"Good fences make good neighbors." So says Robert Frost's 1914 poem "Mending Wall." True when plotting a garden, and in the workplace a clear delineation and willingness to delegate is necessary.

Board and committees provide great guidance to their credit unions. After the guidance is offered though, the board needs to step back and allow credit union management to do its job. That's what they were hired for, right? Sweating the small stuff by committee is never efficient or effective.

For example, a credit union board decides the credit union should work to decrease the average member age-that's the guidance. Then there needs to be trust in the CEO and staff to make it happen. So the CEO comes back with, we're going to add student lending, train staff to cross sell from there, beef up our online and mobile offerings and target market to colleges. Board says OK.