There's nothing cookie cutter about Robin Hickey's approach toleadership or marketing.

As someone who has always valued originality, the vice presidentof marketing/business development at the $328 million Credit Unionof New Jersey in Erving, N.J., credited her upbringing for herfocus on quality over quantity. From early on, her parents fosteredindependence by allowing their only child to make and learn fromher own decisions and experiences.

“They certainly had their own opinions, but they never stoppedme,” Hickey said, recalling how her mom gave her a $50 budget tobuy Christmas presents for others and a register to track thepurchases.

“It got me thinking at a very early age how my overall choicesare important and will affect the next choice I would be able tomake,” she said. “If I was within my budget, I could buy it. My momdidn't tell me yes or no. She gave me guidance, but if I didn'tagree, she let me learn from my mistake.”

That sense of empowering others to discover their own solutionshas been a cornerstone of the latest CU Times Women to Watch honoree's approachto leadership. For Hickey, who has always viewed problems asopportunities while asking questions and allowing team members topitch possible solutions and run with them, those measures havebeen key to moving overall organizational metrics and drivingchange. It has also helped keep the credit union team focused onwhat matters most.

“When there are problems, we spend less time concentrating onfinding out who was wrong and more time on what can be done toimprove in the future,” Hickey said. “I teach my team to beaccountable and honest for their successes and misses because ithelps me coach them. With less attention on the 'who' whenaddressing issues, team members have no issues with owning up toaccountability.”

Her lead by example approach and genuine interest in thedevelopment of others at the Credit Union of New Jersey has helpedreinforce an environment where ideas are welcomed and failures areembraced as learning opportunities.

“My thought is if you don't speak up and throw it out there,you'll never know if that idea could've move things forward for ourmembers or the organization as a whole,” Hickey said. “To me,innovation is something that changes a process, behavior or howsomeone thinks. So I'm not one to ever shut down an idea. I neverwant anyone to feel like it's pointless to voice an idea becausethen we, as an organization, will suffer and our members will aswell.”

Since joining the credit union some three years ago, themarketing department's internal service scores have gone from beingone of the lowest rated departments in 2011 to the highest rated in2013, Hickey said.

The number of new SEGs also increased by 54%, and more than 14new products and programs including a new website, mobile e-depositand second chance checking, have been launched.

In addition, Hickey and the CUNJ team redesigned the creditunion's relationship pricing program, which in the first monthbrought in over $150,000 in additional revenue.

The credit union has also joined forces with two other creditunions to form Member Support Services, a CUSO formed to create operationalefficiencies and economies of scale through collaboration in coreprocessing, telecom, purchasing and contracting.

“We're going through a core conversion so we're all on the samecore and finding ways to collaborate and create efficiencies,”Hickey said. “It's pretty exciting to see how everything is workingtogether. Each initiative CUNJ has rolled out would not have beenpossible or successful, if other areas, departments or initiativesweren't aligned or in place.”

It's important that marketers in particular, ask more questionsto better understand how plans are interconnected and will impactother departments, she suggested.

“Good ideas become great successes when they work operationallyand there's buy-in with other respective areas,” Hickeyexplained.

She pointed to the credit union's relationship rewards programas an example of how a true team effort from the CEO and the board,as well as training, ensured that staffers understood the service.Those understandings helped to effectively communicate with membersand created a behavioral shift in the right direction for themembership.

“Our thinking was to reward the behavior we want from ourmembers, which is if you really want to be at CU of New Jersey,then you need to be engaged and participate for everyone tobenefit,” Hickey said.

Credit unions have to be willing to ask how a member is helpingthe cooperative and be okay with the possibility it may not be aright fit or arrangement for the credit union or the member.

“I think some credit unions have lost their niche market. Withthis be everything mentality, they try to grow into the communityrealm without first saturating their niche, which leads to everyonecompeting for the same business,” she said. “If we go back tomaking all decisions around better serving our particular niches,as an industry, we'd be more relevant overall to a bigger part ofthe population.”

The shift would open up more opportunities for collaboration andpartnerships that deliver on the value credit unions offer theirrespective niches, Hickey said. As expenses keep rising, how cancredit unions, particularly smaller credit unions, better leverageeconomy of scale? Hickey has been exploring how to monetizedelivery channels as a replacement for noninterest income.

“We keep adding more channels [such as] mobile banking, mobileapps, eblasts, but in the same respect, nothing went away as westill have voice response and the traditional banking channels asmargins continue to compress,” she said. “It's more important thanever to understand our reach with members across every channel anddetermine what they are worth.”

It's about looking at every relationship and delivery channelthrough a new lens. So, if a typical newsletter magazine formatconsisted of 80% content and 20% credit union ads, is there anopportunity for special groups, local businesses or organizationsthat want to advertise with the credit union to do so across thatchannel?

“As we take charge of the data, maybe we can discover ways tobring more to the table for local businesses or organizations andmonetize around that,” Hickey said. “The idea is to move away fromtaking money from our members' pockets and exploring other ways togenerate income.”