During my many meetings with CU industry players at GAC, a common theme that kept coming up was improving the member experience. When providing members with financial products and services, how can credit unions create experiences so memorable that members will feel compelled to tell their family and friends about them? How can credit unions get a better picture of what members need and when, so they can put the perfect offer out in front of them when the time is right? What else can credit unions do to eliminate steps in various processes, so that banking activities feel effortless or even enjoyable from the member's perspective?

All this talk about whittling down, zeroing in and finding new "wow" factors, all for the sake of improving the member experience, got me thinking – what can you do to improve your experience? I know credit unions are all about serving others, but if their employees begin by spreading the love internally, it's that much easier to share elsewhere. You know the old saying: You can't pour from an empty cup. Here are a few considerations.

Make the day-to-day more efficient. Our Trailblazer Award winner for IT Executive of the Year, O.J. Gilder of A+ Federal Credit Union in Austin, Texas, offered great advice when he said the best way to respond to becoming overloaded with work is to let go of the things someone else can do. "As my workload increases, my abilities to delegate and train have been forced to improve," he said. "[Becoming overloaded at work] also requires me to be more creative in finding more efficient ways to do things, or figure out what isn't important and stop doing those things."

Personally, I used to stress over/feel obligated to respond to every email I received (as a media person who receives hundreds of press releases and inquiries daily, that's a lot of stress). Now, I scan my inbox for messages that require an immediate response and file the others away into categorized folders I can easily search should I need them in the future. I also implemented a process for contributed articles, designating one day per week to review contributions, reply to contributors and enter publication dates onto a calendar. The goal is to see your tasks as a forest, not an endless number of individual trees.

Bring big tech talk back down to earth. Everyone loves talking about artificial intelligence – in particular, what the world is going to look like when every vehicle on the road is autonomous. Or what it'll be like when cryptocurrency goes mainstream. It's fun to fantasize about when our lives might resemble science fiction novels we read as kids and how credit unions might fit into that world, but these conversations aren't helping us address the problems we face today. To avoid feeling overwhelmed or fearful (I was told some GAC attendees actually walked out of the cryptocurrency session with looks of terror on their faces), let's keep our technology discussions focused on ideas we can implement now, like using AI to better analyze member data.

Take a look at your big picture. Are you stuck working closely with someone whose name gives you pangs of anxiety every time it pops up on your phone? It may be time to consider a department or job change, because some personalities clash so badly that no amount of conflict resolution can help. Or, do you feel a total lack of excitement every time you think about your job? It might be worth exploring something new – not necessarily a total career or industry change, but maybe a role change, like doing freelance or contract work if you're miserable in a 9 to 5 setting. Big changes are scary, but sometimes necessary on the path to happiness.

Improving the member experience is a conversation all credit union employees should be having, but so is creating balanced, healthy work environments and lives for themselves. Because you can only give your best service when you are your best self.

Natasha Chilingerian

Natasha Chilingerian is managing editor for CU Times. She can be reached at [email protected].