Examine your fears to help you focus

With Halloween coming up, it’s a great time to ask yourself, “What am I most afraid of when it comes to my credit union and the industry as a whole?” Your short list of answers can be a guide to what your top priorities really are.

Because CUES staffers talk every day with our members and others in credit union land, CUES has deep insights into the things that keep CU leaders up at night—things like payments, risk management, and keeping and developing top talent.

And as a talent development organization, CUES responds to these fears by offering learning experiences to help credit union leaders effectively address their top concerns. For example we are currently working with CUES Supplier member CO-OP Financial Services, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., to offer the new Payments University next April. We have partnered with the highly knowledgeable CUES Supplier member Cornerstone Advisors, Scottsdale, Ariz., to bring credit unions enterprise risk management services. And our CUES Executive Compensation Survey and CUES Employee Salary Survey help subscribers know if they’re paying enough to keep and motivate the best people.

While addressing specific fears with learning is important, CUES also excels at helping credit union leaders manage complexity. This means we offer programs that teach strategic tools to help leaders like you systematically sort through the sometimes overwhelming volume of news about payments, ERM, human resources and everything else. We know our attendees who attend and learn how to use these tools are well equipped to position their credit unions for success in the marketplace.

Key CUES programs, including CUES’ flagship CEO Institute, the already-mentioned Payments University, Mergers & Acquisitions Institute (now in its second year) and Strategic Innovation Institute, teach top-level and time-tested tools for analysis, critical thinking and decision-making. The tools attendees of these programs take home can help them feel less afraid because they know they’ll be making solid decisions about how to handle the challenges they face.

So, as the kids in your life dress up and go out to be scared this Halloween, be sure to ask yourself the question that led off this article: “What am I most afraid of when it comes to my credit union and the industry as a whole?” Take your short list of answers and seek reliable tools to help you best manage them.