5 Steps to Leading With Purpose
Purpose is at the forefront of consumer-brand relationships and helps employees focus on the bigger picture.
Purpose is at the forefront of consumer-brand relationships. According to Edelman, 64% of consumers are belief-driven buyers, wanting to support brands that align with their values. When it comes to financial services, it’s no different. Members seek personalized solutions from credit unions that “do well by doing good.” A financial institution’s purpose signals what it stands for and helps members identify if the organization’s values align with their own. Purpose also helps employees focus on the bigger picture, giving them a common goal to work toward. Here are five steps to leading with purpose at your credit union.
1. Define your purpose.
Callahan & Associates identifies two fundamental questions that can help an organization identify its purpose: “Who are we?” and “What is the need we fulfill in society?”
BCU takes pride in offering over 330,000 members across the U.S. and Puerto Rico competitive products and digital technology that’s easy to use and delivered by people who really care. Our purpose is clearly defined by our dedication to Empowering People to Discover Financial Freedom. These six words are ever-present in BCU’s internal and external communications, and appear in physical spaces on our campus and at branch locations. But a purpose is much more than a slogan or a tagline. To take purpose to the next level, we must first look inward.
2. Start internally. Enacting purpose starts with commitment from leadership and dedication to fostering a purposeful environment for all employees. Reinforcing this with actions helps to empower employees’ well-being at work. When we are focused and driven to achieve our purpose, we are more invested in helping our members achieve their dreams. This year, BCU took our purpose one step further with an organization-wide “Purpose into Practice” initiative. This included reinvigorating our purpose through educational content to define our organizational mission, developing our Purpose Operating Model, developing a series of purpose-driven videos and capturing member testimonials in select branches.
Of course, BCU’s purpose is at the core of everything we do, but there’s equal value in nurturing one’s individual well-being. Through Purpose into Practice, our human resources and marketing groups, along with our volunteerism committee, created the concept of thrive! time. This allows employees to allocate half of their paid volunteer time to enrich their well-being in designated areas that are recognized by Gallup as being necessary to thrive – career, social, financial, physical and community. So far, employees are enjoying the opportunity to attend their child’s swim lessons, seek mental health resources and even offer shelter to a Ukrainian refugee family. Activities in the five categories, as defined by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter’s book “Wellbeing at Work,” are the main source of employee workplace health. An employee who feels fulfilled in these areas will perform better and be happier, and that translates to happier members. An individual employee’s purpose matters as well. Last year, BCU participated in an organization-wide training with a member of inspirational speaker Simon Sinek’s team who guided employees through creating their own personal “why” statements, and it’s an exercise every BCU employee takes part in during onboarding.
According to a 2021 study by McKinsey & Company, employees who feel that their purpose is aligned with their organization’s exhibit stronger engagement and heightened loyalty. When employees feel this connection to their work, they are happier, and a cycle begins. A happy employee brings their best self to work and, in turn, provides exceptional member experiences.
3. Take action.
We have a core belief that happy employees create happy members. To illustrate this, we put our Purpose into Practice through several external initiatives this past year. First, BCU underwent a digital banking platform upgrade. The upgrade was an investment in our members’ ability to self-serve – providing a faster, more secure and intuitive way to access their accounts, 24/7. Even in the face of adversity, BCU is there – providing financial relief for our members affected by recent Hurricanes Fiona and Ian. This included secure account assistance, reimbursed fees, loan and mortgage payment relief, and quick access to emergency home repair loans or personal loans for those in affected areas experiencing property damage. BCU’s headquarters in Puerto Rico utilized its solar power, generators and water preservation systems to keep the business open, enabling employees to charge their phones and do laundry – all while seamlessly continuing to help our members.
We are dedicated to promoting financial freedom, no matter what that looks like – a challenge that we faced most recently with inflation and uncertain economic times. As cost of living and interest rates began to rise, we knew we had to rise to the occasion by electively raising rates on our checking and savings products to increase the return to members. For us, this was the ultimate way to actively show members we’re here for them. That is what leading with purpose is all about – showing, not telling.
4. Ask for help. I’ve learned from many wonderful mentors that the best leaders can’t do it all. Rather, they surround themselves with others who are the best at what they do. For BCU, this comes into play in the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) space. To further evolve the workplace, we continue to partner with our own DEI leadership and human capital consulting firm, Humanidei. As a result of Voice of the Employee research, we added Inclusion to our existing Shared Values of Integrity, Courage, Collaboration and WOW. The amendment is a commitment to fostering an inclusive, supportive community for our employees. This research also resulted in the creation of BCU’s first DEI council. This group of 14 employees were anonymously selected because of their dedication to being change agents and representing the employee voice. While an organization can do everything in its power to go above and beyond for members, the real magic happens when you listen to those who are closest to the member.
5. Monitor and measure. One final component to leading with purpose is continuing to seek learning opportunities, promoting personal and professional development for yourself and others, and measuring progress. There are both qualitative and quantitative ways to understand if leading with purpose impacts goal attainment and bottom-line results. One way that BCU brings this to life is through the Gallup Employee Engagement Survey. Each year, we gather feedback from employees about their feelings on the workplace. We analyze these findings and work year-round to alleviate pain points and continue evolving strengths. From 2021 to 2022, the percentage of engaged employees increased from 67% to 72% while the percentage of not engaged employees decreased from 28% to 24%. We are on the right track but strive for continuous improvement. Even more frequently, we assess our members’ pain points and strengthen areas through Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys. This is just one more way that we continue to keep our members first in everything that we do. Employee engagement and NPS initiatives provide us with qualitative indicators for things we can do to improve, but they also provide a score with which to measure our impact. This holds true for the financial performance of the credit union as well.
If we weren’t taking action to ensure our purpose is embedded within the organization, we would likely see that reflected in financial metrics. Without proper focus, it can be easy to lose sight of your organization’s purpose or your own. Keep applying your learnings and keep putting your purpose into practice.
Mike Valentine President/CEO Baxter Credit Union Vernon Hills, Ill.