The CUInsight Experience podcast: Presence (#217)

Welcome to episode 217 of The CUInsight Experience podcast with your hosts, Randy Smith, co-founder of CUInsight.com, and Jill Nowacki, President and CEO of Humanidei.

This episode is sponsored by The Sheeter Group - a leading executive benefits firm that meets your retention and succession needs. This includes non-qualified benefit plans, short and long-term incentive plans, compensation studies, scorecard design, performance evaluation, and more. Learn more at sheetergroup.com.

In this season, Jill and I will have conversations centered around leadership, credit unions, and living our best lives. We will have some of the most respected leaders from around credit unions who we are grateful to call friends join us in the discussion from time to time too.

In this episode, we discuss all things presence and the importance of being present as a leader. Presence is the ability to truly show up mentally, emotionally, and energetically for your team and organization, and it’s something that all leaders struggle with at one point in time or another, ourselves included. We discuss how a leader’s presence shapes the team—without it, distractions, rushed decisions, and confusion take hold, but with it, trust, clarity, and connection flourish.

We also highlight the need for leaders to be intentional about creating space in their schedules, setting boundaries, and resisting the impulse to jump between tasks or immediately respond to messages. Listen as we share some personal stories and insights around the struggle to disconnect, stay focused, and resist the urge to constantly check devices.

We ultimately conclude that while presence may be one of the most overlooked leadership skills, it is also one of the most impactful, and by committing to regular practice and creating the conditions to truly show up and be present, leaders can unlock new levels of focus, connection, and effectiveness for themselves, their teams, and their organizations! We hope that you enjoy our conversation on presence!

[1:28] – When leaders are fully present, teams gain clarity and focus, but when absent, confusion and distraction tend to follow.
[3:01] – Attending without focus isn’t true presence; splitting attention weakens both productivity and connection.
[5:32] – Jill points out that even giving full attention briefly is more valuable than constant availability with divided focus.
[7:42] – Workplace culture shapes expectations of presence, making distraction acceptable in some places but not others.
[8:46] – Randy discusses how removing phones during training forced genuine engagement and deeper interaction among participants.
[10:03] – Jill feels that true immersion requires being fully present.
[12:53] – Missing subtle cues from others happens when we aren’t fully present in conversations.
[14:53] – People often believe that they can multitask, but distractions derail intentions and prevent true focus.
[17:05] – Jill shares that therapists model presence by pausing between sessions, avoiding distractions, and protecting their focus from interruptions.
[19:59] – Randy talks about how technology creates endless distractions, but true presence requires courage to pause.
[21:21] – Rapid-fire messaging feels productive, but focused presence usually delivers better results.
[23:33] – Answering after-hours messages sets unhealthy precedents, so boundaries are important.
[25:44] – Blurring work-life boundaries makes people feel overworked, guilty about breaks, and never fully present anywhere.
[28:53] – Jill points out how starting the day with emails makes workers reactive instead of setting their own intentions.
[29:50] – Randy discusses how respecting time zone differences reinforces that most communication isn’t urgent and doesn’t demand instant replies.
[30:58] – Jill asserts that modeling presence is important, but practicing patience, pausing, and engaging in self-care strengthens it even further.
[33:37] – Randy admits to struggling with offering solutions instead of truly listening and being present in conversations.
[35:31] – Jill asserts that interrupting someone with ideas signals disrespect, so write them down and stay present until others finish speaking.
[38:06] – Jill discusses the book An Everyone Culture.
[40:16] – Randy argues that being fully present leads to deeper impact and stronger connections in work and life.