Enhancing the young and emerging leader experience

The season of winter is a time when organizations and individuals decide how to show up, appreciate, and listen to employees, co-workers and each other—reflection and planning. Throughout the global industry, it is uplifting to hear about the recognition of young professionals with celebrations, awards and performance incentives. We all desire to have our efforts recognized, and our careers grow with limitless potential. We seek to have our individual differences seen no matter the level or title we hold to contribute to success and innovation.

When we transition into a new year, are organizations showing up and standing out for their employees for the long term?

There are a couple of ways that organizations can approach change, and, just like the game Risk, culture and collaboration must be tailored to the institution with the full support and trust that there will be successes and failures as you move forward. Mentorship and Cooperation.

Are we modeling and adequately preparing our employees for a well-rounded leadership role?
There is a bit of magic that comes when high level leaders take vested interest in the development of those in multiple departments. A former co-worker of mine calls them “Hellos”, where she intentionally reaches out and builds trust for open, honest discussions for cross collaboration and learning. This “hello” starts an informal mentorship and can last years, but the trust and ability to reach out to that leader never closes. Fostering an open space of communication allows for collaboration when new challenges arise and builds a stronger culture through constructive feedback and internal networking.

Are we fostering cooperation?
Getting Young and Emerging Leaders involved is important and does not need to be started from scratch. With the way credit unions are connected through hundreds of CUSOs, Associations and leagues, there are established programs built to help bring Young Professionals together while retaining their talent for the organization. Organizations recognizing the benefit of retaining and developing Young Professionals are able tap into their full potential with the help of these programs to develop them into Emerging Leaders.

Fostering cooperation can expand beyond the organization, as well.

What happens when we build relationships between credit unions to allow for cross-growth and promotion? What happens when industry cooperation turns into cooperative innovation?

We want to see our teams to succeed.
Intentionally amplifying diverse voices to speak on different perspectives of the industry fosters innovation and leads to increased performance for the organization. In this time of winter, what change will spring bring for you and your team? Will you diversify the selection processes and foster environments where folks can openly collaborate? Will you foster mentorship and development forming in those collaborative spaces to promote innovation and change?

The World Young Credit Union Professionals (WYCUP), under the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, seeks to open the doors to a world of possibilities for young and emerging leaders in the credit union industry through scholarship programs, development and networking opportunities where they can connect, discover and grow their careers to create sustainable impact across the local and global credit union movement. Want to help make WYCUP the place for further collaboration and opportunity? Want to partner with WYCUP to provide more development and networking opportunities? Contact us and set up a recurring donation today at www.WYCUP.org/donate.

Please select a valid form