SAN DIMAS, Calif. -
The workshop, hosted here by WesCorp, attracted 55 attendees from five states. It was the brainchild of Kerri Smith, CEO of Simpsonville, S.C.-based marketing and public relations firm CU Exceed, and Susan Luke, who describes herself as an international speaker/trainer/consultant who divides her time between San Antonio, Texas, and Toronto, Canada.
Smith said CUs have been "very supportive" of women in leadership. "For any industry to have 52% of their CEOs be women is impressive," she said. "But the disparity at the top-level credit unions is surprising."
The reason for this dearth of female executives?
"We found gaps in leadership skills for some women," Smith explained. "When a woman grows up with her credit union, she doesn't necessarily have the confidence to apply for a position at a larger credit union that comes open. We addressed this in the workshop to help women grow their credit unions or move up to larger credit unions. We are hoping through this training we will help women fill in their skill set and give them confidence, and develop a mentoring network for women."
In many cases, women CEOs of smaller CUs got there by "growing up" in the credit union. "They became a manager without necessarily setting out to do so," she said. "When a woman grows up in an organization, she might not be taken as seriously by the board...When it comes time to expand the field of membership, merge with a larger credit union or find some other way to grow the credit union, the board typically goes to a man, rather than a woman."
Part of the problem, Smith said, is at smaller CUs the board has a greater day-to-day role, while the CEO is immersed in operations. For the CEO of a smaller credit union to move up, that person must make the transition to visionary leading-leading the CU and the board.
"The move must be made past managing daily activities to leading."
Added Luke: "In the workshop, we show women how to approach issues from a CEO perspective, rather than a middle management perspective. It is more about attitude or 'headspace' than nitty-gritty individual skill sets. The helicopter view of leadership sees how women lead differently than men."
The difference, said Smith: women operate in a team atmosphere more comfortably than men, women bring people together, prefer to operate collectively and are much more concerned with building a consensus.
"We want them to understand where they are, and that they could change if they felt a need to. We wanted them to know how to deal with the various relationships needed to lead a credit union forward."
Other topics at the workshop included: how to communicate with board members and staff, the power of women in the marketplace as consumers, storytelling and personal branding, creating a personal development plan, and the governance/leadership relationship.
Luke said she and Smith anticipate attracting a variety of partners as the workshop program evolves. Both are involved in the CU Development Educators program, as is Sheri Ledbetter, WesCorp's director of public affairs.
