Going out grateful

I can’t believe this is my last LinkedIn article as Sharonview Federal Credit Union’s CEO.

It’s fitting that it’s also November – the month of gratitude and Thanksgiving. It’s a good opportunity for me to thank a whole bunch of people who have helped me throughout my long and fulfilling career.

I’ll start with Sharonview’s people. They sit at the top of the pyramid. Our 300+ employees are absolutely committed to the financial well-being of our members. They work hard every day on their behalf.

One of the highlights of my nine years here was putting a stake in the ground around “people first” leadership. When I got here, nothing was broken. Nothing needed fixing. I knew that everything was going to rise and fall on leadership. The executive leadership team and I have always wanted everyone on staff to feel taken care of emotionally, physically and financially. Happy employees take the best care of our members.

My mantra, which became part of Sharonview’s core values, has been the idea of progress, not perfection. We’ve made steady progress—not even the pandemic got in our way—and we aren’t afraid to fail. We’ve been willing to try new technology and ways of doing business. We’ve ventured into new markets and added new financial products and services.

The executive leadership team, the board of directors and I have always been cognizant of our responsibility to members and staff. When we make a decision, it doesn’t just impact us. It impacts all 300+ employees, all 110,000+ members and their respective families. I’m thankful to have served with people who consider the human factor in every decision they make.

I’m sincerely grateful for Sharonview’s board of directors. They took a chance on a guy who’d never been the CEO of a credit union. Since I became CEO in 2013, we’ve accomplished most of what I laid out in front of the board. We refurbished all our branches and relocated many of them. We’ve got a robust digital banking platform, something I committed to when I got here. The board has been unafraid to take prudent risks.

Also in these nine years, we’ve gone from “Sharon Who?” to “Sharonview.” We have a strong brand and market presence in the communities we work in.

I speak for the board and our staff when I say we’re most grateful for our members. They have allowed us to do things we need to do to remain relevant and distinctive in a market that’s pretty crowded. Thank you for the faith you have in us.

Our membership is growing by 8-9% per year, and that says a lot about the trust people put in us with their financial dreams.

I’ve been so fortunate to have exceptional mentors along the way, and we all need mentors throughout our careers. At every level.

My executive coach, Pam Shipp, has put up with me for 14 years. She has been phenomenal. If I come to her with a complaint, she asks: “What are you going to do about it?” She helps me think through how to approach issues.

Another longtime mentor is my former boss and partner, John Janclaes. We’ve known each other since 1990, and he hired me in 2005 to run Partners FCU’s investments and insurance businesses. We are both leadership geeks and love talking about leadership processes and theory.

My wife, Kim, has been a mentor and invaluable sounding board. My brother-in-law, Steve Mass, is a spiritual mentor who helps keep me on track.?

Another spiritual mentor is my good friend of 35 years, Tom Laing. Tom is one of my teachers, one of my best friends in the world.

I’m thankful for all of them. I’ve always surrounded myself with people who will tell it to me straight. They give me a pat on the back when I deserve it, but also a kick in the seat when I deserve one. That’s what a good mentor does.

This may sound odd, but I’m also grateful for hardships. You can learn a lot from your failures if you’re willing to examine them.

When I worked for a small business owner early in my career, I lost a significant amount of money trying in vain to build a customer relationship management (CRM) system. But the company owner didn’t fire me. He sat me down and said: “Okay, what did we learn? How can we fix it?”

This guy had every reason to fire me. I’d already packed my desk up, that’s how sure I was that I’d be fired. Instead, he showed me a tremendous amount of grace, and it gave me a new outlook on my career and on life. It also gave me a new philosophy, which was to be slow to judge. I have tried to provide that same grace to my team when we mess up.

When I was a stockbroker, I made 100 cold calls every day for three years straight. I stuck with it, no matter how many rejections I got.?I learned perseverance and not to give up at the first “no.”

There’s another stumble I made early in my career that I’ve tried to correct since. I used to try to catch people doing things wrong and call them out. That was my M.O. as an operations officer, I’m sorry to say. I’ve realized that a far better way of managing is to catch people doing things right—and then thank them for it.

These stumbles and hardships made me a better Bill.

I am humbled and honored to have been able to serve as CEO. And it really has been, to me, a servant role.

I’m just a guy who surrounded himself with super talented, smart people. The executive leadership teams I’ve been privileged to be a part of have been phenomenal. It’s the people who have made this journey, especially the past 18 years or so, enjoyable. And it’s the people I’ll miss most. I get my energy walking around the building and our branches and talking with folks. Kim is going to get tired of being the only person I have around to talk to!

In this season of Thanksgiving, I send my gratitude to all the wonderful people—teammates, members, board members—who have allowed me to serve… and have a terrific time doing it. I wish you all a joyous season of Thanksgiving and careers as long and as happy as the one I’ve had.?