Celebrate the “bobs” at your credit union

My parents are awesome. I am really thankful for their diligence in teaching my twin sister and me the value of hard work and instilling a solid work ethic in us.

We learned that there is a lot of gratification in the process of completing a hard days’ work. We also learned at an early age that hard work can be a lot of fun. One of my favorite memories is from swimming lessons when I was five years old.

I had never been swimming before and was really excited to jump in the pool to get started. First, the instructor took time with each of the kids in my class helping us to feel comfortable in the water. Then we had to learn what they called “bobs,” which is ducking down until your head is completely below the water level.

It was scary, but I conquered my fears, held my breath and pretty soon I was bobbing all over the place. It was a great feeling! My parents were so excited, they took us to McDonalds after class to “celebrate our bobs.” This was a big deal to us as getting to go to McDonalds was a special treat growing up. And we continue to this day to use the phrase “celebrate your bobs” when something good happens to anyone in my family.

This fun memory popped into my head this week during a conversation with a small credit union about strategic goals for 2016. I was going through the process of developing the marketing plan when a gentleman stopped me and asked, “how much of this process is motivational?”

My answer was this: after years of working through this process many times over the years, I have seen that there is a direct link between the time and effort credit union leaders spend on “celebrating bobs” and the amount of success the credit union experiences.

In your credit union, there are “bobs” happening every day in every department. It doesn’t take a huge budget or a big elaborate incentive program to develop a culture of celebrating and rewarding success in order to build and create momentum. It’s different at every credit union because the people are different at every credit union.

As we finish out 2015 and planning for 2016, a majority of credit unions are aiming for more loans and younger membership growth. Goals are important, but your “bobs” should be top priority. Similar to how my “bobs” were made really important by my parents because they initiated the celebration, it is vitally important for senior leadership in particular to look out for “bobs” and initiate the celebrations within your credit union.

If you get good at celebrating those and building a culture of teamwork and camaraderie, success will be the result you enjoy for celebrating the bobs that happen every day in your credit union. Cheers to 2016 – may you have many occasions to celebrate your bobs.