Getting Out of the Weeds

It's Monday at 9:00, and your leadership team sits down with a full agenda.

You've finally set aside real time for next year's growth goals.

Then someone mentions a member who called three times last week about a held deposit. Ten minutes later, the whole room is deep in that one account. Who said what, which policy applies, whether the branch should have made an exception.

By 10:15, the growth conversation has been pushed to next week. Again.

Have you ever sat in that meeting?

Whether you sit on a board, serve on an executive team, or lead a branch, it's easy to get into the weeds. The small stuff is right in front of you. It feels urgent, and solving it gives you a quick win.

So wherever the biggest fire of the day is burning, that's where the time goes.

What does it cost to stay in the weeds?

The bigger questions never get asked.

Board meetings turn into a recap of what directors already read in an email. Leadership meetings drift into status updates. The people around the table were chosen to lead, and they end up spending that thinking on the week's emergencies.

Meanwhile, those emergencies keep coming back. Different situations, but often the same underlying issues. 

How do you pull your team out of the day-to-day?

Here are three things you can start with. I use them with boards and leadership teams all across the country. 

Ask why before you ask how. When an issue comes up, hold off on fixing it right there in the meeting. Ask, "Why is this happening? What's causing it?"

One complaint is a situation. A string of them usually points to a process, a training gap, or a policy worth a closer look.

A team I worked with did exactly this. They had the worst accuracy of any location in their organization. Instead of chasing each mistake, they asked why the errors kept happening, fixed the causes, and held each other accountable.

In 60 days, that team went from worst location to best.

Put opportunities on the agenda. 

Most agendas are built around problems. Add a standing item that asks, "Where are our biggest opportunities right now?"

That one question shifts the energy in the room and gives people permission to think ahead.

Protect time for strategy. 

Strategic thinking rarely happens by accident. Set aside a block in every meeting for a roundtable. Each person shares what they're seeing and one idea to help the credit union grow.

Send reports ahead of time so the meeting is spent on discussion. Then send the strategic question a few days early too.

People who've had time to think come in ready to contribute, and they take more ownership of what comes out of the conversation.

You might be thinking, "But some of these fires really do need handling right now."

Some do. Very few need the whole leadership team in the room, though.

Keep a parking-lot list at every meeting. When a single situation comes up, write it down, put a name beside it, and move on.

It gives everyone a shared way to say, "Let's park this one and come back to it," and nobody feels brushed aside.

What changes when you get out of the weeds?

Directors come to board meetings ready to weigh in on direction. Your board and leadership team start pulling in the same direction all year.

Your leadership team has roundtable conversations where people share their thinking, challenge each other with care, and leave owning what comes next.

And you get to lead the credit union instead of spending your week reacting to whatever lands in your inbox.

Your action step this week

Pull the agenda and notes from your last leadership or board meeting. Label each item one of two ways: weeds (a single situation or detail) or strategic (causes, patterns, or opportunities). 

Then look at where the time actually went.

Before your next meeting, add one strategic question to the top of the agenda and send it out a few days early. 

Then, look back at how the conversation went and what you'd adjust next time.

If you or your team feel stuck in that cycle, hit reply and tell me more. 

I'd love to dig into it with you and share the frameworks I use to help boards and leadership teams spend more time on what moves the credit union forward.

Lead Boldly,
~ Michael