2 minutes
In this issue’s cover story, “A Matter of Leadership,” author Michael G. Daigneault, CCD, CEO of Quantum Governance L3C, shares a scary story involving a credit union board consulting project. The tale bears repeating, because I’m pretty sure it’s not an isolated situation.
“One of my senior consultants came to Quantum Governance from the general nonprofit sector,” Daigneault begins. “She was stunned when assigned to her first credit union client.
“What she found was a group of directors, the majority of whom had been in their positions for well over 20 years. Because of the long-time tenure of these board members, the institution was facing the wholesale turnover of both its board and its CEO in the next few years. By holding on so long, the board members actually ended up endangering leadership continuity—exacerbating the very problem they professed to be solving by their continued service.”
This situation and frequent interactions with other boards through consulting and speaking engagements have led Daigneault to conclude that “credit union governance is being severely challenged by a rapidly changing environment and a sometimes stagnating board.”
Are your directors leading effectively? Or is your board stagnant? In the article (p. 20), Daigneault asks a series of questions to help draw your own conclusions.
Some board members already have.
In focus groups recently conducted for CUES, directors voiced their desire to recruit younger, more diverse board members, describing the status quo as “pale, male and stale.”
Daigneault would agree that big change is needed. In many cases, he writes, “fundamental or truly transformational changes—not just incremental—are what your credit union must undertake to craft the exceptional board of the future.”
Mary Auestad Arnold
Editor and Publisher
P.S. CUES offers a wealth of board resources—from a monthly governance column (receive in your email by subscribing to CUES Director Advantage, to Center for Credit Union Board Excellence membership, to custom consulting from strategic partner Quantum Governance, to CUES Governance Leadership Institute™ at the University of Toronto in June.
