The Power of One-ness.

One . .  . 

is a number that leads to infinity.

is a lonely number, or so the song says.  

is a winning number.

One . . .  

can be an individual or a collective.

person makes a difference. 

person decides.  

person stands up for another. 

is powerful.  

I am fascinated with the power and the responsibility of one. I believe in the power and responsibility of one person's ability to impact a situation, a company, a family, a community, a world. I believe in the power and the responsibility of the collective of ones who decide to make a change, and then relentlessly forge ahead. I believe in the power and responsibility of one vision, so much so that I have dedicated my work to helping organization's of all sizes and types find that vision and express it so others can see it too.

One-ness is a vision for collective strength and success.  A vision to engage and inspire. To connect and create something together that could never be created in isolation. Some people call this "co-operation."

The credit union system for me is the best example of collective strength and vision, or one-ness that I have experienced in my work-time. Working with the credit union system, where the principles of working together for a common good, democratic decision making and autonomy (another word for freedom from ownership by government) created a standard that I have come to expect and hold myself and others too. Co-operatives are based on a set of principles and values that are unique and separate from other organizations that are not of the co-operative nature. Learn more about cooperatives . . .

I joined the Credit Union system as the Manager of Planning in 2002, making the move from a Federal government crown, where I was conducting competitive research. I had developed a matrix of financial institutions across Canada, including profitability, current strategies, and future strategies (sleeping giants). I pulled information from annual reports, shareholder speeches and the Canadian Banker's Association. At the time, financial institutions were adopting new technologies, changing the customer service model, implementing relationship management and spreading their impact through value chain integration.  (President's Choice was breaking new ground integrating banking with groceries).

When it came to the credit union system, however, it was a more difficult picture to put together.  Number one, there were literally hundreds of credit unions. Number two, there was no clear point of contact for "the system" that I was aware of at the time.

But looking at the numbers for the top credit unions in the country, in 1996, I could see this was a force to be reckoned with.  A classic sleeping giant. I wondered what made it successful. Why and how did the system continue to evolve and grow?

So when the opportunity came to work for the system, I was ecstatic and gladly made the leap to learn what it was that made this system tick. In doing so, however, I learned what makes me tick as well. 

On my first day of work, I remember mapping out the elements of strategy so that I could draw the picture back to the big idea. I wrote "one" on my white board. What if, I thought, the credit union system could be "one". It would dominate the banking industry. A classic outsider's view, I later learned.

The system is a  collective of one, that is committed to a commonly shared set of principles and values.  Each credit union is a credit union unto itself, governed by the principles of autonomy, democracy, and working together for the good of its community and members and the values of the pioneers who forged this land out of mud, rock and tenacity.

Each credit union represents a collective strength that stands firmly on a foundation of principles and values that are time honored and never discretionary.

Though it was foreign to me at first, I began to understand the passion that lives and breathes in the credit union system and why it continues to be successful. It had imprinted itself upon my psyche. My values and the system values had become one. I came to expect that honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others was and is a necessary part of work. I came to expect that working for purpose meant working for a greater good, something bigger than "me."

I came to appreciate the culture of co-operation, of democratic decision making, giving back and making a difference economically and socially.  These elements together create a finger print that is unique and competitively strong that can be possibly replicated, but never duplicated without the spirit and commitment to co-operative principles, as I was to later learn.

People need time.

Recently, I have been thinking about what it takes to become a good leader.  Actually, I don't know many other people who think about this and study this topic as much as I do who aren't on the book circuit.  I think about it quite a lot because I don't want to let people down who depend on me.  I want people to feel like they matter. Like they are heard.  Because that's what we all want. 

Remember when you were a kid and nobody listened?  You screamed, yelled, stomped your feet and basically caused a scene so your parents would have to respond to you.  As we grew up, we became socialized in school to behave differently.  We were taught to resist these outbursts. But feelings of being ignored or discounted don't go away just because they can't be expressed.  As we got older, we learned to go under ground with our feelings. 

In the world that I observe most of the time, I find that this type of outcry manifests itself in different ways.  Some people are verbal but they can be damaging and hurtful.  Others withdraw and hide and hope to live below the wire and go unnoticed.  Others generally resist what ever it is that happens to be presented to them.

In the corporate world, we use all kinds of code words that leaders should apply, but the concepts alone do not make a good leader.  Performance management is just another way of sitting down with people and laying out expectations.

Lots of time, we don't recognize what performance management is.  I think it's about listening and talking.  If you never meet with your staff, one on one, and don't take an interest in their work lives and who they are as people, you can never break through the barrier. 

Just like in the classroom when I was 6, bad teachers attempted to teach everyone the same way.  Good teachers knew that they had 30 different people, and worked to find ways to reach each child, somehow. 

We are not much different as adults.  Our values define us. Different things motivate us.  Different things matter.  It's about discovering who the person is, and building a relationship based on trust and honesty so that when it comes time to tackle the tough stuff, there is a foundation of safety already in place.

In my own work life, I never feel like I have enough time with people.  And that is my job.  Management gets bogged down in the work and that in itself is a problem.  If managers are actually doing the work, how can they coach and mentor.

And that brings us to another problem these days that is plaguing us.  Most managers are working managers becasue organizations cannot afford managers who are not working.  There are not enough hands in the game as it is. 

But there are some things we can do on purpose.  Meet weekly with each team member, or biweekly to discuss progress, work, issues and concerns.  Dedicate time to development of professional and personal objectives, and then talk about how they are progressing.  Make sure people know what their job is, and what is expected of them, by when.  Ensure work processes are not barriers, and give them permission to change what is not working for them.  Make sure people have the time to do their job.

I wish I was as good a manager as I am able to describe.  I try every day. That's the best I can do.