Personally, I don't like the term underdog because it implies that I'm already in a hole. Life is hard enough, so why label it to make it feel harder? I know, some people are built that way and they love the challenge. That is part of my point.

There are too many people I've spoken with around the credit union industry who really embrace the underdog nature of their world. “It builds character,” one CMO said. Building character is a constant we all should strive for, but credit unions aren't something about you and your demons. Yes, strive to be better at what you do. Just don't do it to the detriment of your credit union because you believe that your credit union should, because of some childhood issues, be the underdog.

How do you know if you're an underdog addict? I've created the following Underdog Addict Questionnaire:

1. Have you ever used underdog as an excuse for your credit union's performance?

2. Can your credit union get through a week without using the word underdog?

3. Has being an underdog created problems between you and your trade association?

4. Do you use more than one word for underdog at a time, such as dark horse or scrappy?

5. Does anyone at your credit union have an Underdog tattoo? Your CEO? CMO?

Here's the only time I'm going to enable your addiction to being an underdog – by showing you how you can use it. In order to effectively tell an underdog story, it has to be for very specific situations.

Rebirth: If your credit union has a story of renewal, of a new life, or even trying to recapture what your credit union once was. What's the value you're bringing back to your membership and why did you lose it? If you can tell that story, you might be an underdog.

A Quest: If your credit union is trying to get from point A to point B. Think of The Lord of the Rings or The Bad News Bears. If your credit union decides to challenge the system by setting a goal of some never-before-accomplished thing, such as convincing your membership to use all revenue to create real meaning and change in your community by giving it all away in the form of college scholarships, to reach a 0% homeless population or pay for teachers' salaries in your community. If you try doing that, you might be an underdog.

Tragedy: If you really want to wallow around in your underdogness, try this approach. This is the dark side of storytelling that would require your credit union to get behind issues that show the futile nature of the human experience. Your credit union would have to set goals such as no person will go hungry in your community, telling the hard, personal truths about rape and sexual abuse and what your credit union is doing to stop it for good. If you try doing that, you might be an underdog.

I get it, a lot of you use underdog as this much lighter term just to help you feel good about what you're doing because if you stop to look at market share and growth for the banking industry, it's easy to feel victimized.

I just ask that you pull your head out for a second and look at what you have and the team you've hired to do the job of running your credit union. Those are the ones who can pull you out of the underdog hole you find yourself in. These are the people who can replace your underdog addiction with some real truths and stories to tell. Try not to be like the addict, whose quote I shared earlier, “I was only fooling myself.” Because you're not.

Second Editor's Note: To be clear, I'm not making light of true drug addictions in this article. Many have been impacted by addictions and if this applies to you, you have friends. Now, go have some coffee.

Michael Ogden is Executive Editor for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.

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Credit Unions and Their Underdog Addiction

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