Ep. 7 - Supporting Credit Unions with Strategic Empathy - with Alison Carr

inspHERation

Today we chat about the pinnacles of great leaders, philosophy, and (of course) credit unions. We learned a LOT, and we’re really excited to share it with all of you in InspHERation Nation!

Alison Carr is the Chief Strategist at Your Credit Union Partner, an organization that helps credit union leaders identify practical and effective solutions to support growth, revenue, impact, and relevance.

What will you discover in this episode?

• What Your Credit Union Partner is doing for small credit unions, in particular.
• How credit unions can succeed through empathy
• What an empowering business culture looks like.

Welcome to InspHERation Nation!

The Weekly Commitment

Every week, we will ask you the same question: What is the one thing that you will commit to doing or improving this week?

Writing down your answer to the question will start a self-accountability process, and following up with this practice after every episode will help you take consistent small actions that ultimately lead to BIG transformations.

If you want to share what you are committing yourself to, we would love to hear! You can get in touch with us at...

• [e-mail]
• Facebook
• Twitter (@inspHERationpod)

Strategic Empathy

“Being able to create the world and business that we want to have is empowering, and it’s that feeling of empowerment that helps us empower our clients.” –Alison Carr

Alison feels empowered because YCUP allows her to support low-income communities, and she passes that empowerment onto her credit union clients.

You can’t necessarily teach that kind of empathy to a new hire – it’s intrinsic in the work that credit unions do, and the people that are passionate about them. However, the culture in the organization itself has to reflect the passion of those within it.

So, if you want to create a culture in your community makes members feel welcome, supported, and heard, then you need to have that culture internally, as well. That means a top-down approach to empathy that starts with the leaders facilitating and championing an appreciative, communicative, and collaborative culture.

5 Pillars of Successful Leaders & Organizations

1. Empathy
2. Commitment to success and seeing things through
3. Open-door communication
4. A culture that includes sharing the philosophy of your organization
5. The education and empowerment of staff members

Resources:

• Learn more about Your Credit Union Partner
• Connect with Alison on LinkedIn