Bill Myers, director of the NCUA's Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives, said he has seen small credit unions attract executives from larger financial institutions often enough that it is not a rare practice or just pure dumb luck.

And, some managers at larger financial institutions pursue this career strategy because they know it will take a long time to reach a top level executive position and the chances of them becoming CEO are remote.

"So they pick a smaller credit union where they are a superstar because they understand the operating system, lending and organizational structure," he said. "The downside for them is that they're going to have to [literally] sweep the floor more often, stuff that they never had to do when they were working at a larger credit union."

Connecting with middle managers at other financial institutions, however, can be a challenge, which means small credit unions have to be creative in how they go about recruiting executives.

While advertising in local newspapers and their websites may be a good strategy, taking ads out in regional business publications and their websites may also be effective tools.

Anthony Demangone, NAFCU's executive vice president and COO, suggested credit unions describe their community's lifestyles and culture in their job opening descriptions.

"Your credit union may be near wonderful fishing, hunting or hiking, or your credit union may be the bedrock financial institution in a small town, which can be highly rewarding," he explained. "There are people looking for that kind of lifestyle. There are wonderful things about every part of our country. You just have to promote what makes your location and your credit union special."

For example, about 16 months ago, Andres G. Barringer became vice president of the $82.7 million North Star Community Credit Union in the rural town of Cherokee, Iowa, which is home to about 5,000 people. Before that, he served as vice president of operations for the $118 million River City Federal Credit Union in San Antonio, which has a population of more than 1.4 million.

"I do like the small town," Barringer said. "If you want a big town, you go visit it. You don't have all the traffic like I had in San Antonio."

Soon after he began working at NSCCU, which serves nearly 10,000 members across 12 counties, he led a lending strategy in 2015 that exceeded expectations. At the end of last year, NSCCU posted loan growth of 20.6%, far surpassing the peer average of about 6.5%.

A variety of social media sites also can be useful for recruiting young up and comers who are ambitious and have just enough experience to grow in a top executive position with the support of professional development.

"Let's say you are a $150 million credit union, you're probably not going to be able to attract the perfect candidate who has been an executive vice president at a $2 billion shop," Demangone said. "When you think about it, everybody was a CEO for the first time, so they probably didn't have the perfectly well-rounded skills, but you can help them develop professionally."

Demangone mentioned another benefit of developing managers who are looking to advance to executive leadership: It enables the CEO to delegate their workload, allowing managers to develop their skills and gain more experience.

"But there's also a lot of research that shows candidates from outside an organization who are hired as a new CEO are less likely to succeed when compared with internal candidates because every organization has its own novel," he said. "It answers so many stories and plot lines that it can be very difficult for an outside candidate to integrate all of the information flow. Internal candidates, if they are the right fit, have so many more things going for them in terms of knowing the staff, knowing the problems, knowing the strategy, knowing the board and knowing the community."

Some small and midsize credit unions are addressing their succession planning needs by implementing an internal rotational management program, according to Marcus Cotton, vice president of executive recruiting at Credit Union Resources, the Dallas-based service corporation of the Cornerstone Credit Union League.

"Many times, when people are in a management level at a midsize credit union, they have the capabilities to learn other areas of the credit union, and I've seen some great success stories where every two, three years, the senior team actually rotates," Cotton said. "So what that means is that the chief lender moves over to marketing and the marketing executive moves over to operations. You still have the CEO at the head of the table driving everything so he can observe and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the senior team, but this allows the management team to really develop and grow, and get a well-rounded skill set so that anyone on the management team can prepare to lead an organization down the road whenever needed."

Developing a deeper executive bench is more important now than ever because in an improving economy, coupled with the retirement of baby boomer leaders, it's increasingly more difficult to recruit executive talent.

Mike Schenk, CUNA's vice president of economics and statistics in Madison, Wis., said with the national economy very close to full employment, it will lead to more turnover, and the demand for higher wages and benefits will continue to climb.

These marketplace pressures are compounded by the increasing complexity of the regulatory environment and cybersecurity issues, making executive recruitment and success even tougher for small credit unions, he said.

Despite these challenges, however, experts say small cooperatives should tap resources and programs available from the national trades, foundations, state leagues and other organizations that offer professional assistance with recruitment and succession planning. It also may be worth the cost to invest in a consultant or recruitment firm, depending on the credit union's circumstances, they said.