This article about organizational structure is the fourth in a five-part series about workplace health. The first three parts focused on employee engagement, organizational culture, and organizational structure.
Top credit union leaders often wear many hats, especially at smaller organizations. This can lead them to spend more time on operations than strategy. Having leaders who do not work at the intended strategic level can lead to an unhealthy organization.
Importantly, leadership is one of five key factors—along with organizational structure, organizational culture, employee engagement, and training—that could be causing big problems in your workplace.
Some key symptoms that suggest leadership is a significant factor in your organization’s malaise include micromanagement, a lack of delegation (which often leads to burnout), and an inability to take time off (which also can lead to burnout).
While moving your organization from unhealthy to healthy status may seem daunting, take heart: The five key factors in organizational health, including leadership, are easy to improve. And, because the five areas overlap, when you work on one factor, you’ll often get improvement in others.
Here are the diagnostic steps and treatment tools for looking at leadership.
Diagnosing leadership as problematic
I recommend two strategies for gauging the health of leadership in your organization:
1. Talk with leaders
Conduct 30-minute interviews to understand where leaders are in their development and what’s pulling them into day-to-day operations instead of strategic work. These conversations often reveal role clarity issues, capacity constraints, or habits formed during earlier stages of the credit union’s growth. Consider asking questions such as:
- How much of your time is spent on high-level strategic planning versus managing day-to-day operations?
- How often do you have conversations with your team about long-term goals versus immediate challenges?
- When was the last time you took time off, and what could you fully delegate during that period?
2. Talk with staff
To understand how leadership shows up day to day, hear directly from the people experiencing it. This can be done through a 180- or 360-degree feedback tool or through structured skip-level meetings, conversations between a leader and employees who do not report to them directly.
A 180- or 360-degree tool provides confidential, aggregated insight into how leaders communicate, delegate, and make decisions. The value is in identifying patterns, not individual comments. For example, feedback often reveals leaders stepping in quickly to solve problems—a well-intended behavior that staff experience as micromanagement or a lack of trust.
Skip-level meetings offer similar insight in a more conversational format. These intentional conversations help surface what’s working, where people feel stuck, and how leadership decisions affect daily work. To work well, these conversations must be structured, focused on listening, and grounded in trust—so staff feel comfortable sharing honest feedback without fear of negative consequences.
Treating a leadership problem
When leaders are pulled too deeply into operations, the cost isn’t just their own burnout. Teams become dependent, decisions slow down, and strategy gets crowded out by urgent—but often avoidable—work. Over time, this creates an organization that works hard but struggles to move forward. The impact shows up everywhere: in engagement, in structure, and ultimately, in the member experience.
Whether you tackle the challenges of your organization’s health on your own or engage an expert to help, this work is doable now and sustainable over time. Credit unions that intentionally support leaders in working at the right level create healthier teams, stronger alignment, and better outcomes for members. When leadership is clear and strategic, the entire organization benefits.
