By Amy Stanton
Editor's note: Amy was a runner-up in last year's Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge, with its prize of professional development credits. When top winner Tina K. Hall shared her prize with first runner-up Ronaldo Hardy, the idea of awarding professional development to all the finalists blossomed. Ultimately, CU leaders and organizations donated so much support that four finalists attended CEO Institute I in Philadelphia this spring. We're pleased to bring you a post from each of them about their experience at this acclaimed learning program. (Read Tina's post here; Ronaldo's here; and finalist Jodi Chambers' here.)
For someone who is not on an immediate career path toward CEO, I was unsure how I'd find the experience of attending CUES' CEO Institute. Suffice it to say, the institute exceeded my expectations across the board. The program is great for any credit union senior leader, regardless of background and career plans. It's certainly valuable for future CEOs, but it was great such a diverse group of credit union employees could come together on the common ground of wanting to be stronger leaders in the industry.
Here are some new things I think about, after attending:
- There's lots of value in making things simpler, but not simplistic. Doing this makes things exciting, innovative and effective.
- There are massive amounts of ideas on how to make strategic planning successful, realistic and effective. One of the strongest parts of the program is concrete examples of breaking down planning processes to make them stronger, including very specific examples that can easily be taken back and implemented.
- There are many creative ways for stretching outside the normal projecting and forecasting for what may happen in the future. Don't just think about what history dictates; make sure you have a plan for the craziest scenario you can think of. That will make everything in between a little easier to deal with.
- It's OK to feel a little uncomfortable in a business setting. We had a great session on business ethics that really forced me to think about where I would draw my line and even how to challenge others on theirs.
Amy Stanton is AVP/marketing of $362 million Connex Credit Union, North Haven Conn.
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