2016 Directors’ and Managers’ Conference starts tomorrow

As the Body with authorized responsibility for training and development of all levels of credit union officials and membership, we encourage those serving and those desirous of doing so to follow this column to keep abreast of key educational events and updates. We believe that since all organizational strategies are created by and ultimately must be implemented by people, organisational quality is based to a large extent on individual quality. Personal responsibility, in essence, represents the willingness of every employee to implement actions that would create the desired organizational outputs and results. Managers who expect employees to exhibit the qualities of personal responsibility have to model this behavior themselves, in order to ultimately create an organizational culture that is based on personal responsibility.

Managing by personal responsibility involves a commitment at the top levels of the organisation to personal responsibility as a controlling principle of organisational life; commitment to complete tasks regardless of arising/ unforeseen difficulties; use of individual Mission Statement that articulate individual responsibilities and commitments; a commitment to coaching and an open and healthy work environment that promotes positive communication.

Characteristics that facilitate team commitment:

1. Alignment with the purpose of the team and commitment (emotionally, resource-wise) towards accomplishing its mission and goals.

2. Goal oriented: Each team member knows what action steps are to be completed by the team as a whole and s/he specifically.

3. Role clarity: Each team members knows what roles/ responsibilities/task he is specifically required to do and each team member understands how his or her input contributes to the final goal.

4. Clearly understood lines of authority and decision making.

5. Timely and positive conflict resolution practices.

6. Reward system that is clear, transparent and links rewards with team results.

Characteristics of high performance team:

1. Participative Leadership

2. A sense of shared ownership and responsibility

3. Alignment with the team’s vision/mission

4. Future focused

5. Goal focused

6. Provides environment for persons to use their talent and creativity.

In pursuance of its educational thrust, the League will host a two- day Certificate Directors and Managers Conference on Friday September 30 and Saturday October 01, 2016 at the Banquet and Conference Centre, St Ann’s where a large cross section of our credit union leaders will discuss topics above as well as Industrial Relations, the impact of Fraud on organizations, the role of the Nominations Committee; the role of credit unions in recessionary times; Motivating Service Excellence, among others.

The League reiterates that it is imperative for leaders to keep abreast of changes in business law and operations at every level in order to ensure that credit unions continue to perform well and meet the needs of their large and growing membership.

Speaking about the response to the two-day conference, Leagues Chief Operating Officer, Dianne Joseph stressed that management skills are necessary and personal responsibility cannot be over-emphasized. Performing at the management level requires skill and tack and no organization wants to have in its employ, managers that are not future or goal focused. Similarly, directorship must be taken seriously and those serving must subscribe to the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct. Our training interventions serve to achieve all of these and it will allow for the development of good business strategies or amendment of it to match and surpass completion in the business arena.

Email: creditunionleague@ gmail.com