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The Key Skills Credit Union Leaders Need to Focus on in 2021

Jimese Harkley on episode 63 of The Remarkable Credit Union podcast

How can credit union leaders help their teams thrive in 2021? Jimese Harkley, VP of Membership at CUES, joins us to talk about the three key skills that rise to the top in our new unpredictable normal.

Of course, most every team member wants to be successful in their job, but team needs go far beyond work hours. How can credit union leaders support women, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and where do female credit union leaders turn to for support? How can leaders make Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion a priority and create space for awkward but necessary conversations about race and politics? 

Tune into our first podcast of 2021 to learn more:
 

 

Key takeaways

  1. COVID has changed how we learn; the constant change has forced us to acquire new skills, but we need to make sure we are proactive about investing in ourselves.
  2. We have an opportunity to learn how to be the leader that our team needs in the current environment. The three key leadership skills Jimese sees in 2021 are strategy, time management, and ethics, and they matter for every position, from the CEO to a front-line teller.
  3. Women in the credit union industry have made great strides over the last 10 years in leadership, but the impact of COVID on working mothers is undoing a lot of that progress. 
  4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conversations are so important to have so that we can create space to talk about awkward things, learn and grow together, and not shame each other when we make mistakes.
  5. When facing political turmoil, we should think about the 3 P’s:
    • People: How do we train ourselves to respond to a crisis and be there for our members?
    • Practices: What specifically do we do in our organization and is the impact it’s having aligned with our strategy and beliefs?
    • Philosophies: What do we believe so that we can use it to guide our people and practices?

 

Read the full transcript here:

Cameron Madill:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Remarkable Credit Union Podcast. We created our podcast to help credit union leaders think outside of the box about marketing, technology, and community impact. Each episode we bring on expert guests from inside and outside of the industry for conversations about innovation. Our goal is to challenge your preconceptions about business as usual, and provide you with actual takeaways that you can use to grow your membership, improve the financial health of your cooperative, and magnify your positive impact in the community. Today’s big question, what skills are required of us as leaders in 2021 and how can we go about developing our leadership skills in a mostly remote environment?

Cameron Madill:
Today, I am very excited to welcome Jimese Harkley. Jimese is the VP of membership at CUES. Among other past positions, Jimese has worked at Filene and America’s First Federal Credit Union. Jimese also along the way founded a company called DiverCity Solutions, which is focused on diversity, equity and inclusion for credit unions. This was later sold to Credit Union Strategic Planning where her former partner now still works in that capacity. Somehow, Jimese found the time to get in JD along the way. No doubt her most prestigious and important position was being my mentor in DE Training back in 2018. Experience of a lifetime for me, maybe for Jimese. And lastly, I learned that Jimese is currently learning that having puppies is more difficult than having children, so hope we’ll get to hear about that. Jimese, thanks for joining us.

Jimese Harkley:
Thanks for having me, Cameron.

Cameron Madill:
The puppies thing is true. You said it’s harder than having a baby?

Jimese Harkley:
Oh yeah. So I’ve got an 18-year-old and a 14-year-old. I’ve been pro at this, I’m a vet at the parent game, and then we bring this thing in that bites immediately, could take its diaper off already, is already running around the house, when you get a couple of months for that with the baby, they don’t have teeth immediately. They don’t bite you. They keep their diaper on. So yeah, I should have rolled the dice again.

Cameron Madill:
Well, as you know, I’ve got a seven-month-old and yeah, he still doesn’t have teeth and he can’t take his diaper off yet so you’re making me feel good about my decisions. I’d love to start with something that we’re all really passionate about, growing and improving ourselves. And I’d love to just hear, particularly from the vantage point of your current position, how do you see that COVID has changed the environment for professionals to improve ourselves over the last year?

Jimese Harkley:
Wow. One, people have had to be really nimble in the decision-making because of the pandemic. Credit unions and vendors that serve credit unions are not doing business in the way that they did. I’m as VP of membership at CUES, CUES is an event company, in-person events are no longer taking place. Learning is taking place online. Connecting and networking is now taking place online. So the pandemic has really, in changing the way we meet, changing the way we engage, changing the way our members are able to get to us, and it’s also changed the way that we learn. Lots of people before were accustomed to going to classes and things of that sort and now with the pandemic, they’ve had to take advantage of online resources or find things for their staff to do while they can’t work in the office. There are people who were not able to have staff in full time, half staff working in, half staff working out, they had to turn to learning and development during the pandemic, because that was the one thing they could give their member or their staff access to while they weren’t in the building.

Cameron Madill:
I love this comment that COVID has changed how we learn. And it’s got me thinking, it probably has changed how I learn, but maybe it’s a seven-month-old baby, I don’t actually know how. Are we more focused on micro-moments and micro-learnings or what’s changed about that approach?

Jimese Harkley:
Well, I think people are learning for different reasons I can say right now. A lot of people are learning just to figure out how to survive through this. What do I do to keep my business going? Do I qualify for certain PPP loans or things like that? So there’s that one subset of learning where, like I said, you’re learning for continuity and your business to survive and thrive and really having to figure out how to streamline process and things of that sort. And then the second side of that is there’s this desire to now find things online and connect with these digital things that will allow your staff to not only enhance their soft skills, but bring them to a place where learning in the digital space is acceptable and is widely practiced throughout the organization.

Cameron Madill:
I think one of the things we’ve, now that I’m thinking about focused on a lot at PixelSpoke is, also just your comment, Jimese, about what even do the soft skills look like? And for us now, an entirely remote company and it’s been… yeah, you’re right, it’s really been a journey of forced learning. It’s a different way to go about it. I’d love to know because this has just been on my mind a lot, of a year ago, if you had told me what was ahead of me, I would have thought you were crazy. I had no idea what was coming my way, our way, in 2020. And we’ve got there’s such a different environment, what kinds of leadership skills do you think people need today in 2021 compared to a year ago? It seems like it’s probably a different set of skills that are needed to really show up for our teams and ourselves in the best way possible in this current environment.

Jimese Harkley:
Yeah. Definitely, strategy. So seeking learning opportunities to help you improve the way that you are strategic in your role, that is so important now. And it was important last year, but I think that no matter whether you’re the CEO or a teller, there have been situations where we can’t just do our jobs well anymore. We have to be able to strategically execute things and do things that are going to be sustainable, question process that is not sustainable. How do we not live in the band-aid that we’ve put on to survive COVID? So strategy is truly one of those skills that you need to have developed at every level.

Jimese Harkley:
Time management as well is a skill that needs to be looked at. More people are working from home now and working remotely. And with that, there comes a… I remember when I first started to work remotely, I was like, “Oh, I have all this free time. And no, I don’t have a meeting, so I don’t have anything to do.” And eventually over time I realized the meetings don’t drive what I’m doing, it’s my time management of these are my meeting times, these are the times that I’m performing work, these are the times that I’m taking calls or however that goes. And you start to realize that as a remote employee, you do give more time. But time management is one of those soft skills that you certainly no matter what department you work in need to work on.

Jimese Harkley:
And we talked about this a little bit, but we’re now going back into the social climate that we’re in too, because the pandemic brought itself, and then all these social things came into play. And I think everybody is needing you kind of polish on ethics and looking at how to be ethical in the workplace, understanding right actions versus wrong actions, understanding so many of the things that have kind of been challenged because we’re not able to meet and do things in specific ways anymore. So truly looking at the strategy side and time management and ethics are really some soft skills that it doesn’t matter what seat you’re sitting in, you need to take some time to sharpen those skills.

Cameron Madill:
I love that list. I know one other thing that prompted this question for me was I read an article in The Economist and it was from, I can’t remember, it was one of the gigantic tech behemoths, but it was one of their CEOs talking about how their research has shown that people value different traits for an in-person leader versus a remote leader. And the in-person leaders, we tend to value things, especially kind of around charisma, but that actually for remote leaders, we value things more like clear communication and explanation of what’s happening and where we’re at and where we’re going and the ability to build consensus. And I don’t remember the full list, but it was just a very interesting and just thought provoking article to get me thinking about personally, what is my leadership skillset? And is it adapted to ’21 or is it still kind of stuck in 2020? And none of us want to be stuck in 2020, right Jimese?

Jimese Harkley:
Well, you got to have a hybrid of that too. That’s something that I’ve learned. So I’ve managed remote teams, like I’ve worked remotely all the time. So when the pandemic hit, I felt like I was in a beach town and all these tourists were on my airwaves, on Zoom and things and all the places that I play, but I had my staff in person. And you have to have a hybrid of that because what I found was that there were some of my staff who connect well remotely. They understand how to engage. They were more productive. They felt the freedom of being available for their staff, I mean, for their family. And then you go on the other side, I had people who still like that personal touch who wanted to have meetings scheduled multiple times per week to make sure we got face time and who wanted to make sure that there was chat going on within the Microsoft Teams and things like that, just to ensure they stay connected with you because they thrive on that people engagement. And I had to find a way to still give that people engagement remotely.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah. I completely agree [crosstalk 00:10:05]

Jimese Harkley:
… feel somebody laughing and smiling through the phone. I think you can feel kind of the touch of the comfort of someone being there when I do my one-on-ones by phone,

Cameron Madill:
I totally agree. Well, plus you got such a great laugh. See how I flattered you like that, it’s true, I love your laugh. All right. Before this gets more awkward, the next question. You told me something that I thought was super interesting when we connected just for a pre-call just to kind of hear where you were at and some of the things you’re really engaged in, you said that you’ve done a lot of work digging into how COVID has affected women in credit unions. And I thought in particular it was interesting that you’ve learned a lot of general things, but you’ve also seen real differences between frontline and executive staff. So I’m hoping, can you share a little bit about what you’ve been learning about COVID and women and the impact in credit unions?

Jimese Harkley:
Oh yeah. Women have made such strides over the last 10 years to get to a place where there are more women in leadership roles, they’re more women in SVP roles. And the pandemic oddly has impacted women in a way that threatens that. There was a study that was done and it was a McKinsey study, I was jogging my memory, and that McKinsey study looked into how women were impacted and from, yes, the aspect of they’re the breadwinners or the primary person in the home in some situations, or they’re in leadership roles, or they have spouses and they’re trying to work and do all these things, but now they’re faced with their kids being home and being remote.

Jimese Harkley:
So women were thinking about some of the most unthinkable things I think in our fight to be equal is do we step back? Do we take less responsibility? Will we be laid off? Because we may be that teller that’s in a role that doesn’t understand if their credit union is going to survive or that person in marketing that’s in back office and you go, “Wait a minute. This is a call center. I’ll be the first to go is one of those things you think about.” And those places are full of women who are doing things.

Jimese Harkley:
But the one thing that shook me about that was the progress that women have made to be those SVPs and those chiefs and all of the work that has gone into ensuring that women are included and women are taken seriously and we can be leaders. I was just so shook to see that all of the work that happened in the past 10 years was on the verge of just coming down just simply because women were thinking, “How am I going to be home to take care of my child? Will my job allow me to have this flexibility? Do I want to show up in a boardroom where there are all these men sitting around who are not having to worry about how their kids being taken care of? Is their kid going to have homework?”

Jimese Harkley:
And women, sadly, especially in leadership roles where you get on the leadership team and you answer big questions about the budget and things of that sort, women always tend to feel like a lot of blame is shifted to them. They feel more inclined to explain a little bit more. They feel judged because they may have children and family situations that they have to navigate around. So just to hear that this pandemic had pushed some of the hoods, but that my girlfriends, I guess you can say, have all had, as we’ve tried to carve out a space for women in this workplace. And I certainly don’t want for women to step back and start to diminish their roles or feel like they deserve less because this pandemic says that they need to be now mother, wife, school teacher, neighborhood sitter, in some situations, you know what I mean? That was scary.

Cameron Madill:
And Jimese, if I’m hearing you correctly, are you saying that businesses, I guess credit unions in particular, had found unacceptable, I’m sure not ideal balance or way to facilitate a woman to balance the many different areas of her life and still be a leader in the credit union, but then in many cases, the pandemic and just the impact on childcare and remote schooling and all of that has that in essence just means that I guess we all as businesses don’t have our act together for this current environment to facilitate leadership from women, just as much from men?

Jimese Harkley:
Well, I think moms feel the shame a little bit. So I will say the study covered the women in business all the way around. But when we did this week, credit unions are facing the exact same thing. Let me give you an example. When you start to look at the big billion dollar credit unions, they have lots of strong leaders. There are some females that are leading those credit unions, but there are not a lot of females and the ones that I’ve met, like Erin Mendez, oh my gosh, I have such a tremendous amount of respect for her. And you think of leaders like Tonita Webb who are in Washington state and the things that they’re doing. Women are feeling more they have to explain, and they’re want to walk away from that explanation because we have not really and truly made it clear to women that it’s okay to wear all the hats that you wear and still feel secure in your job.

Jimese Harkley:
So you see credit union leaders being these, a woman feels like, “Oh, I can only have a small credit union.” So why should we take the women away that are working towards that big credit union, that see Erin as a role model. I want to get there. Let’s not stop that.

Cameron Madill:
Yeah. That makes sense. I think a big and rich topic. There’s a lot to cover there, but thanks for sharing. You’ve got such an interesting background. I wanted to talk a little bit about what inspired you to found DiverCity, D-I-V-E-R-C-I-T-Y, with Ronaldo Hardy, which was built around diversity, equity and inclusion work. And just what inspired you to start it? What did you learn and what do you think credit unions need to be thinking about with regards to DEI in their 2021 plans?

Jimese Harkley:
Well, I will tell you this, Ronaldo was well on the track to telling his story. He is far more vocal about things than I am. He has this amazing energy. And at the time that I was transitioning out of one organization, he and I sat down and he just explained to me the passion that he had about getting his message out. There were a couple of companies that he was working with and promoting DEI, a cue to management schools. And he had given some presentations for several credit unions, but he really wanted to go further with this. He wanted the industry, especially from the perspective of race, to understand that there are deeper issues, understand how the recognition of those issues not only had a impact on the communities in which we serve, but it also had a financial impact on your credit union and the way you did business and the people who were serving in that organization.

Jimese Harkley:
And so I was super excited to jump on with that and help him carry on this mission within the credit union space to amplify the discussions of diversity, equity, inclusion, to pull off the band-aid of these what he and I saw as elephants in the room, to just pull off the band-aid of that and really get people talking about things that may have made them uncomfortable. He generally delivered these things to primarily white audiences, and it was just something to see the feedback that he would get. So I really wanted to be a part of that really to help him carry this message. And so he and I decided, “Okay, let’s brand this business and go out and help.” And one of the first things we got to help on was there was a credit union that had done a thing for Halloween. They did Cool Runnings and couple of people in the organization took a picture. You know Cool Runnings, right? The Jamaican bobsled.

Cameron Madill:
Jamaican bobsled team. I know that. I’m not totally clueless about pop culture. I know a thing or two.

Jimese Harkley:
Yeah, well, what happened is, four women at a credit union decided to be Cool Runnings for Halloween and bless their hearts, they didn’t mean anything wrong by it, I don’t believe after I started to engage. They wanted to just amplify the story, if that makes sense. So they built the bobsled. They made the costumes. And then there was this one, I think, fatal mistake, and it was truly a mistake, and that was making sure that they look like the characters.

Cameron Madill:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So they did some black face or something like that?

Jimese Harkley:
So they went black face, black paint and everything. And so he and I got to work on that situation and we got to meet the people who did this. There was so much backlash that happened and we realized at that time that we were not only amplifying issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, but we were helping people who had never experienced issues like that realize changes that they possibly needed to make internally, have uncomfortable conversations, but we tried to make it fun.

Jimese Harkley:
I’m at CUES of course and Ronaldo is now with our Credit Union Strategic Planning and he is carrying on this DEI torch even in a much more amplified way than he or I even envisioned just to help people have awkward conversations. They are doing things from a DEI perspective that they’re connecting folks with resources to help them get grants and stuff like that to pull in diverse members and to help them achieve things such as getting loans and getting homes and opening businesses. So it is truly just they have taken it and magnified it even further than I think we saw it with just really getting people to have a conversation about a difficult subject.

Cameron Madill:
That’s great work. I think that’s a really great example you have of how I just really appreciate how you framed it and saw the humanity of the women who did that and saw the, I don’t know, I guess, we’re able to see all of them and understand that it doesn’t just break down into a really simple thing, but it’s an opportunity for learning and that those awkward conversations that I always… we have a consultant at work who talks about that when we feel uncomfortable that’s actually the space within which growth happens, but not if it gets turned into kind of building on what you said before, if it turns into shame, because then I think people shut down. And I think that’s just a tragedy for all of us because I think diversity it’s such a beautiful thing. It leads to better relationships and friendships. It leads to a better world. And so I think creating that space for folks to grow and engage, I think is so important and so powerful so thank you for doing that.

Jimese Harkley:
Absolutely. We’re adults now, it’s time to have the tough conversations.

Cameron Madill:
I don’t know. That’s what they tell me, apparently I’m an adult. So on the topic of uncomfortable conversations, apparently 2020 is over, but things are not calm so far in 2021. So a week ago, the federal Capitol Building was stormed and we just saw incredible anger. And who knows where this story will be when we release this podcast very shortly, but maybe something else will happen.

Cameron Madill:
There’s so many factors involved and we have this extreme polarization and really anger and almost kind of separate truth universes that we have. If we have to categorize, broadly speaking, you have the left and the right living in… But I also can’t help but to feel like inequality is this one core component driving this where the majority of the country feels like they have less because they do have less, like the gap between the haves and the have nots. We have people of whatever political persuasion or whatever sort of rural, urban, any of these divides, but actually on the whole, most people do have less. They’re stagnating or backsliding. Do you think credit unions have a role to play in bringing America back closer together or should they just avoid this whole topic like the plague? I was going to say the pandemic, that’s a bad joke. Because this is the epitome of an uncomfortable conversation I think no one wants to have, but it also seems like an opportunity or one that should be considered. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

Jimese Harkley:
Oh man, I was about to make my comment and I was going to say, “But you know there are people on both sides.” And then I go, “Dang it, is that what I really want to start with?” But the credit union industry does have people because we’re making politics the divide. The credit union industry has people on both sides of this conversation. And when we look at social injustice that’s taking place and you’ve had this uproaring and the Black Lives Matter things that happened over the summer after George Floyd, you kind of take those things and put them together because they’re being described as one is the answer to the other, one’s not better than the other, however, it goes.

Jimese Harkley:
But credit unions with the Black Lives Matter situation, there was some silence. There’s still not been some conversations that have happened. There have been organizations who’ve been more open about it and had conversations. So I always say you need to take the temperature of the community that you’re in and really pay attention to the people in which you are serving, because that is probably one of the most fundamental triggers to determine what position a credit union should take. If you have a large amount of African-American members who are not working at the time because their employer or their SEG group as credit unions call them, are impacted and you know how these things impact them. If you want them to continue bringing their dollar there, if you want them to continue trusting that you’re going to make loans for them and things of that sort, it is to your advantage to make sure that there are three Ps that my boss, John Pembroke, always says.

Jimese Harkley:
There are three Ps that you need to check within your organization. And that means you need to make sure your people are aware of how do we respond to things like this? When tragedies happens, what do we say? What do we do? So it’s your people, it’s your practices, and it’s also your philosophies. So you really got to check the climate of where you are. And it’s funny, I keep going back to Black Lives Matter because, Cameron, I really don’t know what people were supposed to do when you’re storming the Capitol Building and the Confederate flag made its way in there when it never made its way there for the Civil War.

Jimese Harkley:
I’m not sure what you can say. And I’m not sure if my response would possibly be the credit union’s response, but I think you need to take the temperature of the climate that you’re in, the people that you serve, and really understand what do they need from you? What do they need to hear from you? Do they need to feel confident in letting you handle their financial life, help them make decisions for their children, their home and things like that? Really assess your community.

Cameron Madill:
I love that. The three-piece breakdown is very helpful because I think it captures the investment that’s needed. I mean, I think if this last year has taught me anything, it’s that we really need to build our muscle of knowing how to respond. It’s just something we weren’t used to doing. And then yeah, thinking about your practices, like, what specifically are we doing? Because that’s sort of where the rubber meets the road. And then of course, you have philosophy is what do we believe? I think that’s important and I think it’s a question in business. In general and credit union specifically as well, it’s just not asked often enough probably because it’s a hard question, but I think it’s an important question.

Cameron Madill:
Cool. We’ll leave that slightly uncomfortable topic behind. I know when my team asked for like, “What are we going to say about the Capitol?” And I was like, “I don’t know. I don’t know where I… I can’t even process this.” And I’m sure probably by the time we’ve released this podcast, there’ll be like an alien invasion or something like that.

Jimese Harkley:
Sure. Oh goodness, please.

Cameron Madill:
Maybe, maybe not. But okay, so the most important question I have to ask you is, you and I first met back when you were my mentor for Development Educator Training in 2018, and I just think our entire audience wants to know, was I your favorite mentee or not?

Jimese Harkley:
Let me tell you something, you were my favorite, not mentee of all time [crosstalk 00:27:02] in that session, because I’ve mentored multiple times. If anyone’s listening, Cameron has taken up his time. What I loved about you and what continues to make me engage with you is you’re so damn smart. And you always give, it seems like this knowledge that you have, you’re always giving it all sometimes when it’s not expected, but you give off this energy and this knowledgeability. And you have this honesty about you that just really reflects. And I truly love working with you and being honest because you challenge things, you didn’t sit for the status quo and that wasn’t who you were for that day, that is who you are all the time. And I love that you bought yourself there.

Cameron Madill:
Boy, you just made my day. All right. That was the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me. We didn’t even talk about Pizzagate, which was one of my decisions that was questionable when were at the DE Training. But the real question, Jimese, is because I know you’ve mentored multiple times and it’s a really incredible program, what have you learned from being a development educator and how do you think that applies to all credit unions?

Jimese Harkley:
I think really being in DE, I learned the heart of what the movement was about. When you work in your own credit union, you learn your credit union’s philosophy. There may be someone in your organization that is aware of why the industry existed, what the feeling was supposed to be, how nostalgic it was to walk around with a cigarette box and get things started. So DE really bought this thing to me of this world, this industry, is so much bigger than this place where I’m working. I need to understand the history of this so I can not only make impact in the business world, but I understand that social does have a space within the credit union industry.

Jimese Harkley:
Credit union industry has a heart that is, I think, unlike any other industry, one, because we’re not required by law to give, so we have to give from our hearts. So we give because we feel compelled to do so, but just being at DE and meeting people and seeing folks who were 20 years into their career, but had never taken this social stance about what’s so important in the industry and all the rules and principles behind it, that was just wonderful. And I think all credit union people, especially now that Chad is doing that program, whether it’s digitally or putting something together specifically for your credit union so you don’t have to send someone to Madison or they go through DE remotely. I think what they are doing is amazing in making sure that the story of Ed Filene and everything that he and Louise Herring and all of those pioneers who were there at Estes Park meant to happen with this industry continues to be realized. And DE just gives that to the rest of us to take the torch on.

Cameron Madill:
Well said. I think that is such a great way to frame it of just making sure that story of credit unions is alive and being lived. All right. So before we wrap up, you saw some of these questions in advance, and you’re always good on your feet, but I like to not just shock you with anything out of the blue, but we’ve got some rapid fire questions for you. Are you ready?

Jimese Harkley:
Let’s go.

Cameron Madill:
All right. What’s your favorite ice cream, Jimese?

Jimese Harkley:
Butter pecan. I’m from Alabama

Cameron Madill:
Butter pecan, I want that. All right. If you could have a different career, and you’ve had a lot of different careers, but what different career would you have?

Jimese Harkley:
Oh my goodness. What would I be? You just stopped me because things change all the time. Oh, I probably should be a lawyer like I really intended. My husband would like that. I would be an entrepreneur. I would just leave it open because I to explore.

Cameron Madill:
Yep. You would be a fabulous entrepreneur as you have been. What’s your favorite cause, Jimese?

Jimese Harkley:
I love anything about, right now it’s women, so anything to build up women. And I have an affinity for black women. I’m a black woman. I come from a situation that is a little unique and I just love right now causes that are helping young girls who may be in situations like I was build themselves up to be strong women.

Cameron Madill:
What is the song you’re most embarrassed to admit that you like?

Jimese Harkley:
Oh my gosh, so Kanye West, who’s not cool right now, I wonder. But I don’t care what I do, before I do a presentation, I listen to that song because I still want to find my dreams come true.

Cameron Madill:
If you had to wear a t-shirt for the rest of your life with one word on it, what would that word be?

Jimese Harkley:
Blessed.

Cameron Madill:
Blessed. I like it. All right. Well, I’m going to stop there because that’s such a heartwarming note. So thank you for rolling with the rapid fire questions. Is there anything you’d like to reiterate or anything you didn’t get to that you want to share with our audience today?

Jimese Harkley:
No, I just want to make sure that everyone realizes that we talked a lot about a lot of things, but from a development standpoint, invest in yourself, use your learning and development resources, especially if you’re a woman. Don’t just build your skills in your job. You can do the job well, but in order to be a successful leader, you really need to find leadership resources and be a good strategist, manage time well, and make people feel appreciated.

Cameron Madill:
I love it. Wonderful words of wisdom. Jimese, thanks so much for joining us today.

Jimese Harkley:
Thank you so much for having me. This has been fun.

Cameron Madill:
All right, folks, another great conversation. I always love talking to Jimese. So a few of my key takeaways, I really just connected with the idea that COVID has changed how we learn and that in many ways this last year was one of the greatest periods of learning any of us have had because the constant change forced us to acquire new skills, but that just sort of emphasizes, as Jimese closed with, the need to make sure we’re being proactive and investing in ourselves and not just learning because of the constant change.

Cameron Madill:
I also love this thought that we have an opportunity to really learn how to be the leader that our team needs in the current environment and that Jimese sees the three key skills in 2021 being strategy, time management, and ethics, and that they really matter for every position from the CEO down to the frontline teller.

Cameron Madill:
It was a little disheartening to hear, though, I have seen this in our company and other sort of organizations I’m connected to that women have made really great strides in terms of leadership and the credit union industry over the last decade, but the impact of COVID on working mothers is undoing a lot of that and setting us back hugely as an industry, as an organization. Diversity, equity, and inclusion conversations are so important to have, because that way we can create space to talk about awkward things and I love that notion that the ability to learn and grow together comes from when we’re all willing to be uncomfortable together and not shame each other when we make mistakes, but view that as opportunities to learn and grow.

Cameron Madill:
I was really curious what Jimese was going to say about the storming of the federal Capitol last week and I think it just emphasizes that politics is hard to talk about, especially right now. And I love this framing that she had from her boss about the three Ps and how we handle the turmoil and politics in our communities and figure out how and what makes the most sense in how we respond.

Cameron Madill:
So people, how do we train ourselves to respond to a crisis and be there for our members and who specifically are our members? Practices, what specifically do we do in our organization as the impact it’s having align with our strategy and beliefs? And then third, philosophies, what do we believe so we can use that to guide our people in our practices?

Cameron Madill:
And then just lastly, I love just highlighting Jimese’s experiences from the DE Training that we all have an opportunity right now to make sure that the story of credit unions is alive and well, and that we all understand that we’re connected to something much bigger than just ourselves or our specific job and that bigger calling, that bigger mission is more important now than ever indeed.

Cameron Madill:
All right. Thank you all for joining us today for another great episode. Until the next time, I wish you the best of luck in making your credit union remarkable.