Doing what is right might look cruel. Do it anyway.

If you’ve heard me speak at a conference or sat in on a strategic planning session I’ve facilitated, you’ve heard me share these words: “The best thing about credit unions is we’re nice people. But the worst thing about credit unions is … we’re nice people.”

How is it both?

Picture this: You’ve lived remotely your entire life. You’ve never been on a plane—hell, you’ve never even seen a plane, but one day you find yourself on one. BAM! The unthinkable happens: The cabin loses pressure right after you level out at cruising altitude, and you are quickly horrified. Not just because of what’s happening with the plane, but because the parent next to you puts their oxygen mask on first before helping their own child. “How could they!”

This might appear as one of the most basic and oldest illustrations of self-preservation out there. But really, it is one of the oldest illustrations of doing what is best for “the village.” On the surface, it looks selfish. But if you pass out trying to help your child put their mask on first, your child might be okay, but you may not. And what’s most likely is you and your child will be incapacitated. There’s plenty of time to put both masks on, but only if you do it in the right order.

I’ll end my ramble there and cut right to it. There are decisions that may come across your desk as a credit union leader that might look selfish but aren’t. Here are some I’ve seen:

1. Judy has been at the credit union 28 years. She’s two years away from retirement. You’ve asked her many times, “Please do this now, not that,” yet she continues to ignore you to the detriment of the credit union and its members. Judy is more comfortable in what was and not what is good for the credit union or the members. We keep Judy though because, well … it’s only two more years. But for those two years, we put off hiring a needed skill set or investing in technology that will make us relevant to our members. We let the team and members suffer to save one person because we don’t want to look bad.
2. There is a decision we know we need to make for the good of the credit union to fulfill our mission, yet we believe the team is maxed out, so we hit pause. Or worse, we keep hitting pause and saying, “next month” or “next year.” But, just like that famous philosopher Garth Brooks once said: “Tomorrow never comes.” We continue down the path of irrelevance in the name of complacency.
3. We don’t want to upset a small but vocal portion of our membership with a potential change that a large majority of membership (or potential members) will appreciate. We don’t want to deal with conflict with the board who will have to deal with those vocal legacy members, so we just put off the tough conversations. The name change. The technology upgrades. The sunsetting of legacy products and services that no longer serve the broader membership. We continue to make the decisions for the credit union that are best for our legacy members and not look to what our future members need from us. Yet, we wonder why can’t we attract younger members?

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. These are fresh on my mind as we’re smack in the middle of strategic planning season, and these are conversations that are being had right now. These are decisions being made right now.

I don’t write this message to you from atop my hill, ivory tower, or high horse. I write this message as a fellow leader faced with the same decisions in my own business that you face within your credit union. Be the nice guy and let the collective suffer, or sometimes have to be the “meany-head” for the good of the entire organization and face the tough criticism.

The message? Do what’s right, even if you think you look like the bad guy. We as leaders have a terrible time listening to criticism from the loudest people who usually aren’t the most important stakeholders.

“In sports and in business, the greatest leaders are those who make the best decisions in the most crucial of situations. They are the ones who focus their energy on turning tough decisions into winning decisions.” – Don Yaeger, author and public speaker