Are culture & leadership part of your strategic plan?

“I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.” — Brené Brown, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

As the year comes to a close and you start to craft your vision and strategy for 2020, there are more than just a couple of things to think about. With your awareness set towards analysis and ideation of where your energy should be spent as the quarter turns back to one, focus your energy where it really matters. Your ideal member, budget allocation, 12-week, and 12-month goals. All of these are essential starting points. If your strategy doesn’t include a deep dive into the culture of your organization, though, you’re about to take a big swing with a guaranteed miss.

At EmpowerFi, we’re currently in the thick of culture conversations with a focus on vulnerability and courage in leadership. Through that lens, let’s talk about why culture matters and some ways to begin this kind of dialogue with your teams.

You might hear the word “vulnerability” and think that there’s no place for that kind of soft stuff in your financial institution. Vulnerability, however, is anything but soft. Inviting vulnerability— being one’s true, unarmored self — into leadership, is a rebellious act of courage in a world that teaches us to armor up and lead with an iron fist if you want to get people to do good work. To generate a culture where people show up empowered to contribute their best and invest in the vision of the organization, we must be willing to foster a culture where they want to do that because they, themselves, feel invested.

The holiday season is the perfect time to make a change if you as a leader are in the habit of negative reinforcement as a motivational tactic. Consider how empowered and inspired you feel when someone does nothing but criticize what you do wrong. There never needs to be a calendar-marked reason to embrace a culture of gratitude for your people, but if you need a place to start — this time of year is a perfect moment to seize.

Catch your people doing things right. Be on the lookout for what you can celebrate. What this might require from you, is actually spending time connecting with the people you lead. Check-in with your teams on their individual goals, both professionally and personally. Get curious about how you can leverage any of your resources to support them. Acknowledge and celebrate the wins so that when the moment comes to coach someone through an opportunity, they feel holistically led. This means that they’ve not only been approached when there’s an opportunity for improvement, they’ve also interacted with you in a positive and empowering light. And if you haven’t asked your people for feedback in a while, being generous with your willingness to listen for how you can grow in your leadership is a two-way gift.

One of the gaps we see when it comes to organizational strategy is that culture and leadership are missing from the big picture, but you wouldn’t have work to do without the people you lead. As your 2020 strategy comes into form, spend a day assessing the culture of your company. Get real about what’s working and what needs improvement. You will never go wrong by leading from the space of putting people first.

The historic credit union philosophy is “people helping people,” and if we examine why we do what we do, that idea still applies to our work nearly a century later. But “people” doesn’t just mean helping your members — it means we help one another from inside our teams as well. Start envisioning your impact as starting from within, the people you work with, connect with, and lead every single day.