NextGen Leaders: Lindsey Benson

Lindsey Benson

Loan Officer

$1.7 billion Soo Co-op Credit Union

Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

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Watch Lindsey’s CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec video

Give us the elevator speech about your project (as in how would you describe your project to someone you meet in an elevator?):

My project, Retire on Track, is to create the first retirement fair in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that will be extremely beneficial to our membership and community as a whole. Our goal is to give retirees the tools and education necessary to create the financial freedom during retirement that they deserve. By hosting retirement fairs, we will get our credit union and community more involved in their retirement planning process, and assist them in preparing a successful, enjoyable retirement. During the fair, participants will visit a variety of life-style booths to learn about the costs and financial effects of their decisions. Upon completion, attendees will be able to create or make adjustments to their current financial plans in order to prepare for the type of retirement they desire. We hope that this will not only help those involved with the fair, but also bring more recognition to our credit union and the credit union industry. We want to be the financial institution our community trusts with all of the financial needs, from savings and loans, to investments and retirement!

What is your long-term career goal?

My current focus is on the credit union industry and to become educated on both the business side and the operations side. By doing so, I will be able to sharpen and broaden my leadership skills. My long-term goal is to be in an upper management role at my credit union, where I am able to lead my team to new innovations and growth. I am very passionate about the credit union movement, I know this is where I belong and I can have a positive impact on the CU industry.

Fill in the dots: The future of credit unions will be bright if...

We continue to educate our members and communities on what a credit union is, what we stand for, and how we can lead the way for the financial industry. I also believe that one of the most important things credit unions can do to ensure success is to stay abreast with all of the most current technology available. Technology is advancing at a rapid pace and there is always something “ground-breaking” being released. We need to offer as many up-to-date, user friendly and accessible services to our members as possible. This will not only help set us apart from our competition but will also help meet the needs of our members more efficiently. With the younger generation (who are naturally tech savvy), getting more in tune with their finances, the demand for electronic services is increasing quickly. Soon, this generation is going to be the majority of our membership and we will need to meet our member’s expectations to help keep them with credit unions.

What my generation brings to the credit union movement is …

Loyalty. By investing time and money into bringing millennials into credit unions, we will be building relationships that will last a lifetime with these young adults. There has been enough financial turbulence in the last 10 years that my generation has experienced to shape our attitude towards how we care about our finances.  And for this reason, my generation, the millennials, will be able to bring a creative mind set influenced by the global economy, easily available at our finger tips. We are the largest population as we have now surpassed the baby boomers. Credit unions need to capitalize on this large population in order to bring in new members to our credit unions. Currently the majority of our membership is baby boomers. However, this will change in the near future and we do not want to lose a lot of members, as this could be detrimental to business. Attracting millennials now, by offering the right tools, education and technically advanced products, we will build up our membership so that when the baby boomers are no longer members our membership count will still be able to grow.

People consider me a leader because …

I am considered a leader because of my ability to inspire those around me; by bringing a positive can-do attitude to every situation. I do this by offering constructive criticism and by always approaching problems with solutions. I truly believe that one attitude has the strength to affect those of everyone around them. By keeping a high level spirit, and showing passion with everything I do, I am able to coach and inspire others. These are the qualities that make people consider me a leader.

Who is your hero and why?

My grandfather, Paul Harrison is my hero. He has shown me what unconditional love really means, and has always put his family first. He is an extremely dedicated and hard worker. While he was helping shape the young minds of my childhood youth as a high school principal and athletic director he always spent additional hours on the weekends and during the summer running his own construction business with his son. He did both jobs so that his family would be provided for and able to enjoy the lifestyle he dreamed of. He has instilled that anything worthwhile takes hard work and devotion. He has been a positive role model in my life, and I know that I have him to thank for my passion, dedication and work ethic. I will always be grateful that I was able to grow up with my super hero and now my three year old son gets to experience the same work ethic growing up, which is truly a blessing.  

Who is a must-follow on Twitter?

I shamefully will admit that I just signed up for twitter a week ago and I’ve been kicking myself for not joining sooner! There are so many inspirational people to follow! So far, I have enjoyed seeing what Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant) tweets. Mr. Grant is a top rated professor at Wharton and is a New York Times writer on work and psychology. I enjoy reading his thinking and tips on management. He has very thoughtful ideas that are helping me get to the level of leadership that I aspire to be.

Does your credit union have Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/Pinterest/LinkedIn/Instagram other social media accounts? Please provide links:

Facebook: Soo Co-op Credit Union

YouTube: Soo Co-op Credit Union

What is your favorite CUES member benefit? Or, if you are a new CUES NextGen member, what benefit are you most looking forward to using?

I am a new CUES member, and I am looking forward to the professional development, training, and resources aspect of the site. I have looked the website over a couple of times and I think that this will definitely be beneficial to my career growth. I love the concept of CUES Learning Tracker  and I can’t wait to start exploring it and see how it can be beneficial to my career.