provider, a useful way to answer that question is by considering how good your processes and system functionality are now.
Using a graph, such as the one that accompanies this article, you can determine which of four quadrants your credit union falls into. Credit unions in the “Competitive Advantage” quadrant have both good core functionality and good process proficiency and are unlikely to shop. CUs in the “Not Competitive” quadrant aren’t the most likely to shop either, Hodgins said.
“If you have low system capabilities, and low process proficiency, you’re probably not going to make a core switch because you have bigger problems on your plate,” he explained during a recent free CUES Webinar. “You’ve got to figure out processes before you even think about a core decision.
“If you’re in the top left, you’ve got great capabilities, but you have process problems,” Hodgins says. The quadrant is labeled “Wasted $” because CUs that fall there have spent money on functionality, but their poor process proficiency won’t let them derive any benefit from the functionality. To improve things and move into the “Competitive Advantage” quadrant, work on processes, Hodgins advised.
About the credit unions that fall into the “Lost Advantage” quadrant at the lower right, Hodgins said: “They’ve got great processes that they can’t deliver on because of problems with their vendors, whether that’s functional problems or integration problems.” For them, it’s probably time to shop.
Read more coverage of this webinar in “Tech Time: Jumping Ship?” at cumanagement.org/012512techtime.
CUES members, get a free webinar playback by logging in at cues.org, choosing “Member Resources” and then “Webinars” under the “Resource Library” heading.
When Conflict Is Good
“Resistance to change isn’t just inevitable—it’s a good thing,” says Gregory Shea, learning director for The Wharton School’s Leading Organizational Change program, in the January 2012 edition of the Wharton@Work e-newsletter.
“You’re in trouble if you don’t have [resistance]. It means either you’re not being taken seriously, or you aren’t paying attention. The question isn’t whether change will create conflict or resistance, but how you can work through it.”
Effective leaders need a variety of approaches for working through the different forms of and reasons for resistance. “Some people fear that they don’t have the skills to execute the change,” Shea suggests, “while others might not fully understand what you’re trying to do. And still others may resist because they see a threat to a vested interest. Those three groups require different leadership actions; there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.”
For example, Shea says, “When you need to introduce change quickly, some people may be in shock. As a leader, you need to register the reality without trying to introduce strategic information. Give them something in writing so when the shock subsides, they can breathe deeply and start to understand. With those in denial,
you should start introducing information that they can process and relate to.”
Get more advice in “Leading Through Resistance: Why You Need Conflict” (free with registration). The Wharton School is home to the first segment of CUES’ CEO Institute.
CORRECTION: CUES Chairman Lary McCants sits on the board of Florida Credit Union Shared Services and is the marketing committee chairman for the group. We regret that this affiliation was incorrectly stated in the January issue. McCants is president/CEO of $843 million IBM Southeast Employees’ Federal Credit Union, Boca Raton, Fla.
