James Sinegal, co-founder and former CEO of Costco – “I think the biggest single thing that causes difficulty in the business world is the short-term view. It forces bad decisions.” “Wall Street is in the business of making money between now and next Tuesday. We’re in the business of building an organization, an institution that we hope will be here 50 years from now.”

Long-term visionary business planning includes developing vision and mission statements that resonate within your organization. You really want to ensure that the CEO challenges senior leadership to spend five to ten percent of their time to think about strategy that I would define as a two-year window. I remember asking a client who was struggling to define the strategy for his company, where he wanted to be in five years. This one question led him to unimaginable success, including the sale of his company to one of the most innovative firms in the world. He defined the mission of his organization in ways his employees could embrace. His management decisions were based on a long-term philosophy. He was able to grow and align his business towards a common purpose that was bigger than making money – including generating value for his customers, society and the economy. He included his employees in the value creation of the company both strategically and economically – fostering personal commitment, incredible morale and loyalty.

Management and leadership play a critical role in the long-term success of any business. Resist the survival instinct to focus on quick wins all the time. Think bigger and more long-term. Get back to the mission of your organization. People need to know what you stand for. I often go back to Peter Drucker for business fundamentals and truths. His view was that long-term vision is most critical for leading in complex, turbulent times and the best way to create the future is to invent it.

Co-founder of Fast Company, Alan Webber, said fifteen years ago when he started the magazine, “A good question beats a good answer.” I remember visiting Roger Milliken, President and CEO of his family’s textile company, Milliken & Company. He allowed me to walk around the entire plant and meet with his executive team afterwards. I was impressed by what he did and didn’t ask me. He did not ask me what were his people saying. He did ask me what kinds of questions his people were asking. He changed my focus.

The act of coming together with really smart people from different disciplines to participate in a planning process, creates a critical exchange of ideas that breaks down fences, encourages creativity and acts as an accelerant for new ideas. The Dark Ages had moats built around castles to insulate an exchange of ideas. Models where you need permission to enter someone else’s yard, will not get companies to where they need to be. Engaging thought-provoking, intelligent people in a meaningful dialogue, creates engagement and passion, as well as buy-in for future implementation. Visionary leaders who lay down their view, cannot get it done alone. You need the brain-power of the team to dialogue around the best strategies to achieve any vision. Asking questions prevents against hubris, which I define as arrogance based on a notion of entitlement and belief in your own or your company’s invincibility. Bringing together the best collective wisdom in an ongoing dialogue encourages innovative thinking and agility.

Standout companies pursue iterative ongoing strategic discussions and understand it’s about continuous change. The top focus is getting closer to your customer. Your company’s culture will determine if this is possible. Promote the mindset for faster thinking, faster actions and flexibility of leadership. In a world where volatility and complexity will only increase, those leaders who are comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation will connect with new generations in creative ways and leapfrog old management styles to “invent the future.”

Stuart R. Levine is chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. He serves on the board of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Single Touch Systems, Inc and is lead director of J. D’Addario & Co. Inc. and director of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

Revisit the mission of your credit union
All future decisions within your credit union should start with your mission. What is the purpose of your credit union? Why are you on the board? What are your beliefs? This exercise in thinking is not just about words. The mission of your credit union will affect all future decisions, including your strategies for the future, your talent decisions and the people you recruit to your board. We need to recruit the best brains in both our management teams and boards who will stimulate important conversations and ask the right questions.

What does it mean to be a good board member?
Asking the right questions, being engaged, listening to members, ensuring that the right data is being collected and assessed, preparing for meetings, approving policies and ensuring that your actions reflect the mission statement of your credit union are all important. Are you getting the right quarterly data and does your board have a dashboard that can track progress on all key strategic drivers? Are you heads up on current trends in governance and regulation, such as the “Whistleblower” regulation in Dodd Frank and what implications will eventually trickle down to credit unions. Credit unions are not immune to national policies that are focused on banks for today. These new regulations may be coming to your neighborhood in the near future. Most importantly, are you executing independent business judgment?

What are the jobs of the credit union director?
Most directors can answer this question with the following response: plan, direct, control the credit union, protect the member and oversee management. However, our point of view is a little more focused on the two main roles of directors of publicly traded companies: Validate Strategy and Validate Succession Planning. These two weighty jobs require both courage and engagement.

• Validate Strategy – There are no 10-year plans anymore. Providing oversight for continuous two-year planning cycles is the job of the board. Understanding member satisfaction and monitoring financial metrics is the oversight that is needed to ensure the safety and soundness of your credit union.
• Validate Succession Planning – Contingency planning is a must. Taking an inward look at your credit union and board’s succession plan can be challenging, but essential to your job as a director. These are healthy conversations that require courage and delicacy. Do you have people who represent the voice of your members on your board? Do you have directors who understand technology? When evaluating candidates, do you establish board criteria based upon where your credit union will be in five years and what skills will be required then? Succession planning also includes a review of committee charters, and setting criteria for service as well as training for board members. One meeting per month may not be enough anymore to fulfill the fiduciary duties of serving as a board member. We predict that as board service for public companies has become more time consuming, so will serving as a credit union board member – despite your volunteer status. Setting criteria for attendance, so that people show up regularly and are engaged, will ensure the best possible minds being brought to the boardroom.

Duty of Loyalty Assessment
Duty of loyalty involves asking the right questions. If need be, you can bring in independent consultants to assist in this process. Do you review your ethics policies on an annual basis? Are you providing special loans to children of board members? Are there things you see that don’t feel right? Reviewing your Ethics Policy annually can wash out these issues. Dealing with these often sensitive decisions, can prevent future NCUA actions.

Board Assessments and On boarding Process for New Directors
Board assessments do not have to be punitive or personal. When you ask questions like, do you receive your board materials in a timely fashion, how are your conversations at the board level – they do not single out individuals. They provide an important context for improvement in board processes and effectiveness. Qualitative comments may reveal anecdotal comments such as John Doe falls asleep at meetings. However, with a skilled independent person administering the survey, comments can be vetted and individual conversations can take place afterwards to allow for improvement and dignity.

The board assessment process should be driven by the Governance Committee. This committee can also focus on the education and training of younger board members — and the establishment of board mentors. With increased regulation and increased personal liability, if 30% of your board is an underperforming asset class, or if two or three people are carrying the other ten people on your board, creating a process to address this is an important role of the Governance Committee. Beginning this discussion process and then having an independent third party present it, can be extremely helpful. Often an additional Emeritus Status can be created on the board. When a young person comes on the board, do you set criteria and standards to ensure that they truly understand what Duty of Care really means. Do you provide training for them so that they can come up to speed within a one-year learning period and be held accountable to standards established?

I ended my presentation by encouraging participants to continue to learn. And most importantly, board members and CEOs have an important obligation to share this learning within their organizations, boards and senior leadership teams to develop creative and innovative strategies to meet the current global technological, demographic and regulatory transformations taking place at a rapid pace.

Stuart R. Levine is Chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates LLC, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. For more information, please call 516-465-0800 or visit www.stuartlevine.com.

Water stewardship was presented by William Sarni, Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Director and Practice Leader for Enterprise Water Strategy, Sustainability and Climate Change. The conversation centered around three charts of the globe at different times reflecting water availability in 1975, 2000 and then projected to the year 2025. It became abundantly clear that water shortages in addition to northern Africa and India, could well occur in a very large area of the Southwest region of the United States, Australia, the entire Middle East and Northern China by 2025. Half of the world’s population will experience water scarcity by 2030.

Today, almost 1 billion people globally lack access to clean water. This is almost 3X the population of the United States. 3.5 million people die each year from water-related disease and the water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. Almost 50% of the world’s developing population, including 2.5 billion people , lack improved sanitation facilities. More people have mobile phones than toilets!

The issues of developing and implementing high-value sustainability programs and integrating diverse business and technical skills related to resource management became the subject of our conversation. The notion of increasing competition for water was evident. Fascinating data points were the amount of water content required to produce selected products – 1 sheet of paper (10 liters), 1 cup of tea (30 liters), 1 pair of jeans (3,480 liters) and 1 kg of beef (15,500 liters). Adding to the complexity of the production of these products is that the products a company sells is largely determined by their supply chain, not their internal operations.

In a study of 302 of the world’s 500 largest companies, focusing on sectors that are water-intensive, only 53% of those surveyed understand “indirect” or supply chain-related water risks. Half believe their water-risk horizon is between one and five years and almost 40% are already experiencing its impact. 60% have set water-related performance targets and 62% have identified significant water-related business opportunities.

Forward thinking companies are putting the issues on the table around transporting water, utilization of water, how it is being used and where and when it will be needed. Boardrooms are analyzing their water footprint and risks going forward. On the horizon is the pricing of water and price increases based upon lack of efficiencies, particularly in industries like beverage and agricultural companies, where data collection and monitoring will be required. What are the implications for food prices and other products requiring significant water content?

In the C-Suite, very different players are being put together including CFOs, Chief Sustainability Officers, COOs, CEOs and people responsible for strategy within organizations. Where to locate new plants based on water considerations and how to better manage the ones that exist through recycling water or shutting them down throughout the year are all new areas of discussion. The days of viewing water as a readily accessible and inexpensive global resource is nearing to an end. There are branding issues around water as well. Companies can develop and implement strategies that create a meaningful presence as good corporate citizens or choose riskier strategies that can have a negative impact on reputation which can impact a company’s total value.

On a positive note, water scarcity can be a driver of innovation in areas such as leakage detection and repair, recycling, desalination and data analytics as well as the development of transformative technologies and ways of working to help companies with better water management and bottom line improvements. There will be greater transparency into how companies are addressing these challenges and mitigating risks. Boards need to become increasingly aware of the importance of managing their company’s water footprint and engaging the proper stakeholders. The next step is evaluating risks and opportunities and then developing and executing an enterprise-wide water stewardship program. No small task, but a new requirement for addressing the transformational challenges of our global world.

Stuart R. Levine is chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. He serves on the board of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Single Touch Systems, Inc and is lead director of J. D’Addario & Co. Inc. and director of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

As directors, we are always in a position to influence the strategy of the corporate entity we serve. Change comes in multiple forms. The social unrest witnessed in the U.K. this past summer and the Occupy Wall Street movement reflect the environment in which capitalism operates. Technology-driven changes, I believe, will create increasing importance on the director’s new role as stewards of capitalism.

We understand that this speed of change implies greater volatility and more uncertainty. Linking our two primary responsibilities of strategy and succession planning, it raises the imperative of identifying creativity for key leadership positions. Creativity encourages an openness to understanding the importance of consumer needs and the products and services designed to meet them. It additionally includes the skill set of being able to manage and align people behind changing visions and missions over both the short and long-term.

For context, I will share an experience I recently had at the Jay Walker Library of Human Imagination., I touched a page from the original Gutenberg bible. His invention of moveable type, began the journey of unleashing information for large population bases. I was also overwhelmed by a message housed in the library . In early 1942, World War II was not progressing well for the Allies. General Hap Arnold requested a meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Arnold expressed his concern for a defined war strategy. On the back of a cocktail napkin, Roosevelt defined the winning path for the war with bullet items. It was a stunning example of both clarity and vision, and reflected the Allies’ ultimate strategy.

In an era where we are overwhelmed by power point slides, this is a reminder of the need for prioritization, dashboards that link to strategy, the ability to communicate effectively, and learning. Further, boards have the imperative to unite their credit unions by setting values and succession planning leadership.

Years ago, I discussed with clients the issue of competition coming from two people in a garage. That moment of truth has arrived. Barriers to entry are evaporating as cloud technology becomes more ubiquitous. That reality has implications for the balancing of market demands for local consumption with global standards. Boards will play a major role in setting the tone for the well-being of their members. Here are a couple of dots that can serve as early warning indicators: If your leadership team requires a power point for every conversation, you may not get to core customer imperatives. Senior leaders have to have the character to reward behavior that is clear, concise and allows people to make better and quicker decisions. CEOs and boards need to ask questions that are designed to allow themselves to learn and collaborate. Asking direct questions requires thinking in a culture of both confidence and courage. When all these elements are in play, boards can feel much more confident about their credit union’s ability to succeed in a changing world.

So ultimately, boards should better understand how their credit union culture is being strengthened through learning. This spring, Bethpage Federal Credit Union will launch a learning curriculum that will provide an opportunity for their senior leadership to participate in classes that are designed to ensure creativity and innovation. Participants will begin by engaging in a current economic view designed to better understand the complexities of United States, employment and it’s implications for the rate environment. They will then hear case studies on change management that will help to strengthen the foundation of communication and team alignment. This will be followed by a session on innovation and creativity. The last learning session will solely focused on the regulatory environment, public policy and its implications for credit unions throughout the country.

In the collaborative credit union spirit, under the leadership of Kirk Kordeleski, a decision has been made to invite neighboring credit union leaders to participate, with the belief that the credit union mission is always about cooperation based upon shared beliefs of member well-being and security. The Bethpage Federal Credit Union board participated fully in the creation of this educational effort and through their understanding of the importance of learning, leadership will be strengthened to drive new strategies and members will be better served.

Stuart R. Levine is Chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates LLC, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. For more information, please call 516-465-0800 or visit www.stuartlevine.com.

These skill sets need to be linked to the strategic plan, performance reviews as well as the CEO and board dashboards.  It’s the role of the board to understand key strategic drivers of the credit union one to two years, three to five years and five to ten years out.  Criteria will evolve from these drivers that will define the required skills sets for the CEO, CEO succession candidates and board member candidates as well. Criteria established will assist in filtering out certain candidates that do not help to affirm your chosen strategies.   At the board level, it’s important to ask, “Am I bringing fresh thinking and do my skill sets match what’s needed for the credit union strategically.”

Having succession discussions on a regular basis takes courage.  Not every CEO or board member will embrace this process.  However, as a board member, it is a critical to performing your duties as a director.   Ensuring that a process is in place that focuses on the CEO and succession candidates will enable you to have a personal sense of the leadership capacity of the credit union and how the team is performing as well.

Succession planning is the responsibility of the entire board and all members should participate.  This puts increased emphasis on board education, continuous learning and a passion and enthusiasm for studying the latest emerging trends and how they will impact your strategic plan and credit union as a whole.

To show you how sensitive this process actually is, on the recent January 19^th National Association of Corporate Directors Succession Planning Webinar, only 52% of participants had a formal succession plan in place; 44% had no formal plan in place and 5% didn’t know.   However, on a contingency basis, 74% said they had a plan in place if the CEO was unable to continue managing the company.   So it’s the ongoing process of setting criteria and having conversations with your CEO about their plans well in advance of two years before they usually begin to prepare for retirement.  This will provide opportunities for new candidates to learn, come up to speed on the criteria that have been developed and to “let seeds sprout.”  If you, as a board, understand the CEO’s thinking and how long their trajectory will be, you will have a better sense on how to react to contingency planning as well.

Whereas the process of “leadership development” is rarely called “leadership succession”, there are leading practices in CEO Succession planning, reviewed during the NACD Webinar, that can be extremely helpful to ensuring that this process is effective, including but not limited to:  plan three to five years out; prepare a comprehensive emergency succession plan; ensure full board involvement; establish open and ongoing dialogue with annual review of CEO and succession candidates; develop and agree on selection criteria; use formal assessment processes; interact with internal candidates;  develop internal candidates rather than recruit externally and have an outgoing CEO leave or stay on as chair for a limited time only.

Due to the complexity of this issue, and the required interplay between the board and the CEO, the board must own this process.  Significant dollars can be spent through Human Resources in the development of leadership capacity within the organization, but if the board never takes responsibility for this process by owning it and driving it, it will never happen effectively.  This process must be linked to HR to ensure that the leadership legacy of the company is developed.  But the board must be in control and own this process.

At least on an annual basis, the board should review a succession planning in two ways:  in a normal retirement scenario as well as a contingency plan. In both cases, it’s important to work with the CEO to include them in their thinking in this process.

A key skill set for any CEO candidate is their willingness to continue to learn and adapt to new situations.   Additionally, they need to have strong values and the ability to visualize the future – which is as true board members, as it is for the CEO.

Stuart R. Levine is Chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates LLC, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. For more information, please call 516-465-0800 or visit www.stuartlevine.com.

These skill sets need to be linked to the strategic plan, performance reviews as well as the CEO and board dashboards.  It’s the role of the board to understand key strategic drivers of the business one to two years, three to five years and five to ten years out.  Criteria will evolve from these drivers that will define the required skills sets for the CEO, CEO succession candidates and board member candidates as well. Criteria established will assist in filtering out certain candidates that do not help to affirm your chosen strategies.   At the board level, it’s important to ask, “Am I bringing fresh thinking and do my skill sets match what’s needed for the company strategically.”

Having succession discussions on a regular basis takes courage.  Not every CEO or board member will embrace this process.  However, as a board member, it is a critical to performing your duties as a director.   Ensuring that a process is in place that focuses on the CEO and succession candidates will enable you to have a personal sense of the leadership capacity of the organization and how the team is performing as well.

Succession planning is the responsibility of the entire board and all members should participate.  This puts increased emphasis on board education, continuous learning and a passion and enthusiasm for studying the latest emerging trends and how they will impact your strategic plan and business as a whole.

To show you how sensitive this process actually is, on the recent January 19^th National Association of Corporate Directors Succession Planning Webinar, only 52% of participants had a formal succession plan in place; 44% had no formal plan in place and 5% didn’t know.   However, on a contingency basis, 74% said they had a plan in place if the CEO was unable to continue managing the company.   So it’s the ongoing process of setting criteria and having conversations with your CEO about their plans well in advance of two years before they usually begin to prepare for retirement.  This will provide opportunities for new candidates to learn, come up to speed on the criteria that have been developed and to “let seeds sprout.”  If you, as a board, understand the CEO’s thinking and how long their trajectory will be, you will have a better sense on how to react to contingency planning as well.

Whereas the process of “leadership development” is rarely called “leadership succession”, there are leading practices in CEO Succession planning, reviewed during the NACD Webinar, that can be extremely helpful to ensuring that this process is effective, including but not limited to:  plan three to five years out; prepare a comprehensive emergency succession plan; ensure full board involvement; establish open and ongoing dialogue with annual review of CEO and succession candidates; develop and agree on selection criteria; use formal assessment processes; interact with internal candidates;  develop internal candidates rather than recruit externally and have an outgoing CEO leave or stay on as chair for a limited time only.

Due to the complexity of this issue, and the required interplay between the board and the CEO, the board must own this process.  Millions of dollars can be spent through Human Resources in the development of leadership capacity within the organization, but if the board never takes responsibility for this process by owning it and driving it, it will never happen effectively.  This process must be linked to HR to ensure that the leadership legacy of the company is developed.  But the board must be in control and own this process.

In family businesses, having truthful discussions can be enhanced through the role of independent directors, who can become the fulcrum for these discussions and add a liberating point of view.  This process is significantly challenging and fraught with complexity and human emotion, but critical for ensuring the long-term longevity of any organization.

A key skill set for any CEO candidate is their willingness to continue to learn and adapt to new situations.   Additionally, they need to have strong values and the ability to visualize the future – which is as true board members, as it is for the CEO.

Stuart R. Levine is chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. He serves on the board of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Single Touch Systems, Inc and is lead director of J. D’Addario & Co. Inc. and director of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

If you are planning for growth, it’s important that you assess the talent and capacity of your existing leadership team. Many CEOs forget this critical review process. Long-term value creation can only be sustained by a team of people that understand the importance of learning and a work ethic. Don’t fall into the trap of getting too comfortable with your existing people if you really believe you have an opportunity to introduce new products and services. An example in my mind is the depth of technological understanding and it’s linkage to customer satisfaction. Based on the speed of change, talent acquisition in this one discipline is a huge differentiator for any organization.

Some business leaders I interface with now are feeling quite invigorated from having had a transformational year in 2011. It was probably the most challenging year many have felt in business. However good things start to happen when you associate with really smart people. Intellectual energy creates an aura where particles come together and create an unbridled enthusiasm for life and business. There is absolute joy in creating energy forces through intellectual discourse that creates good business opportunities to impact both people and businesses. A critical differentiator that produces these opportunities is introducing creative thinking that stimulates innovative ideas and directions.

Many of the CEOs I work with challenge me. How do we do things better, faster and more effectively? What can we do based upon our strengths and what can we do to move in the right direction, faster? By finding ways to help leaders solve problems, talent can be unleashed. By finding ways to have people value the assets around them, organizations can move. Part of this conversation, in addition to having the ability to capture the best thinking from management is having CEOs, CMOs and CFOs understand how to relate north to their boards. They need to commit to spending more time with their boards to ensure strategic linkage.

CEOs play a major role today in setting the tone that employees will take their cues from. Here are a couple of dots that can serve as early warning indicators. If your team requires a 20-page power point for each conversation, you will never “cut to the chase” and get to the real core customer imperatives.

Senior leaders have to have character to only reward behavior that is clear, concise and allows people to make better quicker decisions. Really effective CEOs ask incredibly focused questions that are designed to allow themselves to learn and to collaborate. Asking direct questions requires thinking and a culture of courage and confidence.

Start the new year by reviewing the layers of management. Energy is created when there is direct communication. As an example, in an unforgiving consumer-driven world, if your cycle for product development is excessive for your markets, take action now. Remember, in a global economy, two people in a garage in Africa, London, India or China are planning now to eat your lunch. Don’t assume if you have been in a predictable industry that you or your colleagues will survive the global realities that exist.

One penetrating example this year, was the impact on foreign sovereign debt and its relationship to the United States economy. This is the time to acquire talent that has a perspective on global markets, consumer needs and population trends.

A May 15, 2011 jobs article in The New York Times used the phrase, “trickle-down anxiety.” Traditional cultures are organized to stifle new initiatives and innovative thinking. Dedicated, ambitious leaders often share with me the fact that they want to avoid engagement on difficult and challenging, but sorely needed projects. They wants “ wins”, not “losses”, which could damage their career. Managers should realize that this type of paralysis threatens their organization’s long-term viability and health.

In 2012, let’s commit to keeping our eyes open, connecting the dots faster, and encouraging global learning to ensure the safety and soundness of your organization.

Stuart R. Levine is Chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates LLC, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. For more information, please call 516-465-0800 or visit www.stuartlevine.com.

If you are planning for growth, it’s important that you assess the talent and capacity of your existing leadership team. Many CEOs forget this critical review process. Long-term value creation can only be sustained by a team of people that understand the importance of learning and a work ethic. Don’t fall into the trap of getting too comfortable with your existing people if you really believe you have an opportunity to introduce new products and services. An example in my mind is the depth of technological understanding and it’s linkage to member satisfaction. Based on the speed of change, talent acquisition in this one discipline is a huge differentiator for any credit union.

Some business leaders I interface with now are feeling quite invigorated from having had a transformational year in 2011. It was probably the most challenging year many have felt in business. However good things start to happen when you associate with really smart people. Intellectual energy creates an aura where particles come together and create an unbridled enthusiasm for life and business. There is absolute joy in creating energy forces through intellectual discourse that creates good business opportunities to impact both people and businesses. A critical differentiator that produces business opportunities is introducing creative thinking that stimulates innovative ideas and directions.

Many of the CEOs I work with challenge me. How do we do things better, faster, more effectively? What can we do based upon our strengths and what can we do to move in the right direction, faster? By finding ways to help leaders solve problems, talent can be unleashed. By finding ways to have people value the assets around them, credit unions can move. Part of this conversation, in addition to having the ability to capture the best thinking from management is having CEOs, CMOs and CFOs understand how to relate north to their boards. They need to commit to spending more time with their boards to ensure strategic linkage.

CEOs play a major role today in setting the tone that employees will take their cues from. Here are a couple of dots that can serve as early warning indicators. If your team requires a 20-page power point for each conversation, you will never “cut to the chase” and get to the real core member imperatives.
Senior leaders have to have character to only reward behavior that is clear, concise and allows people to make better decisions, faster. Really effective CEOs ask incredibly focused questions that are designed to allow themselves to learn and to collaborate. Asking direct questions requires thinking and a culture of courage and confidence.

Start the new year by reviewing the layers of management. Energy is created when there is direct communication. As an example, in an unforgiving consumer-driven world, if your cycle for product development is excessive for your markets, take action now. Remember, in a global economy, two people in a garage in Africa, London, India or China are waiting for eat your lunch. Don’t assume if you have been in a predictable industry that you or your colleagues will survive the global realities that exist.
One penetrating example this year, was the impact on foreign sovereign debt and it’s relationship to the United States’ economy. This is the time to acquire talent that has a perspective on global markets, member needs and population trends.

The New York Times, May 15, 2011, coined the phrase, “trickle-down anxiety.” Traditional cultures are organized to stifle new initiatives and innovative thinking. Dedicated, ambitious leaders often share with me the fact that they want to avoid engagement on difficult and challenging, but sorely needed projects. The wants “ wins”, not losses, which could damage their career. Managers should realize that this type of paralysis threatens their organization’s long-term viability and health.

In 2012, let’s commit to keeping our eyes open, connecting the dots faster, and encouraging global learning to ensure the safety and soundness of your credit union.

Stuart R. Levine is Chairman and CEO of Stuart Levine & Associates LLC, a strategy, leadership and governance consulting firm. For more information, please call 516-465-0800 or visit www.stuartlevine.com.