Episode 14: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women in Finance - Part 1

Renee Christoffer, President & CEO at Veridian Credit Union, Michele Dean, President & CEO at Suffolk Federal Credit Union and Whitney Woyke, EVP, Innovation & Strategy and Banking Services at Emprise Bank join Virginia Heyburn, Director of Research, Insights and Advocacy at Engage fi on part 1 of this exciting two part series. All these extraordinary women have broken the glass ceiling in the world of finance. They chat about their own journeys, success and challenges and look at where the financial industry is today.

Transcript

Virginia Heyburn (00:01) 

Hello and welcome back to another episode of FinTech Unleashed. My name is Virginia Hayburn. I'm the Director of Research, Insights and Advocacy at EngageFI. We have an exciting episode planned for you today. This is gonna be a conversation with impactful women leaders in the financial services industry. I'm joined today by Renee Christopher, President and CEO at Viridian Credit Union, Michelle Dean, President and CEO at Suffolk Credit Union, and Whitney Wyke. 

EVP Innovation and Strategy and Banking Services at -Prize Bank. All of today's guests bring unique perspectives to our discussion and they also have something in common. They are all women blazing trails in the world of financial services. We're going to chat about their own journeys, their success, their challenges, and also take a look at where the financial services industry is today. So we have a lot to cover. Let's dive right in. 

So Whitney, I want to start with you. I would love for all of you to introduce yourselves and give us an idea of your background and also your mission at your respective financial institution. Can you start us off? 

Whitney Woyke (01:15) 

Sure, happy to. Appreciate you having me. Whitney Wyke, I lead innovation and strategy at -Prize Bank and I am a 30 -year banker. So I started my career as a teller in the early 90s, kind of grew up within the retail banking division and then I've had a number of roles in both product innovation, our payments division, and I joined -Prize about not quite a year and a half ago and really am focused on I lead a group called Innovation Strategy, which is... 

the technology, data, marketing product, and then our new -Prize embedded business line. And so our mission and purpose for the company is that we are trailblazing the future of -Prize Bank. 

Virginia Heyburn (01:59) 

And what inspired you to pursue a career in financial services, Whitney? 30 years is a long time. 

Whitney Woyke (02:05) 

30 years is a long time. Well, I think most of us are accidental bankers, and I am as well. But my father actually worked for the John Harlan Company, is what it was called in the day. It's Harlan Clark now part of Veracast. So he called on banks and credit unions for his whole career. And so then when I was in college and looking for a job, he said, you should really just be a teller. That would be a great summer job. And so that started my entry into the industry. And then when I got out of college, I 

I had a degree in Spanish education and decided I didn't want to do that. So I got into a management training program at the bank where I'd been working and the rest is history. 

Virginia Heyburn (02:44) 

rest is history. Michelle, can you introduce yourself and also tell us what inspired you to join Financial Services? 

Michele Dean (02:50) 

Sure. Hello, everyone. I'm Michelle Dean, CEO at Suffolk Credit Union. We are in New York. I've been in the credit union industry nearly 30 years, but I did start my career on Wall Street. I've always wanted to be an investment banker and work in wealth management and help people save for their future. So that's always been a passion of mine. But when I was looking for a job closer to home, I stumbled upon this 

position at a credit union. I didn't really understand what that was, but the gentleman that I interviewed with was the CEO at the time. And he was such a visionary, inspirational person with such a mission to help people that it was just so inspiring. And that's how I stumbled upon my job there. And I held various roles throughout my career at three different credit unions from being more of an analyst to running lending to wealth management. 

In credit unions, we have things that are called QSOs, which are subsidiary companies, and then Chief Strategy Officer, and then in my most recent role here at this credit union, I've been here four years as CEO. 

Virginia Heyburn (04:01) 

Wonderful. Renee. 

Renee Christoffer (04:04) 

Yeah, thank you. I'm Renee Christopher, President and CEO at Viridian Credit Union in Iowa. And Virginia, when you asked what inspired me to join this movement and be in finance, well, I applied in high school, believe it or not. I started as an intern or a co -op student my senior year of high school and absolutely fell in love with the place. But I did that setting me up, hopefully, for success with my business administration degree and. 

I knew I wanted to head into business. I wasn't quite sure exactly where I wanted to be. And then you get hooked. You just fall in love with the culture, with the mission, with helping people. And it was a really good fit for me. So 31 years later, here I am as the president and CEO. I worked here through college a couple of different times, so for an undergrad and a master's. And I spent about half of my career on the retail side of the house. So I went from my co -op internship. 

program into Teller, member service representative, branch manager, I did lending for a while, regional manager, vice president of branches. And then about halfway into my career, I joined the executive team. So in that role of chief administration officer, I was able to work with a lot of areas, whether it was commercial lending or project management, information technology, payment systems. There were just so many opportunities. In a growing organization, things change quite a bit and we evolve with what 

what is needed at the time or what the industry is doing or what areas we see as as needing maybe some more attention for the future and having bright futures ahead of them. So it was a great way for me to kind of dabble in a lot of different things and learn a lot about the business. And then about four years ago, I accepted the role as president and CEO, which has been a ton of fun and I've enjoyed every minute of it. 

Michele Dean (05:48) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (05:49) 

Well, you know, in our industry, it certainly is never boring. It doesn't matter what year it is. There are always challenges. Michelle, you use the word visionary, and I want to ask you to answer this question first. You've all been through this journey of leadership. There have been industry challenges along the way. Those have been a constant that probably makes it all so interesting to be in this industry. But what do you see as the most pressing challenges today? 

Renee Christoffer (05:53) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (06:17) 

There's obviously there's so much going on with respect to the economy, with consumers, with businesses. What really keeps you occupied? 

Michele Dean (06:27) 

Sure, I mean, as an industry, relevancy, right? I just think that we have to figure out how we are going to be relevant to the younger generation, to be able to keep up with other businesses that are faster, stronger than we are with technology and adoption rates and figuring out that. So that's the overarching thing that keeps me up at night. 

The pace of change, right? Things, since COVID, think about the adoption rate of just digital alone, but just the sheer pace of change and our ability to keep up with that. Attracting talent, like attracting, retaining, and affording the skillsets that we need, I think is a huge challenge that we have to work through and figure out how we're going to handle that. Scale and efficiency. 

used to be known in the credit union industry as anything over a billion dollars or greater was a big credit union. And now things that I keep hearing some consultants that speak on the circuit a lot, they're saying five to 10 billion is that number. And why is that? It's for scale and affordability and efficiency. So those are the main things. And I think more relative to the economy, I just think that the credit union's mission of people helping people, 

with affordability right now with interest rates and cost to borrow, interest rates and things like that, being able to get into home ownership. Those are things that we're all going to be grappling with, I think for at least the near term future. 

Virginia Heyburn (08:08) 

Yes, and that's also particularly true for young people who have real existential questions around how they're going to ever buy a house, how they're going to refinance their car in today's high interest rate environment. Now, Whitney, do you have anything to add to what Michelle said? 

Whitney Woyke (08:25) 

She covered it really well. Those were actually the things I was thinking. I guess the only other one I would add is that there is a somewhat crazy regulatory environment, especially for those of us that are working within the banking as a service space. A lot that's going on there, a lot to consider. And so how that's all going to play out is definitely something I'm thinking about a lot. 

Virginia Heyburn (08:50) 

and Renee. 

Renee Christoffer (08:51) 

Yeah, well, they covered it really, really well. So going third is hard. But I will say that I would add, you know, just the pressures as a financial institution today on sustainability and income. And when you look at all of the things that have happened over the last year with the rate environment and how quickly it's changing and the pressures on interchange and the regulatory environment, when you add all of those things together, I think it just puts. 

It puts a strain on the organization that it makes it harder to achieve all of those things Michelle mentioned in her opening comments, because I think that's where we need to be focusing. But sometimes the things that you have to do or that are concerns or things you need to be forecasting or planning for for the future to maintain your financial stability and condition take a lot of time too these days, because they're coming at you from multiple different directions, those concerns are. So. 

Virginia Heyburn (09:49) 

They do, Renee, and I'm wondering, just staying with you, to what extent does technology play a role in helping you fight some of those battles on multiple fronts? How are you thinking about technology, the impact on your operations, your ability to navigate some of these challenges? 

Renee Christoffer (09:58) 

Yeah. 

Yeah, and I would say over the last several years, we've really taken a hard look at our strategic plan. And when you think about technology, we've we've transitioned away from the approach of technology being a pillar of our strategic plan standalone. Instead, we have four pillars of employer of choice, growth, financial security, when you look at in member experience, when you look at those four pillars, technology has to drive them all. 

So technology is an enabler for us to do all of those things really well. And I think once you kind of switch your mindset to how does technology make us better, make us more efficient, help us innovate, how does it help to provide an excellent member experience that's extremely seamless and frictionless, and you use the technology as kind of a catalyst to move you forward in all of the areas of your strategic plan. 

Michele Dean (10:58) 

What is it? 

Renee Christoffer (10:59) 

That really kind of helped us. It helped us to polish how we deliver to our members, also keeping at the forefront how we deliver to our employees. How do we make their jobs easier? How do we help them with the tasks that have to be done every day to kind of free them up to work with our members, to partner with people, to help them plan for their future? And that's kind of the approach that we've taken, but I think technology plays a huge part in... 

Michele Dean (11:10) 

Okay. 

Renee Christoffer (11:27) 

and what our future looks like, whether you're looking at data analytics and how those inform us to better serve our members, efficiency or scale as we're working through a lot of different changes in our industry. It's just interesting to kind of take a look at how technology really needs to play a part in every single part of who you are and what your future looks like. 

Virginia Heyburn (11:50) 

in so many ways financial institutions or technology companies and Whitney I wanted to come back to something you said you mentioned banking as a service. -Price is in a very unique position. Can you share a little bit more about your strategy with E -BAS? 

Michele Dean (11:53) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (12:06) 

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, what we've seen is that there is an increasing, and I don't think it's changing, demand for financial services to be embedded in the brands and the experiences that both consumers and small businesses are interacting with every day. FinTechs have run circles around banks in the sense of they've created... 

very bespoke, very niche products that serve a narrow customer segment in a way that would be impossible for banks to really compete with. And so as we see this happening in the market, we have a really healthy, robust core business and it is stable and growing for us. We also think there's a great opportunity for us to be the bank behind the scenes that can enable... 

some of these fintech strategies and fintech players to be in the marketplace that gives us actually a nationwide platform to continue to grow because all of the competitive pressure we're seeing, I think the last report I saw said something like 47 % of all consumer checking accounts last year were opened by a fintech. That's a shocking statistic for. 

Michele Dean (13:16) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (13:18) 

a financial institution that a consumer checking account is a core part of our bank. And so how do we continue to support what seems to be the growing and inevitable demand of the consumers and continue to compete with that and to grow, but using the core competencies we have as a bank to be able to stay relevant in that space. So that's how we ended up deciding. 

Michele Dean (13:39) 

Take a breath, take a breath, breathe. 

Whitney Woyke (13:42) 

about three years ago to enter into the creation of a banking as a service offering as part of our future growth strategy. 

Virginia Heyburn (13:51) 

And what you've said, I think is so important. The checking accounts that are being opened, obviously a large number by, well, through the FinTech banks and then the vast majority of the remaining checking accounts with the large banks. So that puts the community banks and credit unions in a very difficult position. And Michelle, you had really spoken to that. So I want to come back to you on this. So as community financial institutions, you have a unique 

Michele Dean (13:59) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (14:18) 

You have to be digitally forward because that's what your customers and members demand. But you also have the advantage of being locally present, embedded in your communities. You have to be high touch. You have to be high tech. How do you differentiate your, in your case, your credit union, Michelle, and then Whitney to speak to this later about your bank? How do you differentiate vis -a -vis the large banks and the fintechs? Is it possible? 

Michele Dean (14:23) 

Thank you. 

you know, I think a lot of us are starting to do the same thing. I think the thought of going a hundred percent digital, some, some do have that model, but as Whitney suggested, sometimes they're more niche. so I think, I guess the advantage I would say that we've taken is we're not taking a one size fits all approach to, we're going to go all in on one, one size. So we have digital and we're trying to build that up and it was accelerated because of COVID. 

We had to put all of our time, money and resources, things like being able to leverage ITMs. So I can now put more branches out there than I was able to afford because there's much smaller footprints, less expensive to carry and then less expensive to staff. If things happen where now I want to be able to do longer hours and be able to compete with a 24 by seven, I might be able to afford that because the actual branch itself is closed. 

but it can do the transactions that I want to do after hours and weekends for an extended period of time in a more economical way. The human touch, I think having the branches and the people that we hire and the cultures that we're building, a lot of reinvestment back into the community with volunteerism and community involvement. And then even though people do come to us through the digital channels, we're still doing things that we used to do with our original in... 

person membership, which is making those birthday calls and making those, hi, how are you? Just to say, hi, calls or follow up on the onboarding with a banker that they know from the community. So those are, I think some of the differentiators that we're trying to combat the digital infrastructure and the bigger bank philosophy. 

Virginia Heyburn (16:33) 

Rene, do you have anything to add to that? 

Renee Christoffer (16:35) 

Yeah, I would say that we're doing a lot of the same. I think we've had a strong digital presence for many, many years. So thank goodness we going into the pandemic, we were able to serve our members pretty seamlessly, which was wonderful. But we definitely focus on both a digital presence and an in -branch experience and having branches where our members want branches. I think that adds to the feeling of stability in your community, the feeling of 

relationship and that if I have something I need to talk to somebody about they have somewhere to go. So we've invested in both and we will continue to do that. I think it's really important. I do think what FinTechs and others have done for us is they've pushed us. They've pushed us to be better. They've pushed us to be faster. We have to be on our toes. So when it comes to new product offerings or our digital experience, 

We have to be quick to market with real -time payments. We have to be out there looking at our digital experience all the time. How can we make it better? How can we learn about you as a member and make sure that we're using all of that data to make your experience really, really simple with us? Because others are doing it. So as you watch what your competitors are able to do, and they do it really, really well, I think what it allows us to do is... 

is take a minute and learn from it and then move on it. We have to move quickly and we have to be able to do and create similar experiences or better experiences here locally. And I also think one thing that we do is we show up. We show up in our communities. And so they're likely not going to see some of those other competitors doing that, but we're at the events. We are here local. We're investing. We're sponsoring. We're donating. We're... 

Michele Dean (18:13) 

Thank you. 

Renee Christoffer (18:19) 

We're trying to still kind of maintain that feel of we are a community partner and we're a good partner for our members long -term. 

Virginia Heyburn (18:28) 

And that really matters, especially to young people. The research that I've seen really shows that young people are interested in banking with a financial institution that is aligned with their values, that's embedded in the communities, that has that high touch model because they're looking for advice. They're looking for guidance and they do value the eyeball to eyeball experience. Go figure, my millennial daughters would never want to talk to a human being but my Gen Z son. 

Renee Christoffer (18:31) 

It does. 

Michele Dean (18:34) 

And I'll see you later. 

Renee Christoffer (18:41) 

Yeah. 

Michele Dean (18:44) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (18:53) 

He wants to be in front of somebody to get advice. And I think that's where community institutions have an advantage. Whitney, any thoughts on that? 

Michele Dean (19:00) 

Thanks. 

Whitney Woyke (19:03) 

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think as hard as some of this technology change and the pace is really hard to keep up with and it's lowered the barrier of entry for the fintechs to get access, frankly, to provide services to some of our customers. On the flip side, the acceleration of the ability to get a return on the investment that you're making when you implement the right technology and it's aligned with your strategy. 

Michele Dean (19:04) 

Cool. 

Thank you. 

Thank you. 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (19:29) 

is much faster today. So you can start to see a return on that in six, eight, 12 weeks, which may not have been possible in the past. And so I think that's a massive shift in a good way in terms of how technology is helping us to continue to see profitability returns. 

Michele Dean (19:29) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (19:48) 

and artificial intelligence is just such a huge topic right now everybody's talking about it i want to stay with you whitney and and just ask you about this you you'd mentioned you know you're you're very focused on technology this is what you live and breathe every day how do you how do you artificial intelligence and financial services importantly have you done anything with it yet 

Whitney Woyke (20:09) 

Absolutely, I think it's huge. So both artificial intelligence and automation have really been incorporated into our overall strategy. So we started to build a team of data scientists about three and a half years ago. I think that's fairly unique for a company and a bank our size. 

Michele Dean (20:09) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (20:10) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (20:28) 

But we have at this point about a dozen different internal models that we are using through predictive analytics and machine learning to help us save time with our employees, to help us create better experiences for our customers. So I'll give you a couple of examples of things we're doing. 

Michele Dean (20:45) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (20:48) 

So first, you know, our real goal is the strategy is we have a lot of capabilities as a bank. We want to bring the right products and services at the right time throughout your life cycle, right? And you may have different needs as you mature and go through life. And so to do that, we've created some models that actually have looked at different behaviors of customers and helped us to really predict and model what products might be really relevant to someone right now. 

And so, you know, we've got our first one we launched was a, it was a small dollar overdraft alternative type product. And once we put that model into practice, we saw some of the results of consumers that actually took advantage of that triple or quadruple. And then, you know, once we identify the customer, we also then create a couple of things. One is we use marketing automation. So. 

we identify the customer and it's just set up to automatically go send messages out to customers to let them know about products that might be relevant to them. And then it also pushes into our branch network CRM system, as well as our call center CRM system. So when we think about this multi -channel, omni -channel approach where we want to be both deeply personal as well as digital, we can take those things and put them together. So if you happen to walk into a branch or call our call center, 

they also can speak to the things that our models have identified might be relevant to you. So separately, we have a couple of other things. As financial institutions, we have so many policy documents that's very hard to navigate for our employees. And so we're trying to make a great employee experience as we think about attracting talent. So we've created a library of semantic search models. There's a policy Q &A on our intranet. 

Michele Dean (22:29) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (22:42) 

If you have a question about one of our policies, you can ask it just like you might ask chat GPT and it would pull up from our policy what the right answer is for you. So that's saved a lot of time and, and productivity. And then finally, we're also testing right now, copilot within Microsoft. And so we're using it and seeing some pretty meaningful use cases just in productivity savings around things like taking meeting minutes, identifying action steps. 

Michele Dean (23:10) 

So. 

Whitney Woyke (23:11) 

out of meetings, creating drafts for different documents, and going through an inbox or a Teams network channel that has so many different things. It can summarize for you what are the things you need to be thinking about and responding to. So it's just created some good efficiencies. We haven't rolled it out broadly yet, but we're testing that within our tech team right now and are pretty excited about some of the potential in that. 

Michele Dean (23:25) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (23:40) 

Those are some really significant results across a broad range of areas that you're talking about here. These use cases are encouraging, not just Whitney and your organization, but across the industry. It's amazing how many use cases we now have that point to some tremendous cost savings and also improvements to experience. Renee, are there any use cases that are really getting your attention these days as areas you might like to focus on? 

Renee Christoffer (24:08) 

Yeah, we're using AI in a few different ways, a couple of which are helping us underwrite our loans. I think that anything that we can do to introduce automation and simplify that process and consistency is extremely helpful. So that's been great for us. The other thing that comes to mind right away is we've also started to use some AI when it comes to fraud detection and understanding what member behavior looks like on an individual basis. And if something 

strays from that, then we understand that there may be something else going on in that situation that may be fraud related. So that's been extremely helpful and helped our members in many, many situations. So it's things like that that I think AI has such potential. There are so many use cases and we're just starting to scratch the surface. So it's really exciting to think about all of the possibilities. 

Michele Dean (24:41) 

Thank you. 

Renee Christoffer (25:01) 

We've also introduced some automation and chat bots and things that are just making our members' lives a little bit easier. Also helping our employees quite a bit when you think about what their day -to -day looks like as well. 

Virginia Heyburn (25:16) 

keep the next 30 years of your career interesting, right, Renee? Michelle, anything to add to that? 

Renee Christoffer (25:18) 

Right, very. 

Whitney Woyke (25:22) 

Because, sorry, I was just going to jump in to say, with the good of AI, there's also the things we have to combat because AI is being introduced into fraud in a way that is going to be very challenging to continue to keep up with. And so how we create, you know, models and opportunities to combat the people that are trying to do bad things, we're going to have to stay focused on that. 

Virginia Heyburn (25:36) 

Okay. 

Renee Christoffer (25:44) 

Yeah, agreed. 

Virginia Heyburn (25:45) 

I'm so glad you brought that up Whitney because no matter how we feel about AI and there are plenty of us in the industry that have grave concerns about it and those are legitimate. We all need to be AI fluent for the very reason that you just mentioned. We have to really understand what it's all about. Michelle, anything to add to this? 

Michele Dean (25:57) 

I can say only two I would add from use cases that we're starting to test would be from an HR component. It was interesting. We put the position description as a test and gave it to the AI and then of course the recruiter. And when they were doing the selection of the many resumes and you looked at who HR folks would 

Whitney Woyke (25:58) 

Yeah, great. 

Michele Dean (26:26) 

put up for the candidates versus the selection through the AI. Nine out of 10 times the AI choice was the best choice. So it was really interesting. I don't know, we'll have to delve into deeper, but those are the candidates that were the best candidates for the job that actually got hired. So that was one area. And the other one, someone might've covered it, but in the contact center by doing chat bot, 

there, it saves significant headcount and hours that are needed. And you can redeploy those assets to be able to do those more in -person call -outs and things like that. So it's not like we're looking to reduce headcount, but to redeploy those resources elsewhere where it's a value add. So those are the two. 

Virginia Heyburn (27:15) 

and a foundation for the business model of a community financial institution as we talked about earlier, right? So AI helps that. Let's shift gears. You mentioned HR, Michelle, so it's a perfect time to segue. Let's talk about mentorship and leadership in our industry. Mentorship obviously is so tremendously important for career development. How do you think about mentorship in your organization? And I mean mentorship of all employees, the young, the not so young. 

men, women, all employees to ensure that you have a successful succession plan in your organization. Michelle, let me just start with you. You brought up HR, so how do you answer that? 

Michele Dean (27:56) 

Sure, it's something that's really near and dear to my heart in particular because of the opportunities that were afforded to me. Starting at that credit union that I said I stumbled upon and being with that CEO as such a young person, he invested in me for 20 years. And that's how, I've always so grateful for the amount of time he spent with me and the opportunities it afforded me. 

got me to where I am today and he is still my mentor. I brought him in to mentor the senior leaders that I have deemed to be my potential successors so he can work with them. But we also have informal and formal mentoring programs in the company that we run on six month stints. So formally people are matched up whether it's. 

entry level folks from all different departments. They say if they're interested, what they're interested in, and then we do a match to an executive and we invest in that twice a year for six months. That's the formal program. And then informally thereafter, you know, since we've been doing this, I probably have six people. I try to do two at a time and six of those people I'm still with, like informal. They'll call me and they'll ask, I'm looking to go back to college and 

We're going to, you know, which majors it's just, it doesn't have to be in the company. It's just about life and experiences. Other things though, to be able to, president's councils we have that way people have access. A really big thing that I did find out is people, when you're talking to people doing your town halls or when you're doing your road shows, when you're, people don't think that they're qualified to do things. 

And I just think it's great to have a conversation with people to say, you can be anything you want to be. We just need to know what that is so we can help invest in you to get there. And that type of loyalty and retention that you get with people like that, to be able to show them the way. And then the one last thing I would say is showing people the bigger picture. Coming in strategic planning in this particular organization, it was only known by a select few people. 

call it the top executives and the board. We took that strategic plan and presented it in a much more condensed version in town halls and then set up strategic committees for anybody in the company if they wanted to volunteer to participate on the committee to be able to get involved in things that were of interest. It doesn't have to be in what their discipline was. And so those are the things that I think can bring people along and show them there's different opportunities and make those connections. 

Virginia Heyburn (30:45) 

Michelle, do you see any difference in how your millennial and Gen Z staff respond to these types of programs versus the rest of your employee base? 

Michele Dean (30:57) 

No, I mean, I haven't. I think everyone has been really engaged. The people that are really excited about it are people that either want to make things better or understand what their options are. Right. So that can be with all different levels throughout the organization, including the most tenured, higher level senior people. I just think people. 

need to know they're not alone and the things that they're thinking and they're feeling and just to get somebody else's advice and experience has just been really helpful. 

Virginia Heyburn (31:30) 

Whitney, I want to go to you and get your thoughts on mentorship. I know it means a lot to all of us. 

Whitney Woyke (31:35) 

Yeah, it does. And just like Michelle, I mean, I have benefited greatly from mentors and sponsors throughout my career. And so at -Prize, we have a number of different investments we make in employees. They are absolutely our number one resource, and we treat them as such. We have some things we do beyond a traditional mentorship program. I think what I've found is sometimes the challenge of a traditional mentorship program is making sure. 

that your supply of qualified mentors can match the demand and the specific skills that the mentees are seeking. And there's not always a perfect match there. So we've actually taken an approach. We have a partnership with a group called the Kansas Leadership Center, and we've created a customized program based on a book called When Everyone Leads, which is a philosophy that... 

Leadership is an activity. It is not a position or a title. And so there's two different levels of KLC, Kansas Leadership Center programming that we have. Level one is available to every single employee in our company that's willing and interested in investing the time into doing that. And then the level two program is an application -based program for those that want to take that program to the next level with an actual outside coach. 

with 360 assessments and then they actually invest in the time to do a capstone project which is based on an adaptive challenge that they find in our company. And your question about Gen Z and millennials, I have not either experienced that they're not willing to engage in those kinds of programs. And I don't know if that's just because... 

At -Prize, two of our values are driven and enterprising. And so we're very intentional about who we hire. And so we hire people that have that natural spirit and curiosity to always want to be learning and growing and developing. And so it might just be a function of the type of people we have in our company, but they're very engaged and very eager to be part of that process. The last thing I'll say, cause it's just something as I mentor different people in our company that I always share with them is, 

there is also a difference between mentorship and sponsorship. And when I think about my own personal career, mentors were very pivotal for me when I was looking to develop specific skills, when I wanted feedback on an area of growth that I had identified. As I got deeper into my career though, the most impactful things were the sponsors that I had that were advocating for me in the rooms I wasn't in. 

and who always were looking out for opportunities and willing to give me feedback. And that's more internal. And then external, I have really curated my own personal board of advisors. And those are people who I trust deeply to give me the very honest and hard feedback I need to continue to be better and to grow. So it's not just one thing, I don't think. I really think it is a combination of a lot of those things that helps employees develop into their full potential. 

Virginia Heyburn (34:49) 

I'd like to ask you a question. You know, when we talk about building multi -generational cultures and financial services, I want to back up just a second and say that the recent research is showing that young people view financial services as a desirable place to work. And that's really different than five years ago. If you'd asked young people five years ago, financial services would have been at the bottom of the list. Now it's at the top. And there are reasons for that. As we build these multi -generational... 

cultures, how do you foster an environment of collaboration, an environment where diversity of thought is welcome, it's appreciated, and in some cases implemented. But then also, I know with my own children, I realize that if sometimes if an idea is not immediately implemented, there's an aspect of discouragement. How do you avoid that in an organization? 

Renee Christoffer (35:41) 

Yeah, such a great question. And, you know, I think it starts at the top. I think we all have a responsibility to have that culture in place that encourages those ideas and that sharing and just the innovation in general. And so a few things that we do here at the credit union is, you know, we meet with the executive team meets with every new employee that starts with the credit union. And part of that conversation, oftentimes is when you get out to your 

home base, you should look at our policies, our procedures, how we're doing things. And if you have suggestions for improvement, you should ask, why do we do it this way? You should share your feedback. Give us your perspective. So from day one at the credit union, they're hearing us send a message that that is welcomed and that that is helpful. I would say we also have parts of our intranet, actually a pretty significant part that's 

dedicated to process improvement, innovation. What ideas do you have? Please submit those. We want to hear them. We obviously let them know that once we get this information, it will be prioritized. And we have to sort through that, right? Because as you said, everything can't be turned around immediately. But it doesn't mean we're not paying attention. So we make sure that that message is clear in that. Some of the other things that we've just recently done is we've hosted generational round tables with our employees. 

around what's their experience, what feedback do they have as a member, because they're members of the credit union too. And we've done that by the different groups intentionally to really understand and gather feedback from those different generations so that we know what we need to be doing better to attract and retain not only them as employees, but as members as well. Because sometimes what we're seeing is those younger generations even as a membership group, 

aren't as likely to fill out a survey. You know, Virginia, I know you said you had younger children and I know mine, they're not likely going to take the time to fill out a survey and give you feedback on the regular, right? So how do you gather that from people? So we said, you know what, we have a lot of employees in these different groups. So how do we engage them in the process and how do we get feedback from them, which has been really, really helpful. I would also say that not only by generation, but by affinity groups, so minority groups and... 

How do we gather feedback from them? So we do have those in place as well. And we're asking questions. And what can we do better as an employer? What can we do better as a financial services provider? So I think you have to kind of put your feelers out in so many different ways and show genuine interest. And I think once they see some of those things coming to life, and you always have to paint the picture and tie it back to this was suggested by you, or this is where we got that feedback. And I think if they can see a trend in that, 

There's maybe a little bit more patience with maybe not everything gets implemented, but at least they know we're listening and they know we're taking action. And their comments and feedback are making a difference. 

Virginia Heyburn (38:46) 

And like every generation, young people want to be seen and heard too. So we just have different ways of making them feel that way. Right. Last question, Renee, and I'd like to ask you to kick us off here. Last question. As women leaders, you know, so often we're challenged more so than our male power parts to prioritize family or the business and basically just keep the wheels on the bus, right? Make sure everything gets done. 

How have you navigated those challenges in your career and what advice would you give to rising women leaders? 

Renee Christoffer (39:23) 

such a good question. And I think that I've navigated that in ways that are probably very much like the others here on the screen and others out there in the world that are working through what that balance or what that harmony looks like. Once I was able to establish a couple of sponsors and as the other ladies have mentioned, they've had significant contributions to their careers made by different sponsors in their small circle. And 

That has been so helpful. I think you learn a lot from different people that are inviting you to tables that you might not otherwise be at, but they're also able to give you really, really good career advice. And so I've taken a lot of notes from those individuals that helped me put into perspective what we do every day. It is so important. There are other things in life that are so important as well. And so how do you balance that? And I think... 

One of the things that I've really had time to reflect on, especially since being in this position, is that as leaders, we really do set the tone for what that work -life balance or harmony looks like. And so we have talked about it intentionally as an executive team. So how do we create an environment where people understand that balance and... 

joy and harmony in every aspect of your life is welcomed and encouraged here at the credit union. So how do we set the tone for that? Because what I've learned throughout my career is that there were many times that I would maybe attribute my value to how much I'm working or how much I'm getting done or the outputs, right? But I think then once you really kind of reflect on your contributions and your value, we add value at every table we're at by the contributions we're giving at that table. And 

in that interaction. And so if you kind of switch your mindset and say, you know what, it's not me proving by the number of hours or by the number of projects or by the number of things I say yes to, it's really about the value I provide in each of those settings that really does contribute to the organization and the good of the organization. And so let's talk about how we make sure we're all contributing at that highest level. But that doesn't mean that we need to sacrifice other things in our personal life. So. 

Michele Dean (41:25) 

So, yes. 

Renee Christoffer (41:40) 

I think we have done a good job of just holding each other accountable and spreading that message throughout the organization that it matters that you find joy in things outside of what you do here every day because then you bring more joy to the workplace as well. And so I think that does start with all of us in the message and the messages that we send. 

Virginia Heyburn (42:04) 

Tone from the top is the message from you Renee Whitney 

Renee Christoffer (42:05) 

Absolutely. 

Whitney Woyke (42:09) 

Yeah, I mean, I sometimes wonder if this concept of balance is really a false premise. Not that you can't have balance, but balance doesn't mean things are always equal, right? And I think throughout the course of your career, you find there are times you're much heavier balanced on your work environment and you have to lean in there more. And then times when your family really needs you and you have to step away from some work things and lean on that. And... 

Michele Dean (42:30) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (42:36) 

As a mom and as an executive, you just have to trust your gut. You have to know the instinct of when you need to put yourself in the role that you're playing at that time, you know, more in or more out. And then give yourself compassion about that, right? I think we're really hard on ourselves as women and in the workplace that we do think we have to be able to do it all and do it all flawlessly. And I don't know that that's a realistic standard to set for ourselves. 

And just knowing how to self -regulate on that. And then, you know, I love what you said, Renee, about just, we bring our whole selves to the company and to our work every day. I think that makes us better leaders. I think when we're authentic and people understand and we're empathetic with them and they understand that we're humans who are all just here trying to do the right thing, and we all have good intentions, being our authentic selves, I think, 

Michele Dean (43:05) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (43:32) 

Earlier in my career, I certainly looked at many of the leaders in positions of top priority and many of them were male and I felt a need to emulate the way that they might have led or, if that made them successful, it's what will make me successful. And the more I came into just being me and actually being authentic in what I do every day, the more... 

the more powerful that was and the better I was able to lead the people in the team. So just be yourself and give yourself compassion. That's my advice. 

Michele Dean (44:09) 

I agree with the two ladies. What they were saying is, I do think the paradigm has shifted a lot to what Whitney was saying when I first started out in the industries that I was picking. I was pretty much the only female in the room. And I don't think you were able to be your authentic self. Otherwise you would be seen. 

Virginia Heyburn (44:11) 

and that creates loyalty, team loyalty, doesn't it? Yes. Michelle, closing thought. 

Whitney Woyke (44:14) 

It does, yeah. 

Michele Dean (44:38) 

potentially is weak. So, you know, you just have to bring a certain self to that table. But in today's day, I think there's a lot of grace for both men and women, right? You see paternity leaves and things like that, where if that was done years ago, I don't even know if that was available and you might've been looked at funny. So I just think hybrid work environments, the flexibility that things afford you now. 

to be able to be present exactly what Whitney is saying relative to, you only have 100 % of a pie. And so you can't make it 110. So sometimes you're going to be saying yes more to work. And sometimes you're gonna be saying yes more to personal because that's what's needed. And what I've learned in my more experienced years is that's okay. Because when you have... 

a track record and they know that whatever it's going to be that you're going to get done, it will get done. It might not just look the same way from an eight to eight. It might look, I'm going to leave in the middle of the day to go to the soccer game and sign back on at night, things like that. So what I would say is it's okay to say no, to tell someone that's coming up now, you can't say yes to everything. It's really important to prioritize yourself. 

in what that looks like for you, whether it's investing in yourself to learn, maybe that's reading, maybe that's going back to school. Make sure that you're taking care of your health, you know, sleep, rest, exercise, being healthy, that all makes you a better person. And then you bring your A game to that table when you're there. So those would be my advice to be able to balance it. And then in my particular case, I would say that having that support network is really what 

supported me, the ability to have the job, people in your family that are being able to pitch in when you can't be there to pick the kids up or attend something if you're traveling and just help you whether it's a sounding board. So that support network, whatever that looks like, I think is also essential. 

Virginia Heyburn (46:51) 

And hats off to the kids, right? I mean, through my career. So how many times did I hear shh, mom's on a conference call? And they've been troopers. But thank you so much. I mean, this conversation just makes me want to come work for every single one of you. Because it really I mean, you've talked about the human aspect of working for a financial institution, the human aspect of being a customer or a member of a financial institution. 

so important that we don't look at technology as a way to you know transactionalize the emotional you've really made that point and i think in a lot of ways reinforce the value of the model of a community financial institution in this highly highly competitive world so thank you for being here today all of you 

Michele Dean (47:37) 

Thank you. Well, thank you for being a great partner. It also helps by having vendors and partners that allow us to be better, smarter, and leverage your expertise as well. So thank you. 

Renee Christoffer (47:38) 

Thank you. 

Whitney Woyke (47:38) 

Thank you. 

Virginia Heyburn (47:50) 

Thank you. And to all of our listeners, thank you for tuning in to today's episode. To stay informed on when we're going to be dropping the next episode, follow EngageFI on LinkedIn. That's where you can follow our thought leadership schedule and of course so much more. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode of FinTech Unleashed. Have a great rest of your day, everyone. 

Renee Christoffer (47:50) 

and I'll see you next time. 

Michele Dean (48:11) 

Thank you. 

Renee Christoffer (48:12) 

Thank you.