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Both succession and development are priorities at Simplicity Credit Union in Marshfield, Wis. Board Chair Mark Page has been a director since 1987 and watched as the credit union’s assets grew from $45 million in the 1990s to $429 million today.
Page has witnessed CEO transitions that both fueled and slowed growth. He’s also seen succession plans that worked in real-world conditions—and plans that faltered when reality intruded.
“Until you actually implement a succession plan, you’re never going to see the pitfalls,” he notes.
Simplicity faced a big leadership challenge when former CEO Patricia Wesenberg took a leave of absence before resigning in late 2020 due to health issues.
The board hired a consultant and conducted an internal search that led to Chief Financial Officer Nicholas Faber being promoted to CEO in March 2021.
Faber says Simplicity’s succession plan created a smooth transition at a time when employees were grieving for Wesenberg, who died in February 2021. She had served as CEO for 26 years.
“The health and longevity of the organization is the No. 1 reason to have a succession plan,” Faber says. “If there is a succession plan in place, it has been communicated, and there is a clear goal and strategy from top to bottom, we will be able to keep moving along the path to accomplishing what we set out to.”
Page says hiring an outside consultant provided an objective evaluation of internal applicant skill sets and competencies, giving the board confidence in its decision to promote Faber to CEO. Choosing an internal candidate allowed Simplicity to skip the tricky process of matching a candidate to the culture.
“Our biggest win wasn’t having to spend an excessive amount of time trying to explain to the leader what our member-focused culture is,” Page says. “We wanted to make sure our next CEO would continue that culture.”
Simplicity is maintaining its culture with a development program for its 110 employees, including a leadership course developed and led internally. Thirteen employees graduated from the first Leadership 1.0 course in January 2022 and can apply for the Leadership 2.0 course. Meanwhile, another six employees will start Leadership 1.0 training.
“It speaks volumes to the desire of our staff who want to improve and continue to grow to do what we need to do to best serve our members,” Faber says. Offering “360-degree feedback” to all employees is a key step because it allows employees to identify weaknesses they can address with training.
The development program has two goals:
“It’s about taking advantage of opportunities,” Faber says.
Aurora (Colo.) Federal Credit Union had a “verbal succession plan” based on annual and routine board conversations but lacked a finely detailed written document when the CEO gave two-week notice of earlier-than-expected retirement in June 2021. By coincidence, the executive vice president resigned to accept a new position a few days later.
“There was a little bit of angst on the board,” Board Chair Mark Stephenson recalls. The $128 million asset credit union has 19 employees and two vice presidents, so the leadership gap was an immediate issue. “It certainly illustrates the need for a board to be ready.”
Plus, the leadership change occurred during the pandemic. “There was quite a bit of exposure because we were so thin in leadership,” Stephenson says.
Fortunately, the remaining, experienced vice president had risen through the ranks and was willing and prepared to serve as interim CEO.
The board quickly authorized the interim leader to promote staff internally and bring in new tellers. Decisions made in earlier board discussions about a CEO search—searching both internally and externally and using an outside consultant—accelerated the process.
“It helped tremendously that we all knew what direction we were going to take when the CEO did retire,” Stephenson says. “Having an engaged board with a common vision of the future made it much easier when the time came to begin a CEO search, and made it easier to pick the final candidate.”
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