Credit Union Times - January 13, 2021

6 FOCUSREPORT/Leadership in 2021

‘A successful leader
places trust in others
to take the lead and
manage.’
‘Compassion is
important to remind and
help you understand
what’s going on with
your employees
because their lives have
changed in so many
ways.’

Honesty. Communi- cation. Trust. En- gagement. Compas- sion. Empowerment.

Those words were frequentlymentioned by credit union executives when asked what helpedthem manage through the mostdifficult year in the industry’s history, and how they expect to leadtheir credit unions through whatis expected to be a challenging2021.

“I believe in transparency in
keeping the lines of communi-
cations open and
being honest,”
Gary Perez, presi-
dent/CEO of USC
Credit Union in
Los Angeles, said.
“Because we’re
in this COVID era
there were lots of
questions raised
in terms of how the pandemic
will impact the organization.
How would it impact staffing?
What will the future look like?
We opted to be brutally honest
with our people at the outset. So,
I made a pledge that we would
do all we can to avoid layoffs,
but we also made it clear that we
had to stop short of an absolute
guarantee because no one could
predict the severity or duration of
the crisis. We have been able to
avoid layoffs and we continue to
do all we can to prevent that from
happening.”
Building and fortifying that
trust with the credit union’s 95
employees has been a critical
component to Perez’s leadership
success. When he was named
president/CEO in 1988 at the
age of 29, USC CU was managing
about $15 million in assets and
serving about 8,000 members.
Since then, the credit union has
grown to $674 million in assets
and more than 76,000 members.

“All small credit unions are
CEO-centric in that everything
runs through the leader’s desk,”
Perez said. “And as you grow in
size and scope – and it took me
a while to realize this – you have
to build a team, you have to trust
the team, and then you have to
realize that you don’t have to be
the star. You don’t have to be at
the center of everything.”
For Larry Tobin, president/CEO
of the $3.3 billion FAIRWINDS
“A successful leader places
trust in others to take the lead and
manage,” Tobin said. “They trust
that their teams will go above and
beyond to get the job done, while
taking care of their members and
employees.”
The credit union’s 560 employ-
ees serve a membership of more
than 200,000.

He pointed out that even whenthe credit union had to pivotduring the coronavirus crisis toprovide full account services viadrive-thru stations and assemblea specialized team to supportPPP loans, FAIRWINDS employees only thought of how to continue to best serve members safely and efficiently.

“It’s my responsibility as a
leader to ensure the growth and
success of each and every one of
our employees. Leaders should
understand that it’s their role to
serve employees first,” he said.

“It’s a principle I’ve lived by every
day. When you foster an employ-
ee-first environment day in and
day out, it becomes organic. It
becomes your culture.”
Renee Ouellette became presi-
dent/CEO of the $377 million
University Credit
Union in Orono,
Maine in Decem-
ber 2019, just three
months before
the deadly coro-
navirus began to
spread throughout
the nation.

“A big thing for
me is that leadership involves
a team, and first and foremost
is the team of the entire credit
union,” Ouellette said. “I don’t
see myself as being any different
than anyone else on the team
because it’s about bringing ev-
eryone together and really mak-
ing sure that we all understand
what the goal is that we’re try-
ing to achieve, and that we’re all
moving forward on a path to ac-
complish that.”
What also has helped the first-
year CEO was her ability to stay in
nearly constant communication
with her team at all levels, and to
explain the “why” behind deci-
sions that are made.

“As we were first approach-
ing the pandemic, there were so
many unknowns out there. We
stayed in close communication
with our team by letting them
know every step of the way as
to why we were making the de-
cisions that we made. That was
important so that they could
really understand and not just
kind of be out there wondering,
and coming to their own conclu-
sions, which can be detrimen-
tal to accomplishing the goal,”
Ouellette explained. “So, I think
that was really critical for us
as we were making those deci-
sions and in keeping everyone
engaged.”
While she leverages all chan-
nels of communication for em-
ployee engagement, Ouellette in
particular uses email to interact
with employees at all levels. She
has found the emails do help
motivate employees to keep in
touch with members so they can
find out how the credit union
can better serve their needs, and
work with those who have fallen
on hard times because of the
pandemic.

“I try to provide my staff
with emails that have different
thoughts and make them fun,
lighthearted and interesting to
read,” she said. “It takes a lot
more time but it’s worth it.”
University CU’s 85 employees
serve more than 28,000 members.

During her busy days, LynetteSmith, president/CEO of the $133

million TruEnergy

Federal CreditUnion, drinks acup of warm water with lemon tosooth her vocalcords. That’s because she spendsmuch of the daytalking to her employees, most of whom are nowworking from home.

For Smith, compassion andempowerment have been topof mind as she has led the dailyoperations of the Springfield,Va.-based credit union and its 24employees, who serve more than8,700 members.

“When I pick the phone up
to talk to an employee, the first
thing I ask is, ‘How’s your fam-
ily?’” Smith said. “Compassion
is important to remind and help
you understand what’s going on
with your employees because
their lives have changed in so
many ways. I have 90% of my em-
ployees working remotely now,
and we accomplished that within
two weeks, so there were ma-
jor adjustments for my employ-
ees and their work-life balance
challenges.

Smith also formed a pandemictask force to enhance the creditunion’s workforce engagementefforts.

“I was pretty happy that I was
also able to reward my employ-
ees with a pandemic incentive
bonus,” she said. “I firmly believe
that if our employees are happy
and healthy, our membership
will survive and thrive.”
While networking with other
credit union executives through-
out her career has been instru-
mental to sharpening Smith’s
leadership skills and abilities,
“I’ve been in the industry for 31
years and I’ve never seen anything
as devastating as this pandemic,”
Smith said. “I think everyone
wants to put 2020 behind them,
and I’m one of them, too.” n