LAKE JACKSON, Texas-When you manage a branch with eight drive-through lanes, 12 member service lines and average 55,000 teller transactions a month, it's good to have a background in big-box retail.
Anne Allstott used to be a manager with Target and two other large department stores and says that experience comes in handy as she manages the Lake Jackson branch of the $1.7-billion TDECU-one of the bigger credit union offices in the country, she noted. "It's like running two branches."
Allstott has a staff of 36, comparable to the teams she managed while in retail. But where she benefits the most from her big-box background is in dealing with change. "The last few years have brought about so many changes in the financial industry, with the CARD Act, overdraft, and Durbin rules. We have had to make a lot of adjustments."
That was commonplace when working for Target, Allstott said, having to adjust to new product lines and changes to departments as the store kept pace with consumer demand. "With Target we were selling products to consumers, which is really not different from what we do at TDECU. We are selling products too, just financial products."
The whole financial services industry is becoming more retail sales oriented, said Allstott, who joined TDECU three years ago as the Lake Jackson manager. "With all the consolidation, the financial market is shrinking and that's putting greater pressure on credit unions to compete with banks. We have to be more retail driven."
Learning To Be Nimble
Not having a financial services background has helped and hindered Allstott, she said.
"As we have had to cope with all the changes over the last few years we have had to move quickly, which means I had to learn fast and maybe there was not always the time to get up to speed on every aspect of the credit union's business. But it also helped me make more of my own decisions and make them expediently, not being stuck on doing things the way we used to. That can hold leaders back."
The Lake Jackson branch, attached to TDECU's headquarters, is located in a town of 36,000 in the heart of the city's shopping district. "We are in a very prominent location, so we get a lot of foot traffic."
Managing a large retail team has helped Allstott be comfortable overseeing scheduling and staffing. "Where my stress level rises is when I see a line of 15 members waiting. With our branch, that can happen any time. We can go from having an almost empty branch to 20 people waiting in line. That makes scheduling challenging because I don't want staff standing around, but I do not want members waiting."
Allstott believes a manager's biggest mistake is not setting expectations for the staff. "You can't be afraid to set goals and hold people accountable. Most people are not comfortable with confrontation, so I think they find ways to avoid it. But you can't. You have to set clear goals and review progress. If you don't you can't get frustrated when employees don't perform to the level you need, because they really do not know what you want."
While Allstott said she has done well as a manager due to her training outside the credit union, she would like to see more managers come up through the ranks. She said TDECU is in the process of implementing a new employee-development program that will produce more leaders from existing teams.
"My goal is to groom the future branch manager for this office from current employees," said Allstott, who added she's glad the CU did not have the same training focus a few years ago and took a chance on her. "I have always appreciated the confidence the credit union has shown in me and I love working for credit unions-it's hard to imagine working anyplace else."
