By Kristin Ryan
CUES' Young Professionals group made the tent pole drop in less than three minutes, truly showing excellent team work and communication skills.I love that CUES hires members of Gen Y that bust the stereotype. People 35-and-under at CUES don't have the much touted "young people" qualities of not working hard and thinking they're entitled to things for free, as many articles on the subject state.
A colleague and I got to talking one day about how much we enjoy working with the other CUES Gen Y staffers, and what could be done to cement the relationship between CUES and these able employees. After all, they're the kind of people my colleague and I would like to still be working with a decade from now.
Out of this conversation (and knowledge of what 2011 CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec Devin Selte has done to help develop young professionals at his credit union), CUES' Young Professionals group was born. Almost a dozen of us have met monthly six times now, with the idea of getting these talented folks out from behind their desks to a place where they can learn--and laugh--with like-minded contemporaries.
With no budget at all, we've been able to cover the following topics during our first six bring-your-own-lunch-to-the-conference-room meetings:
1. personal backgrounds and practicing elevator speech;
2. values/interests/goals with a homework assignment;
3. professional development/life coach speaker (we got the lead on this speaker from a member of CUES' member relations team);
4. financial planning speaker from a local credit union;
5. leadership activity--identifying good, bad and ugly characteristics of leaders and how to apply the good ones;
6. team building activity (see photo).
Our most recent meeting was a terrific field trip to the Filene Research Institute, focusing on personal and industry innovation with Matt Davis, Filene's director of innovation. Looking forward, maybe one day we'll expand to include all the young professionals working in the credit union industry in the area.
I'm really glad for the support CUES' senior leadership has shown for the Young Professionals group. Time will tell how long Young Professionals members will keep working at CUES. But if you judge the program right now, based on the interest, participation and buzz generated during our meetings, the Young Professionals group is definitely hitting the mark.
Kristin Ryan is CUES' executive education and meetings manager.
The 2012 Next Top Credit Union Exec will be named at CEO/Executive Team Network in November.
