Try, try, try again. You’re working your credit union’s strategic plan; you’re spending money marketing, but nothing seems to generate the growth you’re looking for at your credit union. Why?
Things don’t happen when you stand still, or even worse, when you try half-heartedly.
I write from experience. Let me share my story and see if this sounds familiar.
For the last three years I’ve had a vision about what next level looks like for YMC. I dreamed and started taking steps, but they were half-hearted steps. I tweaked instead of re-imagined. I applied band-aids instead of amputating dead limbs. I remained paralyzed in fear about “what if” and didn’t take the steps I needed to take and do the work that needed to be done because of FEAR.
OUCH. My mentor pointed out that I was not taking my own advice. The same advice I share with my clients. “You can’t build your credit union for future growth with younger members by trying to please everyone.”
Last year we were entering year 15 of YMC’s existence and I knew we had some legacy processes and services that needed to go away to be relevant and successful for another 15 years. I kept imagining the worst about legacy clients and how they might react to the changes. They had been so used to “the way we’ve always done it.” What in the world would they say if we made these changes? We’ve been super successful, why rock the boat?
So, I took my mentor’s advice, and I rocked the boat. We put together a strategic plan that would be executed over the next 18 months that would set YMC up as if we were a new strategic credit union marketing firm opening up today.
I chose three of our closest clients that, if they had fired us over the changes, I knew we had done something wrong. These are progressive, entrepreneurial and passionate credit union leaders and clients. After sharing the vision and proposed changes, their feedback was positive.
We pressed on.
I shared the news with all of our clients. No one fired us. The feedback has been amazing. “This is going to be great.” “I wish you would have done this sooner.” Wait, what?
I think back to a CUinsight article I penned several years ago in which I wrote about fear, and I realized that I was continuing to allow Dedebe to limit me and, in turn, YMC.
If things aren’t working out as you had hoped, perhaps your strategy and your decisions aren’t bold enough. You’re walking the line of the old and new, trying to please everybody and instead pleasing no one. And it’s showing up in your numbers with declines in membership and loans.
Things don’t happen when you stand still, or even worse, when you try half-heartedly. Are you ready to take bold steps? If so, then let’s talk!
