Staying out Front to 'Deliver Happiness'

I just returned from the CSCU, a CUES Supplier member, conference in St. Petersburg, Fla., and I am up to my eyelids in payments, fraud and EMV. But it’s all so fascinating because this is the stuff that’s making national and global headlines daily – and credit unions are right there in the mix poised to be their members’ leader in this space.

Many consumers’ heads have to be spinning with all the tech changes that have occurred just in the last six months – not to mention the last 10 minutes. It’s time credit unions leverage their collaborative environment to step up and be there to lead the way. So how does this normally conservative industry suddenly become progressive – especially with such volatile technology like payments?

Embrace and dive in.

Creating a culture of forward thinking has its benefits not only for the staff but for members. It’s infectious. People are proud to work for organizations that do cool things – like pushing the envelope with payments. People like to be connected to organizations that have a purpose and lead. It equals new business because people what to be a part of that – which segues to the conference’s keynote speaker: Jenn Lim, CEO & chief happiness officer at Delivering Happiness– a corporate culture consultancy based on Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s bestselling book Delivering Happiness.

Lim discussed how the importance of a company’s culture determines its success, adding that 87 percent of employees today are disengaged from their company – which equates to more than $500 billion in lost productivity. That’s huge.

So how can a company, your credit union, flip these stats to the positive through happiness? If your credit union is in a stale funk, try these six tips from Lim:

1. Commit to your job, your company, your purpose.
2. Define your core values, make them specific, and revisit them often. Do you believe in your core values? Do you have core values? Perhaps it’s time to take a long look here.
3. Commit to transparency, which means be yourself. Change yourself first before you can change the world, Lim added.
4. Vision: Start with your “why.” Why are you in this job? What is your purpose? Discover this to make an impact.
5. Build meaningful relationships: Create a work/life integration – not a work/life balance. To achieve this goal means staff doing things together outside of work to create a closer, meaningful bond that fosters loyalty between them. In turn, they will work harder for each other, which benefits the entire organization.
6. Build the right team: At Zappos, Lim said they developed a hire slow/fire quick methodology, which helped bring in the right people and weed out the ones who didn’t really want it. In addition, Zappos would also offer new employees $2,000 to quit – which has since been raised. This offering really told the company who was there for the right reasons.

The ultimate goal here is to create a team that flows and works together much like a school of fish, flock of birds, or a swarm of bees. Their motion is fluid. They are on the same page and work together almost seamlessly.

Lim also said that over the years she has discovered that success doesn’t bring happiness; happiness brings success. So it starts with a culture of happiness to enhance the organization to do great things.

If you saw the movie Office Space, you can count on featured company Initech not doing great things because its culture didn’t come anywhere close to being happy. This dysfunctional workplace was all about those dreaded TPC reports.

In closing, Lim described three types of happiness:

1. Pleasure – being a rock star.
2. Passion – where you enjoy doing what you’re doing so much that time flies; you’re working in a state of flow and it’s totally fulfilling.
3. Higher purpose or meaning – being part of something (organization, movement, event, etc.) that’s bigger than yourself that will have an impact on others.

Credit unions definitely have a higher purpose. They are there to help not only consumers and members but each other. This collaborative environment is like few industries on the planet. What better marketing message is there than that?

“We not only help you; we help each other to help you.”

And this gets me back to today’s rapidly evolving payments technology, consuming much of the financial industry news. Yeah, it’s a bit daunting, but it’s worth the effort to check it out and stick your big toe in the water. Your members expect you to be a leader in this area. It’s what you do. It’s your purpose to lead the way.

$557 million/65,600-member Greater TEXAS Federal Credit Union, Austin, Texas, is a prime example. It just launched an Apple Watch banking app for members who may want this technology today or sometime down the road. Yes, not many folks even have the watch yet – much less installing the banking app. But this move sends a message to the credit union’s membership and to the surrounding community’s consumers that Greater TEXAS FCU is looking forward and looking out for its members. That’s working ahead of the curve for a change.

One of credit unions’ primary concerns is remaining relevant. Whether it’s being a leader in financial technology, community outreach, member service, data security, or all of the above, it keeps you relevant – and propels you to a trusted leader position. And everybody wants to do business with a trusted leader.

It’s all about creating a culture of happiness, forward thinking, and meaning/purpose that delivers value for your members – and ultimately success for your credit union.

Mike Lawson, principal and founder of the PR/marketing firm DML Communications and the online CUbroadcast show, has two decades of journalism, public relations and marketing experience. His unique and robust knowledge allows him to meet the varied needs of editors, end-users and clients. Lawson's expertise enables him to enhance his clients' market exposure through media relations, social media tools, advertising efforts, target marketing strategies and more. He also speaks on PR, marketing and media issues to audiences nationwide.

Credit Union Management’s “Inside Marketing” column runs the third Thursday of the month.