Help your team win with learning this month

Eddie Robinson is recognized by many experts as one of the greatest college football coaches in history. After a 56-year career, he retired in 1997 with a record of 408-165-15. I had the privilege to meet this humble and approachable giant twice—and had a great conversation both times.

Something that Robinson is known for saying about reaching your full potential came to mind as we were preparing to celebrate Learning and Development Month this month:

“The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential … these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

Robinson was a great developer of talent. Although he coached at a smaller college (Grambling State University, a historically black university in Grambling, Louisiana), more than 200 of his players went on to play professional football. 

To celebrate Learning & Development Month, I encourage you to pause and take stock of the learning and development activities at your credit union right now. What is going well? What could you add or do better to help your leaders and team members learn and develop? Here are five ideas for your consideration:

• Join an organization that supports the development of every member of your team on an ongoing basis.
• Set up an online learning portal to provide educational content and courses and track the learning activities that individual employees undertake and complete.
• If you haven’t already, design individual development plans for each member of your staff. If you have IDPs in place, make time this month to review and update them.
• Examine the culture in which talent is developed at your credit union. Does it really foster the kind of learning that will secure future organizational wins?
• Don’t forget to provide for your board’s learning. Whether it’s coursework, discussing a relevant video at each board meeting, or doing an assessment of the full board or individual directors, promoting development at the board level will set up your credit union for success.

Joining in the celebration of Learning and Development Month, CUES is offering weekly educational challenges designed to get leaders and team members engaged with learning, including the newest benefit of CUES membership: Harvard ManageMentor™. We hope all participants will find the challenges useful in re-committing to talent development.