PODCAST: Emerging leader thrives on challenges

Rachel Guyselman has advice for young credit union professionals who enjoy presenting ideas to their managers: Don’t take feedback personally.

The vice president of operations at $73 million asset Tongass Federal Credit Union in Ketchikan, Alaska, often must reshape her initial proposals based on comments from her supportive CEO, Helen Mickel.

“Rather than thinking, ‘I’ve been shut down,’ I think, ‘OK, this is just a detour, not a dead end,’” Guyselman tells CUNA News Podcast. “I need to rethink it, absorb that feedback, and come at it from a different angle. If you still believe in your initial thought logically and knowledgeably, present your point.”

Guyselman, 30, is the first recipient of the CUNA Emerging Leader Award, to be presented Dec. 4 at the inaugural CUNA Emerging Leader Institute in San Diego.

During the past three years, she created her credit union’s first marketing program and social media plan, implemented metrics for front-line personnel, and oversaw the introduction of a mobile app and online membership enrollment.

In this week’s podcast, Guyselman discusses her inner drive to identify problems and propose budget-conscious solutions, her passion for financial education rooted in her family’s circumstances while growing up, her growing appreciation for credit union advocacy, and how working at a credit union in Guam shaped her outlook of the movement worldwide.

You can listen and subscribe to the CUNA News Podcast in Apple’s iTunes Store, Google Play, and Stitcher Radio.