Disrupting the Status Quo: Creating a Credit Union Competitive Advantage

As competition continues to increase within the financial industry, credit unions have to keep their hand on the pulse of members’ needs and their technological expectations. Whether integrating the latest and greatest technologies or providing a personalized banking experience, credit unions should be looking for new, innovative ways to differentiate their products and services. As such, leaders have a duty to promote cultures that prioritize creative thinking and disruption of the status quo. Organizations that remain content will fail to evolve to meet the dynamic needs of members, resulting in a decline in growth and financial sustainability.

It’s important to honestly assess the existing conditions of your credit union to determine how to motivate and inspire your team to challenge status quo. The following strategies demonstrate how you can lead your organization to defy complacency and create real competitive advantages not only to withstand market fluctuations, but also stand the test of time.

Build Trust

As a leader, you must create, nurture and grow a safe environment to encourage creative thinking and strategic ideation. Many times, employees fail to voice their new ideas because they fear criticism from other employees or retribution from company leadership. It is your job to make sure your employees feel safe and willing to table some of their vulnerabilities. However, employees will not follow your lead if they do not trust you implicitly. Leaders cannot hide from their own weaknesses. Rather, they should embrace their weaknesses and foster transparency to begin building a connection and deepening trust with their employees. For example, if you have made a mistake, own up to it – period. Demonstrating honesty and integrity in your own actions will build trust with your employees and help facilitate their willingness to communicate their creative thoughts and ideas.

Ask Why

You should encourage your employees to constantly ask: Why do we do things the way we do? By getting down to the base rationale, you will be able to gain a deeper understanding of why a policy or procedure was implemented and if modifications should be made. Furthermore, this mentality will help to build a culture of continuous improvement within your institution. It is up to you as a credit union leader to build a culture that allows for curiosity and innovation to thrive. Promoting a culture that asks, “Why?” is just one of many steps to ensuring your credit union is properly positioned to innovate fresh ideas to help retain and attract members.

Incentivize Ideas

To create a safeguard against employees’ idea vulnerabilities, leaders should incentivize idea generation by implementing a reward structure. Careful consideration and appreciation for all ideas will create an open and safe environment for employees to express all of their creative thoughts openly. There is no such thing as too much reinforcement of the concept, “There is no such thing as a bad idea.” Leaders should look even further to other incentives that could drive their employees’ idea generation. The next idea could possibly be the one to completely shift the paradigm for your credit union.

Think Differently

As a credit union leader, you must make it a priority to seek employees with different perspectives who will challenge the status quo and offer diverse ideas, preventing groupthink from infiltrating your institution. All too often, the “that’s how we do it around here” mentality creates unnecessary roadblocks to innovation and organizational progression. By illuminating diverse viewpoints on an issue, new, cutting-edge solutions can be fostered and implemented to help prevent your credit union from stagnant growth and creativity.

Forecast Constantly

Credit unions should constantly be analyzing and forecasting trends within the industry to determine if the status quo has, in fact, shifted. By looking to the future, credit unions can begin making the necessary changes to prepare their institutions for a change in how things will be done. Furthermore, credit unions can use this as a strategic advantage to retain members and attract other consumers to join their institution. While forecasting is essential to winning the future, leaders must also be sure to look at the past and gain a firm understanding of how their credit union responded to industry trends. This information is vital to identifying the vulnerability points of your institution and how you can better react to future shifts.

With new technological innovations and market entrants occurring every single day, credit unions simply cannot afford to be complacent with the status quo. Rather, credit unions must continuously explore ways to improve the services they offer as well as their internal culture. By following the above strategies, credit unions can establish an institutional environment that makes disrupting the status quo a priority, which will enable competitive advantages that attract and fulfill consumers’ dynamic needs now and into the future.

Robin Kolvek is CEO at EPL, Inc. She can be reached at 205-408-5300 or robin.kolvek@epl.net.