Leading without bleeding

Credit union leadership is hard. I know this. You know this.

The job is hardly ever black-and-white, and you can easily find yourself on the wrong side of many people’s moods. What do you do in those situations? Act with too much strength and you look tyrannical. Act with too much restraint and others take advantage of you.

You need to lead without letting these situations bleed your legitimacy white. It’s time to stop the hemorrhaging. So, let’s look at three challenging situations and discuss how to address them.

Credit stealing

You accomplish a ton in credit union leadership. You produce fantastic ideas. You brilliantly galvanize the troops. You work your caboose off to make sure things get done. Then, someone swoops in and steals all the credit. It’s happened to all of us, and it’s incredibly frustrating.

But no matter how frustrating it is, this is a situation where restraint adds to your legitimacy—and action takes it away.

Let the thief take your credit; let them have the victory. You are a leader of the institution—you’re above getting into a petty disagreement about who gets the credit for a win. Engaging with the credit pilferer makes you look more insecure than righteous.

One caveat here: there may be another teammate or direct report who feels like the robber stole their credit as well. Recognize them in private and let them know you see their hard work.

At the end of the day, the team knows (more or less) who put the work into a project—regardless of who takes the credit.

Paralyzed by discussion

Change rarely happens without a push from credit union leadership. There’s a tendency to stay stuck in a discussion loop regarding important changes—a place where people endlessly talk in circles and feet-dragging abounds. If the credit union is going to grow, you need to pull everyone out of that loop.

As Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”

Unlike the first situation, you need a stronger showing here. Drive your team to a decision. Pluck the best idea from the conversation, take the reins and push ahead. Emphasize how committed you are to the change and the projects required to implement it.

Could you be wrong? Yes—you could always be wrong. But doing something is always better than doing nothing. Break down resistance and make sure your team does something.

The tail wagging the dog

Picture this: a teammate emotionally speaks up at a meeting and claims credit union leadership hasn’t acknowledged continued cries for help. This individual doesn’t feel supported and offers ideas to fix things. Others in the room are silent. You can almost hear the quiet hissing as your group’s morale deflates.

Complicated, right?

Some of the team member’s concerns could be valid. Maybe they didn’t always receive enough support. But other employees might disagree with the proposed ideas or balk at the emotional way the person presented them.

The best approach is a balanced mixture of strength and restraint. Address the team member’s concerns, but don’t cave into everything they wanted. Letting them use emotion to influence your decision-making is like the illustration of the tail wagging the dog.

You’re still in control—and there’s more than one person on the team. Make sure you don’t take care of one person at the expense of the others.

Patch up the wounds

Hopefully these tips help you bandage your leadership gashes and halt the bleeding of legitimacy. And do you have a nasty scar from past mistakes in these scenarios? Don’t sweat it.

Leaders learn and grow every day. They continue credit union leadership training and avoid making the same mistakes twice. Remember: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.