October 2019
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
On September 24, we involved our entire team in a training and development day. It was a day of learning, fun, and teambuilding. A day when we could communicate as a team when we were all together in the same place—a rare and exciting opportunity for a team spread across our vast region!
Everything we do at Reliant—every decision we make, every training event we plan—is done for the benefit of our members. We believe that employee satisfaction and development positively influence the service we provide to you, our valuable members. With that in mind, we planned a day centered on developing our team and therefore enhancing our service to our members. This day allowed our team to have a conference-like experience, without having to travel to a conference.
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Here are several highlights of our team development and training day:
Team members had an opportunity to grow, both personally and professionally
My personal hope was that each member of our team would walk away with at least one personal and one professional takeaway from the day. The day’s program included a national expert on communication. As an organization, we’re always working on different ways to improve our communication and our accountability, and the expert shared strategies to help our team with both.We also brought in a national expert on generational differences, who shared eye-opening insights, as well as pointers for interacting with others from different generations. We are working with five generations on our team, and serving five generations of members, so this topic is particularly important.We rounded out the experience with local experts who spoke about personal and financial health, areas where every one of us should continually seek growth.
Team members had the opportunity to build their personal networks
The day was also about connecting with one another. The connections that we make to enhance our personal networks at Reliant enable us to better serve our members. We rely on each other for the success of our organization, and so increasing those connections will always be important!
Our entire team participated in planning for our future
The entire day, in one way or another, was about our credit union’s future. A portion of our day was dedicated to strategic planning: brainstorming about and preparing for our future. Our entire team provided ideas and input, which was a dream come true for me personally. Having each team member’s voice heard is important because our team members know our business—and they certainly know our members!
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Feedback is very important to us, and so I asked our team to provide me with their takeaways from the day. The feedback I received was so encouraging, and I wanted to share the thoughts that one team member shared, because her comment summed up perfectly what so many others shared. She said, “For me, this training day was an opportunity to step away from the day to day, connect with my co-workers, and come back to work recharged with a fresh perspective and new ideas. One of the speakers said that leadership is a ‘journey of constant self-improvement.’ This training day helped me on my personal journey.”
What this day reinforced to me was that our culture of accountability, respect, and teamwork is so strong. It really sets us apart from others. We know that this culture—how we work together at Reliant—enhances employee satisfaction, which in turn enhances our service to you, our members. We are dedicated to the ongoing development of our team, and we are excited for the impact that our day of staff development will continue to have on our entire organization—including YOU.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the day, I invite you to send me a message.
As always, I thank you for your membership!
Pamela Heald
President & CEO