Garden Savings FCU's 'Casual but Accountable'-Style Leader Shares His Career Journey

Name: Michael Powers

Credit union: Garden Savings Federal Credit Union ($436 million, Parsippany, N.J.)

Title: President/CEO

Age: 53

Number of years at current credit union: Fifteen and three-quarters

Educational background: Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology

CU Times: What are your key responsibilities in your current role?

Powers: Provide oversight and leadership of a $430-million credit union in New Jersey. Guide the credit union into a profitable and productive future while making the credit union a great place for members to do their banking, and employees to come to work.

CU Times: What drew you to the credit union industry?

Powers: It was an accident really. I’m told my story is quite amusing in that I had graduated college in May of 1993 and actually had a very good job that did not utilize my college education at all. My father, who paid for my college, did not want that job (which had a low ceiling despite paying well) to be my career aspiration, and so he started cutting listings out of a newspaper for me and telling me to apply for certain jobs. One of these jobs was a credit union teller job at the credit union then known as SGC Federal Credit Union. I took the job for $9.35 an hour and then after six months, began a fairly rapid ascension up the company ranks. I learned to love credit unions, and I’ve never looked back.

CU Times: What unique skills, experience and attributes do you bring to your role?

Powers: All of us in credit unions have to have multiple skills in multiple areas and thus, I consider myself a jack of all trades. While my marketing skills are still my core skill set since I headed marketing functions at credit unions for 25 years, I take pride in my ability to learn a lot about a lot of different areas in the credit union. We all have to be nimble and adaptable in this industry because, with the exception of the muti-billion dollar shops that have large staffs, we all operate fairly thin and have to wear multiple hats. I also pride myself on my ability to work and adapt to different personalities and different people, which is such a valuable skill set to have in 2024.

CU Times: Which person (or people) do you credit the most for helping and supporting you along your career journey?

Powers: There are many and probably too many to count. Most of them are still in the industry and I don’t know if they’d want their names mentioned but my very first marketing manager in 1993 taught me everything I needed to know. Then there was the COO and Chief Lending Officer at the job I held previously for 15 years. Then of course there was my former CEO and mentor, Lou Vetere (who I will name drop), who taught me how to get to the next level. And I can’t leave out my Dad, who got me into this awesome industry in the first place.

CU Times: What are some of the biggest differences between working in your current executive level role and your previous, non-executive roles?

Powers: The number of people I manage is the biggest difference. That’s been a big adjustment but one I’ve embraced. Also, the level of responsibility is far greater and the decision making has a much bigger impact on pretty much everything. Full disclosure, sometimes I miss the creativity of marketing, but there are different ways to be creative with everything from employee benefits to staff appreciation to ways to grow your credit union and expand your member base. Creativity is still there, it just takes a slightly different shape.

CU Times: What’s a challenge you faced when you first joined your executive team, and how did you overcome it?

Powers: Back in 2009 when I first joined the executive ranks, my CEO put me in charge of marketing, business development and lending as Chief Sales Officer. This was great except … I’d never worked a day in a loan department in my life and now suddenly I was in charge of one. When I asked him why he was giving me that function he said that it was because I knew how to lead people and get things done, and that I’d figure out the rest as I went. He was right, but it sure was a big learning curve. This is a great example of my prior answer of people wearing so many different hats in this industry.

CU Times: How would you describe your current leadership style?

Powers: Casual but accountable. I don’t like micromanagement. If you’re employed, you’re employed to work and do a job and do it well. Therefore, I don’t stand over anyone’s shoulder, I just expect good results. For the most part I’m loose and fun (I hope!) and try to create an atmosphere where people love to come to work.

CU Times: What are some lessons you’ve learned over your career concerning how to communicate well with others? And, do you approach communication differently depending on the generation of the recipient (boomer, Gen X, millennial and Gen Z)?

Powers: It sounds basic, but really it’s about listening. Listen to what people are saying to you and reply in a style that you think they will relate to the most. Not only is communication different from generation to generation as this question asks, but it’s important from person to person. Be adaptable, don’t be a ‘my way or the highway’ type, and recognize that every set of eyes is different. Every person is trying to do the best they can. Work with them, listen, understand, process and move forward productively. You’re not going to be able to please everyone all the time, but it’s always worth the effort.

CU Times: What are some ways in which you achieve work/life balance, set boundaries and/or avoid burnout at work?

Powers: I always tell people that I take my job seriously, but I don’t take myself very seriously at all. Laugh, have fun, have a few cocktails, play some sports … do what makes you happy and always make time for that. Yes, we all have to recognize that work calls for a number of hours every week and there’s no getting around that. But if you love your job, the work/life balance sort of takes care of itself. There was a song called ‘Closer to Fine’ by the Indigo Girls in the ’90s that had the lines, ‘The best thing you ever did for me / was to help me take my life less seriously / It’s only life, after all’ in it. That always struck me. Find a balance and don’t take yourself too seriously, just take your work seriously, and have some fun along the way.

CU Times: What’s next for you on your executive career journey? Do you have any specific career goals you’re working toward?

Powers: To make Garden Savings the best and strongest credit union it can be for decades to come. I have about 13-14 years of working left and I want to say I made sure we stayed true to our credit union roots and that our institution carried out its mission of being a better place to bank for our members. I want to walk away from this industry after working from age 23 to 67 in it saying that I worked hard and made everywhere I worked just a little bit better (if not a lot)!

CU Times: What big-picture impact do you hope to make within your credit union, as well as for your members and community?

Powers: Stay true to your roots. Never forget why we are here. We serve the members as an alternative to traditional banking, and we have our place in this world. We don’t have to take over the world, we just need to be great at the niche of people that we serve and hopefully serve many others along the way. I want as many people as possible to recognize Garden Savings and credit unions in general as a fantastic alternative to conventional banks!

CU Times: What career advice would you give your younger self?

Powers: Do it all again, brother. Whatever you did, it seems to have worked.

Would you or someone you know like to share your journey to credit union leadership? Please reach out to Natasha Chilingerian at nchilingerian@cutimes.com. To qualify, the individual must be a part of a credit union’s leadership team or C-suite, and have a compelling story to share about their rise to their current leadership role.