Dougal is the principal consultant of HR Value Group, which helps credit unions on management and recruiting issues. He said a successful evaluation process is based on shared goals between the board and CEO; clear goals aligned with strategy; objective evaluation; flexible goals; ongoing feedback; tie rewards to having a CEO achieving goals.

The biggest pitfalls for board members during the evaluation process are a failure to get goals; micromanaging the operations of the credit unon; allowing subjectivity to cloud the process; avoiding difficult situations or crises until its too late; and not getting buy-in for the board's goals.

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Give Leeway to Encourage Innovation

NEW YORK — Developing different kinds of sandpaper led to the invention of masking tape because a 3M employee was given autonomy.

That kind of approach to thinking and managing is the key to encouraging new ideas, according to a talk by management consultant and author Scott Berkun at America's Credit Union Conference and Expo.

Berkun, a former Microsoft executive, said that most of history's greatest inventions were the result of long, drawn out processes involving trial and error and did not come out an epiphany or eureka moment. He added that to understand why something works well you should look at the events that happened in the minutes, days and weeks before a breakthrough occurred.

Many of the ideas for and technology behind great products came during the development of other products that were deemed failures, he noted.

Berkun said the three best ways to encourage new ideas among staff members are to delegate responsibility, encourage people to take risks and not fear mistakes and reward initiative.

He also noted that there are too many reasons for people to resist change, such as complacency, and an effective innovator is someone with the persuasive skills to overcome those obstacles.

CUs Need to Provide Top Notch Service
NEW YORK — Brian Grubb, corporate director of learning and content delivery at the Ritz Carlton Leadership Center, showed how to achieve first class service.

Grubb said that legendary service does not necessarily have to cost a lot of money and the best business practices are ones that are simple and easy to implement.

"Our employees are the most important resource in driving service excellence," Grubb said.

While the hospitality industry as a whole has an 85% employee turnover rate, Ritz Carlton has only a 20% turnover rate.

Grubb showed attendees what the Ritz Carlton calls its credo card–a card the states the hotel's mission statement and other customer service information that the employees carry with them and memorize.

When surveying customers, Grubb said that the reason that customers choose one hotel over the other or one service over another is because of value. Grubb said that customers want fast access to knowledge and wisdom, convenience and respect of time, lack of hassle, one-of-a-kind experiences and to walk away with stories of service that had wowed them.

"We're looking for a customer that will use all of our services not just one," Grubb said. "Product is the platform, what we want is the outcome and the outcome is full engagement."

Employees need to be engaged first. Grubb said that 67% of customers leave because of attitude or indifference of an employee.

A customer becomes more engaged and loyal when they encounter a problem and it is solved with satisfaction, he concluded.