Just what is the future of leadership? And what must leaders do if they want to continue to be effective leaders with newer generations of workers?

Those questions and others were put to a panel during the Underground Thriller event hosted by Mitchell Stankovic Associates here in conjunction with the Money 20/20 event, with panelists offering insights that included from the role of social media and that of social impact, how young workers view of today’s workplace, and how in one organization learning to play cricket helped to bring its team members together.

Participating in the panel titled “Leadership in Today’s World” were:

• Maria Martinez, president and CEO, Border Federal Credit Union

• Patrick McElthenie, chief sales officer with Trellance

• Linda Rossi, president/CEO, Ventura County Credit Union

The session was moderated by Ronaldo Hardy, president and CEO of NACUSO. Here’s a look at what they had to say.

Hardy: Looking beyond the necessary knowledge of creditunions and even the soft skills, such as empathy, what does a leader look like in the future, and how quickly must we adapt to this changing world?

Rossi: At the end of the day the definition of a leader hasn't changed. Leaders lead. Will people be on your team? Will they join your effort? Can you garner community?

Secondarily, can you do what you need to do? Can you have positive outcomes? To that degree, nothing about leadership has changed.

What has changed is the world around us. It is very different in terms of how we impact people, how we move them to do what they need to do. Social media and influencers are a huge part of what is happening with leaders today. When I look out at this crowd, some of you will know the reference, I feel like social media in its broadest sense is sort of like the Six Million Dollar Man. It’s a communication solution that is smarter, faster and better. It allows people without titles with and without street cred to have the ability to move people. I think that is part of it; being able to move people through whatever means is necessary.

McElthenie: I believe leadership is all about connectedness and community. But being from a data analytics company, I thought I needed to do a survey. So, I went to my favorites list in my phone and I found four millennials that happened to share my same last name. I’m going to read a text message from one random person about what leadership means to them. This is from a 31-year-old single female who works for a large healthcare tech company in Madison, Wis. This person says:

One Young Worker’s Perspective

‘I think that the combination and rise of social media/influencers, plus the disillusionment from the pandemic definitely had an impact on the way a lot of millennials and Gen Z think about work. Not only were we all stuck at home spending more time online to see content, but it also triggered a lot of reflection on work/life balance and employer/employee relationships.

‘Under the current system, for example, you suddenly realize how feasible remote and hybrid work for your job is, but the company refuses to allow additional flexibility because they don't trust their employees and all they want is control and butts in the seats. Suddenly, you're categorized as an essential worker. But if your work is so essential, why are your pay and working conditions so poor? Then you see content online and maybe you get envious; maybe it inspires you to leave your job and seek another. Maybe it gives you unrealistic expectations--it is the Internet after all. In my opinion, it's good to be aware of these kinds of things these days

‘Many people aren't willing to put up with being treated as a cog in a machine anymore. Treat your employees like adults be empathetic and a good person. Have great team leads. This is a huge reason why I've stayed with this company despite some of our CEO's boneheaded Boomer policies. Lol.’

All About Hyper-Personalization

This is all about connectedness and community. You have to have people connect to your mission. You have to have people connect to the vision and have a purpose. What's really a hot topic in credit unions right now? Hyper-personalization. We’ve got to personalize for members. But what about your employees? If you can hyper-personalize with your employees you're providing this connectedness, this environment, this culture that's going to help propel your organization.

Reason for Being a CEO

Martinez: I think it’s about social impact. I remember when I wrote down that I wanted to be a CEO and I did it because I could what see the CEO who I was working for was doing out in the community. I don't think I wrote it down because I wanted to manage people or because I wanted to tell people what to do. What I wanted to do was to create a social impact out in the community.

So, when I took the CEO role at my credit union I went into a town (Del Rio, Texas) that had double-digit unemployment and my job was to create jobs. But not just any jobs; jobs that would bring people food to their tables and jobs that people like the new millennials, the new Gen Z's would be happy to have. I think it's so important.

I think the social aspect of any leader should be making sure that we're doing good in our community, no matter what. I don't think that's gonna change with Gen Z or millennials. The bottom line is we should always try to be a leader and make sure that you gather a group that's going to follow you to do good, because every organization, whether it be a technology company or whether it be a credit union, that’s what the final objective should be.

Hardy: I love that. As a leader you become more aware of the impact that you can have. I currently wear my mission statement on my arm (Hardy has a tattoo) that reads, “Change the world by building the people who would change the world.”) It’s about understanding that the leadership opportunity is to impact others in a way that they create additional impact.

There's this evolution, though, that happens the longer you lead. You become more and more aware of the type of impact you have and as leadership expands then you also get larger chances to create impact that extends way beyond what you could have comprehended initially.

A Change in Mindset

Hardy: I think it's a good segue into an additional question for all of you: As you have continued to grow and evolve in your leadership, what has shifted about your mindset over time, in your leadership capacity, and what would you say about the impact that has made?

Rossi: It is the way you inspire and touch people. I don't think the desire to have an impact or the desire to make change is any different. But there is a recognition that what moves different people looks different. I became a CEO on day one of the pandemic and so it was really trial by fire. I was raised as sort of that Boomer/X’er leader. I thread that needle. I used to say to early managers, “Look them in the eye. That's how you move people. Have a personal conversation.” But that's not necessarily how you move a younger generation. When you get to the younger millennials and beyond something else resonates with them, so you have to have the message but the message has to be delivered in the manner that is most meaningful for them.

A Lesson in Cricket

McElthenie: Many years ago I was a mid-level manager at an insurance company. I was leading a few agile teams as we were going through some transformation. I had one team that just was not functioning at all; there was this divide, there was this split. We would go into our daily huddles where we had this big, long table. At one end of the table were all of the business people, and at the other end of the table were all the tech people and there was just no collaboration. All of the tech people were contractors and were from India. I was trying to find a way to get this team to perform. It goes back to being connected, to being curious.

So, I started asking some questions of their team. What do these people do on the weekend? What motivates them? I found out they played in a cricket league. I knew nothing about cricket, so two weeks later I took the whole team on a Friday afternoon to a park and said, “We're going to take some sandwiches, we're going to take some cold beverages, and you're going to teach us how to play cricket.” We spent four hours learning the game of cricket.

That team moving forward was the most well-functioning team within the company from a transformation perspective. We brought it together because we showed interest, we showed that we cared, that we wanted to connect. It was a very small, small thing, but for me that was transformational in how to lead moving forward. It had huge impact and was a great success.

If you're not curious, you don't ask questions, you don't seek to understand, you're never going to be the type of leader who is truly going to be successful.

Importance of Understanding Needs

Martinez: Understand the needs of your staff, understanding the needs of your members. I still remember when we required (women) to wear pantyhose. We grew up with this idea that you had to be well-dressed in order to serve others, that you had to portray that image.

Just recently I had a Gen Z person tell me she showed up to the office in her nice suit, but she wore sneakers. She said, “I looked sharp.” When she showed up to the office, the first thing the boss said was, “Why are you wearing tennis shoes?”

That's one of the things we need to adapt to. We have our policies in place that say no tennis shoes, no ragged jeans. We have a list. We even took pictures that we show at staff training But we have to adapt.

As CEO I had to adapt. You have to embrace the new generations. If they have a tattoo, they want to show it. We have to accept that. One of the most difficult things that has happened in my career is learning to adapt. A good thing is I have three kids who are Millennials and Gen Z. I learned from them and that's good thing.