“People Helping People” has been the credo of credit unions since their founding in the U.S. Focusing on helping people differentiate credit unions from the rest of the banking industry, and it’s a beautiful way to meld business with altruism.
Saying you’re focused on people is great, but only if you back up words with action. Acting on the “people” component is critical to every credit union’s future viability and ultimate success. All people – members and employees – need to feel your love and experience your care, not just hear about it.
Economic conditions across the country are magnifying the personal challenges felt by credit union members and employees. Whether it’s the result of increases in interest rates, fuel and food prices, or unemployment, people are feeling financial and social pressures like never before. It can be overwhelming for those who don’t know how to manage it.
That’s where your credit union can and MUST step up. Citizens in your communities – whether they’re current members or not – need your help to navigate these challenging times. That help can come in the form of practical solutions, like products and services, or it can be simply making it known that you’re willing and able to help.
This is precisely where empathy becomes so vital to the future viability and growth of your credit union. Now, more than ever, you have an unprecedented opportunity to step to the forefront of your community and be the one financial institution that genuinely recognizes residents’ pains and helps them realize badly needed solutions. The banks won’t do it … only your credit union can be the empathetic leader they desperately need right now.
While we focus largely on the communities you serve, don’t forget about your employees – they are likely experiencing the exact same challenges and stresses. To be an employer of choice today requires you to be a highly compassionate and empathetic employer who is focused on each employee’s wellbeing before and after work, as much as during work.
How do you foster a culture of empathy?
The good news is that empathy is a muscle that can be built and strengthened over time. It will take a new type of training, coaching, and ongoing practice to see results. Your focus should be on crafting a curriculum that addresses empathy from three vital aspects:
- Recognizing what empathy is and isn’t and how it should be integrated into all day-to-day interactions.
- Positioning empathy so it truly makes a difference, and your staff is positioned to maximize the impact it will have on their performance.
- Making sure leaders are prepared to incorporate empathy into their coaching efforts and engrain it in the fabric of your culture.
Investing in empathy training isn’t just a one-time event. It needs to be an ongoing initiative that permeates every aspect of your credit union’s culture. Done correctly and thoroughly, it will maximize the experiences your credit union creates for members and employees. To be most effective, it needs to be delivered by a new, outside voice which requires unique training skills and reinforcement. Even the most experienced staff trainers are challenged by a highly specialized topic like empathy.
We work closely with you and your team to make sure the content is tailored specifically for you and that it fits seamlessly into your other training efforts. Our empathy training is highly experiential with lots of exercises, activities, and practice to make sure staff is engaged and leaves knowing exactly how they will use what they’ve learned. While this is a seriously important topic, we will deliver it in a fun and highly participative manner to ensure staff enjoys the experience while they learn.
Our team of consultants is poised to deliver empathy training and coaching in the holistic manner necessary to build your empathy muscles and teach all staff how to walk in the shoes of others. We will equip you with the tools and regimen to transform your credit union’s culture. The result: a thriving, growing organization that drives the precise results you need to differentiate with members and employees for all the right reasons.
Many credit unions have already reached out in recent months about various ways to infuse empathy throughout their culture. If you want to make empathy your secret sauce and create a thoroughly empathetic culture at your credit union, let’s talk. www.fi-strategies.com/contact-us.