Word of the Week for Credit Unions: Humanity

By Bo McDonald

I preface this post by saying I am not the world’s great boss. I don’t come close to earning that title. I have high expectations, little patience and a pretty boring personality. However, despite my short comings I understand that the team of people that I employ at your marketing co. are living, breathing humans. My team is made of people with hopes, dreams, and fears just like me.

It hasn’t always been that way. As a young business owner about a decade ago I employed a group of people who I felt were commodities. They were paid as little as possible, worked as hard as necessary and they weren’t a happy group of people.

Often times, as part of our work with credit unions we dive into working with the front line of tellers, FSR’s, MSR’s, and the like. When we huddle with the leaders of those teams at credit unions to discuss our findings or next steps I ask a lot of questions and sit back and listen. I listen for key words to hear what their leadership style is and how they view their employees. Too often I find a disregard for humanity in those conversations. I see executives who view their staff as replaceable commodities, or lemmings that are expected to show up at 8, check off a list and clock out at 5.

There is one question that is on the minds of credit union executives all over this great nation: “How do I get more out of my team?” The answer came to me in an article I read recently. It is summed up in one simple word: Humanity.

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