Top 5 plays for building an all-star executive team – Part 1

Creating and maintaining an effective management team – with the expertise and leadership skills required to successfully guide your credit union toward its performance and member service goals – can be a bit like building a championship sports team. In both cases, finding individuals with the level of talent and drive to sustain exceptional results over the long-term requires a comprehensive commitment to effective recruiting, onboarding and development.

From my work with clients, I have seen first-hand that the need to replace leadership-quality talent has become more critical as Baby Boomers continue to set their sights on retirement. If your credit union is preparing to induct long-time leaders into your Hall of Fame, preparing to add specialized expertise to keep your service delivery up-to-date, or losing key employees to the competition, to follow are the first two of five steps that can help you gain access to the caliber of talent you need to compete successfully for the long term. Steps 3 – 5 will appear in our next post. The complete article can be accessed here.

1. Define your culture. Every organization has a culture based on the values, attitudes and behaviors that are reflected every day – whether it is the result of a well-defined strategy or not. And culture can play a pivotal role in your ability to attract and retain top-notch leadership talent in today’s competitive environment.

Do you have a winning culture? Look around your organization, talk to your staff – from managers to entry-level employees – and visit with your account holders to gauge their perceptions regarding your credit union as a pleasant place to work and a comfortable, secure place to conduct business. If you find a disconnect between your stated values, the actual work environment and the behaviors demonstrated daily, it will be difficult – if not impossible – to maintain the type of culture that attracts and retains cream-of-the-crop employees.

2. Hire complementary talent. No champion-level sports franchise would focus all its recruiting efforts on one set of skills and forego efforts to build a well-balanced team. Likewise, it is important for credit unions to maintain a management roster comprised of individuals with the expertise necessary to oversee every business and operational sector in the organization. This will help your credit union remain profitable while providing the level of service that account holders expect. Does your organization have the right people in the right positions for optimal performance?

In our next post, I’ll address three additional steps to building an all-star executive team:

• Avoiding the “one and done” hires
• Maintaining consistent bench strength
• Recruiting with an eye to the future