I hate asking for help.
I believe manuals are for dummies.
I believe in the sink or swim.
I believe in the figure it out.
I do not listen to directions well. I listen halfway and then think I got the gist of it.
I do not take maps. I think I have a photographic memory.
Utah. It’s gorgeous. Mountains are awe inspiring. Hikes are amazing, and breathing, well let’s just say it is hard at 8,300 feet above sea level. I blame the high altitude for many interesting decisions over the last several days.
Frank will tell you we had an “adventure”. I call it one step away from Naked and Afraid – without the naked part.
3.9 miles of hiking in Park City, Utah – Holly’s Trail. It’s one big traverse they told me (“they: being the front desk staff and my new best friends due to a fantastic upgrade!). Anyway, 3.9 turned into 9 miles turned into us trying to race down the side of a mountain on a ski slope on foot with dusk rapidly approaching. I will say the MAP that we took since I got lost, I mean went on an “adventure”, the day before was really not helpful.
Help. UGH. I loathe succumbing to asking for someone to guide me. HELLO????? I KNOW what I am doing.
Long story short, we had to call MORE THAN ONCE for help routing our way through the mountain. We even had to send photos to show exactly where we were. How over the top pathetic that sounds, but sadly totally necessary.
Help. It’s not just for lost hikers. We all need it sometimes. It’s hard to ask for help. But, a lot of things in life take more than one person. There is no “I” in “team” as they say (different “they” than the hotel staff mentioned above).
Our members ask us for help every day. It’s kind of why we exist. To help our members with their finances, to help them save and budget, to help buy a first car or home, to help send a child to college or help with medical expenses.
As we head into strategic planning season and make our plans or tweak existing plans, we need help. We need to ask our employees, our partners (vendors), our executive team, for help. Help in defining and reaching our goals; help in strengthening our credit unions; help in creating strategic plans; help in making every member experience exceptional.
How can we achieve goals, make differences in our credit unions, make differences in our members lives without help? We can’t. We need to come together to achieve these things.
We need to work with each other and ask for help form our peers in making strides, in making advancements, in implementing new technologies, in communicating with our members, in representing your credit unions brand and mission accurately.
We are credit union people. We believe in the cooperative.
COOPERATIVE. It’s a strong, powerful word that defines credit unions.
COORERATIVE. It’s how credit union pull together, share resources, make changes, make advancements, help our members.
When we don’t ask for help we are losing out on opportunities. When we don’t ask for help sometimes things take twice as long (or 3 times in the case of the hike). When we don’t ask for help we are only hurting ourselves, or our credit unions, or our members.
It’s a lesson I need to learn personally. Put the pride aside, put the manic type A control freak personality aside, put the worry that others might think you aren’t up to task or not understanding what needs to happen. Just ASK. There is nothing wrong with reaching out, for advice, for guidance, for an opinion, for help in growing internally and externally as a credit union, for finding your way back down the mountain.
How can we help you this year? How can we help you improve your member experience? How can we help remove obstacles and barriers that prevent your members from achieving their goals? How can we help your staff grow into effective communicators? How can we help you reach your membership goals, loan goals, cut expenses, develop a social media strategy, create or effectively promote your credit unions brand?
When you are ready to ask for help, we are here to listen and be part of your team.
