Keep. Your. Hands. Up.

I am truly humbled and honoured to have been named CUES Next Top Credit Union Executive among such a great group of not only credit union young leaders, but outstanding people. It was fantastic to finally meet Amanda, Jay, Josh, and Alexia and I know we’ll be following each other’s successes for years to come.

Here is the challenge to all of you however.

For those that saw the three minute clip of my presentation in Las Vegas, I asked the crowd to all raise their hands and when I asked a question that didn’t relate to them, they could put them down.

Question 1: How many of you believe young leader development is essential to the future success of your credit union?

All hands stayed up.

Question 2: How many of you have a young leader program that assists in recruiting, retaining, and engaging your young leaders?

Half the hands went down.

Question 3: How many of you have a young leader program that can pin point your future leaders of your credit union?

Half of the remaining hands went down.

Last question: How many of you have a young leader program that is managed by your young leaders? 

One hand remained.

I regret not acknowledging that person/credit union because I would have loved to hear their story.

Everyone in that room agreed that young leader development is essential to the future success of their credit union, however very few are doing anything about it.

This is why we all need to support programs like the CUES Next Top Credit Union Executive competition. I think I can speak for Amanda, Jay, Josh, and Alexia when I say that this has been one of the most impactful experiences in my career to date. While participating in the Next Top Credit Union Executive program over the past several months, I have found a new passion and that is developing people. So much so, that I will be moving to a new position in December in the human resources department as a corporate trainer, leadership development.

This is all thanks to the Servus Young Leaders Network and the CUES Next Top Credit Union Executive.

Foster the growth of your young leaders by giving them these types of opportunities.

The Next Top Credit Union Executive may very well be in your credit union.

Devin