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[00:00:00] Announcer: This is the Build A Vibrant Culture Podcast, your source for the strategies, systems, and smarts you need to turn possibility into purpose. Every week we dive into dynamic conversations as our host, Nicole Greer, interviews leadership and business experts. They're here to shed light on practical solutions to the challenges of personal and professional development. Now, here's your host, a professional speaker, coach and consultant, Nicole Greer.
[00:00:31] Nicole Greer: Welcome everybody to the Build A Vibrant Culture podcast.
[00:00:34] My name is Nicole Greer and they call me the Vibrant Coach, and I am here to help you build a vibrant culture, and I had the most delightful experience in September of 2025. I went to the Inspire Conference for the Credit Union League, and I met Genice DeCorte, so let me introduce you to her. She is the president and the CEO of HealthShare Credit Union in Greensboro, North Carolina. She currently holds the position of treasurer on both the Vizo Financial Corporate Credit Union and the Carolinas Credit Union Foundation Board of Directors. So she knows a lot. She's been a lot of places and she's going to download some major genius to us today. She chairs the Small Credit Union Roundtable for North Carolina and South Carolina, and she is a mentor to other small credit unions providing assistance to improve operations and financial performance with nearly four decades, which-- four decades. It's hard to believe. Four decades of experience in the credit union movement. She holds a strong belief in the power of credit unions serving their communities. She is deeply committed to helping small credit unions grow, thrive, and most importantly survive. So welcome to the show, it's Genice! How are you? Yay.
[00:01:46] Genice Decorte: I'm great. How are you?
[00:01:48] Nicole Greer: I'm really good. Really good. So I pulled up to the Ballantyne Hotel. For those of you who don't know what the Ballantyne Hotel is, super bougie and it's down in Ballantyne area of Charlotte. And I pull up and there's this little, little teeny tiny lady who is reading her notes. Okay. And she is so serious about what she's about to do. And she's about to give what they called at this conference, a "TINA talk" instead of a TED talk, because it was just all of us gals in the credit union business, right? And she is studying, studying, studying, but she stops what she's doing to say hello to me. And I think that's just such a testimony to who she is, right? So, so Genice, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here.
[00:02:32] Genice Decorte: Thank you. I'm so glad to be here.
[00:02:34] Nicole Greer: Yeah. And so, I'd just like to know a little bit about your background. How did you get to be the CEO and be on all these boards and, you know, be the person that conducts the round table? How'd that happen?
[00:02:46] Genice Decorte: It's a lot, huh? No, I'm very blessed, very fortunate. I started when I was 16. I was in future business leaders of America in high school.
[00:02:59] Nicole Greer: Oh my gosh.
[00:02:59] Genice Decorte: I know. I ended up co-oping at a credit union. So I would take a couple classes in high school, and then I would go to work for this credit union, and they paid me. I loved it, loved it. So I've worked for credit unions ever since. Next year will be my 40th year.
[00:03:18] Nicole Greer: Oh my gosh. So she really did start when she was 16, so that's usually a joke. But this is the truth.
[00:03:22] Genice Decorte: I know! It is! I love it.
[00:03:25] Nicole Greer: That's fantastic.
[00:03:26] Genice Decorte: I worked for a very large credit union in Orlando, Florida, and then one day a headhunter called me and asked me if I wanted to apply for a CEO position at a very small credit union in South Florida. And I did that and it was very scary. Because I, I left a very safe credit union I'd worked at to go work at a very small credit union, and I didn't know anything about anything. I was a lender, so I knew how to lend money. And when I interviewed, I told them, I said, I don't know accounting, I don't know finance. But I know credit union operations and lending. And they took a chance on me at 31 years old. So I became the CEO at 31, and then the rest is history,
[00:04:19] Nicole Greer: Right? So like, don't miss the message in there. Sometimes you have to take a chance on somebody who's got energy, chutzpah, you know, get-her-doneness right? So I imagine you were displaying all those behaviors.
[00:04:32] Genice Decorte: Oh, yes. Yes. I know. And I would love to see a lot more young people have that, like, I don't know, tenacity about them. Like the go get 'em drive.
[00:04:45] Nicole Greer: Yeah.
[00:04:45] Genice Decorte: Because there's a lot of opportunities out there, especially in credit union land.
[00:04:50] Nicole Greer: Yeah. Right. So, I've worked with folks who are in lending and they lend to like farmers and ranchers. I've worked in the credit union biz with folks up here in the Carolinas. And you know, also worked with Bank of America. But what really is cool about credit union land, it's got this soft side to it. That, that's really not soft. It's more like we love you hard. Right? If you're Yeah,
[00:05:15] Genice Decorte: That is so true! I'm going to steal that. We love you hard.
[00:05:20] Nicole Greer: That's right.
[00:05:21] Genice Decorte: That's our tagline. I love that.
[00:05:24] Nicole Greer: Yeah. But it's absolutely true. I mean, credit unions are all about community and taking care of the people. And they don't even have like customers, they have members. Right?
[00:05:34] Genice Decorte: Right, right. Because they own our credit union. Like if you're a customer of Chase, you don't own it, right? You're not a stock holder unless you buy stock at Chase. But every member, every person who belongs to a credit union is a member owner. They get one vote at every annual election for the board of directors. So they are owners of our credit union. We're cooperative.
[00:06:04] Nicole Greer: Yeah. And don't you just love that word?
[00:06:06] Genice Decorte: I do.
[00:06:06] Nicole Greer: Cooperative. Don't miss that everybody. Yeah. That's so good. So we were at this credit union event together, and Genice came up and she gave this thing called a Tina talk, which is like our female version of a TED talk. And I loved the things that you shared in your Tina talk. Now here's the thing to talk for an hour and a half or all day is, is
[00:06:28] Genice Decorte: Easy.
[00:06:28] Nicole Greer: You know, you could Yeah. But to shorten it up in this little teeny timeframe, that is a challenge. Right? So will you share with everybody kind of, the essence of what you talked about in your Tina talk? What were you trying to tell everybody? All those ladies in pink, we were all dressed in pink, everybody.
[00:06:45] Genice Decorte: A sea of pink.
[00:06:46] Nicole Greer: It was great.
[00:06:46] Genice Decorte: Beautiful! So basically I like to remind people, whatever stage of life, whatever position, your words matter. And communication is very important.
[00:07:00] So with my position, I feel like everything I say is heard and remembered and they might not remember exactly what you said, but they remember exactly how they felt. So words can inspire, motivate, comfort, validate, or the opposite. So I just believe the words are very important and whatever, whether it's your family or your work, choose your words wisely. That was my big takeaway.
[00:07:35] Nicole Greer: Yeah. That's awesome. And you know, one of the things that you shared which I think is so, so, so important to hear, is that you shared from the stage that be before you were going up to give your Tina talk that you got a text from an employee. And this employee said, I'm wishing you all the best for your presentation. So just think of the relationship that Genice has with her employees. Like where she's been giving so much encouragement, now they're reciprocating to her. So talk about that. That's fantastic.
[00:08:07] Genice Decorte: Well, let me tell you that Tina talk, I had started, normally I'm pretty versed when I do a presentation or a speech. I changed this 50 million ways to Sunday, so that's why I was nervous. Because I was like, okay, I'm talking about this, and then I did a 360. Because I think when you give a presentation, storytelling has to be a big part of it.
[00:08:37] Nicole Greer: Yeah.
[00:08:37] Genice Decorte: Because people remember stories more than just bits and pieces of information. I don't know. I could be wrong, Nicole, but That's just how it feel.
[00:08:46] Nicole Greer: No, nailed it. Nailed it.
[00:08:47] Genice Decorte: So when I was driving to the Inspire conference, one of my employees texted me and said, Hey, they're lucky to have you present to them. I hope your Tina talk goes really well. And I just thought. She took time out of her day. She's busy-- mom, wife, working-- to give me those words of encouragement and, again, it ties back to words matter. And that was very impactful for me that they took time out of their life to, to set me up for success, so to speak.
[00:09:25] Nicole Greer: Yeah.
[00:09:25] Genice Decorte: So again, even a two minute text message and I also said in the Tina talk that somebody had taken the time very recently to send me a thank you note. In fact, right here. It's on my wall.
[00:09:40] Nicole Greer: Okay, so look on the YouTube, everybody. She's holding it up. That's so good. Yeah.
[00:09:46] Genice Decorte: So somebody took the time to write me a thank you note after I had been to one of their events, and I just thought, who does that anymore? Who writes thank you notes, and you know, I'm going to keep it, I'm going to keep it because it was very meaningful that they took the time out of their day. Again, it all goes back to words can inspire and motivate, encourage, validate, even comfort. So I just, you know, I think we have to use different types of communication tools. And the text is one, the thank you card is another, you know, verbally. I believe that employees, they-- Money is always important, right? You've got to pay people for the job that they do. We all need money to survive, but words. When you send notes to your employees, whether it's email or a card or in person, one-on-one. Words mean a lot. That showing your appreciation for what they do and how they support and help you, I think that means the most.
[00:11:02] Nicole Greer: That's right. That's right. And you know, there's a thing about people hearing from you over a long period of time too, right? Like, so there's a consistency that leaders need to do. You also shared another story at the Inspire Conference that somebody came up to you and said to you at breakfast that you spoke to them-- don't miss this, everybody-- 11 years ago, and they never forgot what Genice told them. So not only do words matter, but they make a little impression, a little, little thing on your heart, you know? When people say the right thing at the right time. So share that story. What happened at breakfast?
[00:11:43] Genice Decorte: So when I was sitting down at the conference having breakfast an old, she was actually an old colleague of mine, so I've known her for over 30 years. She lost her spouse 11 years ago, and we were at an event 11 years ago together, and we don't see each other very often, like maybe once every-- well, it's probably been 11 years.
[00:12:08] So she sat down and she goes, you know, when I was going through the most difficult time in my life, when I'd lost my husband, you said something to me that inspired me. And she recited the words back to me and she said, I just never forgot that. You really helped me when I was going through the most difficult time, by just the words you said. And when somebody recites words back to you that you've moved on. You long forgot what you said to that person because I'll tell you, I didn't remember those words. You know, we talk to people 80% of our day, you know? And so when she recited those and said that I helped her through such a difficult time, it meant the world to me. I just felt like, wow. Thank you. That meant a lot to me. So again, whether it's been two minutes or 20 years, people are impacted by what you say to them and more importantly, how you made them feel. Because she felt comfort in the words and she felt inspired. Like, okay, I'll get through. You never get past something or over something, but you can move forward. Like when you lose somebody who is a significant part of your life, you will never get over it. You're never going to, you'll get through it, hopefully, and you'll move forward, but that person will always be in your life and a part of your life. And there was a Tina talk, not a Tina talk, a TED talk, an actual TED talk that I saw from a woman who lost her spouse. And people kept saying, you know, well, you got to move on. You got to move on. You got to. You know, bring yourself up. And she was like, no.
[00:14:10] Nicole Greer: Right.
[00:14:11] Genice Decorte: I'm not. I'll never forget this person in my life. And she goes, I'm married now a second time, but my current husband knows that my past husband will always be a part of my life. And I think
[00:14:25] Nicole Greer: Of course.
[00:14:25] Genice Decorte: That's so true. When people tell you to move on or move forward, you know. Okay, I'll get through this, but I'm never going to get over this, but I'll get through it and I will move forward. Yeah, but it, it's just not easy.
[00:14:40] Nicole Greer: Right? And, you know, I think, you know, we won't understand on this side of heaven, but it's kind of like, there's a lesson in there somewhere, or that person was your life to teach you something. And again, it was the words that that woman exchanged with her first husband that probably shaped her and shifted her and helped her for that portion of her life, right? Yeah. So again, you, you treasure these, these things.
[00:15:00] So there's three things that you may have not heard, but I heard when Genice was talking, so I want to make sure people don't miss this. She just said, I've been in the credit union business a long time and I have this gal that I know of, we may not talk all the time, but we're both credit union people and we go to credit union events and we support the cause, the purpose and the mission of credit unions. And so it creates this business family. And one of the things that maybe in our generation, is that we always went to networking events and to these conferences and to these things. It was like a joy. We're like, oh my gosh, we're going to the conference, you know, and we're going to learn something. But like you begin to create relationships so that you have connections from North Dakota to Florida, to Winston-Salem, to Charlotte. And so all of you listening, what is the association that is part of your industry that you need to be at the event. So you find you a posse that is outside the walls of your business that you can call on, right? Hasn't that been so valuable to you to be
[00:16:16] Genice Decorte: Nicole
[00:16:17] Nicole Greer: in the associations?
[00:16:19] Genice Decorte: And even more so, whether you're a female or male, it doesn't matter.
[00:16:24] Nicole Greer: That's right.
[00:16:25] Genice Decorte: Now I, I love the two conferences I just went to, you know, you were at the Inspire, but right after I went to Savannah, Georgia, and I went to a conference called CUWLA. Credit Union Women's Leadership Alliance. That's only CEOs of $500-million-or-less-in-assets credit union leaders.
[00:16:47] And that was awe inspiring as well. And the connection,
[00:16:51] Nicole Greer: I'm sure,
[00:16:52] Genice Decorte: and the bonds. I do, I know people from all over the United States because of these bonds and conferences and networking. So you hit the nail on the head encouraging people, whatever industry you're in, to attend events. And I run a small credit union. I'm a working manager. Like I am doing loans, I'm doing accounting, I'm doing the finance, I'm doing the collections right now. 'Cause unfortunately I don't, my collector passed away. And so I do it all, but I still have to make time to get out of my box so that when I have a question about something, I've got people I can text, call and email. I have a network and like you said, a posse. That's critical to my leadership. When I went to run my very first credit union, there's a thing called I got there in January. There's a thing called the call report. It's a report that credit unions have to upload. All this data we have to upload every quarter to NCUA, our government regulator.
[00:18:04] So the banks are regulated by FDIC. Everybody knows that name. Well, we're regulated by NCUA. I didn't know how to get this info, so I had to phone a friend. This was a woman I had not dealt with in years. She and I worked at a credit union together. She left that credit union to be a CFO of another credit union. I called her and I said, Suzanne. Where do I get this information for my call report? That woman took the time to help me go through all of this data so I would know where to get it from my financial statements and my core processor. So I could get this done because it was already late. And if you're late, you're going to be fined.
[00:18:54] Nicole Greer: Oh.
[00:18:55] Genice Decorte: So it was a process. That woman, as busy as she was, took the time to go, okay, look here. Look your line, item B. Ba B, you know, that's a amazing. And she and I still don't-- I don't email, call her. But I guarantee you, if I needed something, she's now the CEO of that credit union. I could call her and she would help me.
[00:19:19] Nicole Greer: That's because it's like a sorority, right? It's we're in this together.
[00:19:23] Genice Decorte: Once you're in, you're in. Exactly. And I time mentoring small credit unions, so I will go out there. I'll visit their shops, I'll help them clean up books or whatever, but I've become a mentor for several small credit unions. It's just what you do, you help each other because we all want to not just survive, but thrive. Right?
[00:19:52] Nicole Greer: Absolutely. A hundred percent. Yeah. And, and so here's the second thing. Genice just emphasized it again, but I don't want it to go past you. You know, everybody that works inside the building you work in and everybody who's working remotely or however it all looks at your place. Everybody's on a feeling scale. And so this feeling scale that very tippy top of it is like euphoric, right? Like I, it's the best I can feel. So like when Genice finally sent off this report, she felt euphoric, 'cause she's like, oh my gosh, I just learned how to do that. I got this sucker done and I woo, I, you know, dodged the bullet or whatever. Right?
[00:20:31] And then at the bottom of the feeling scale is a very ugly feeling, but it's true. It's called suicidal. And then there's all this stuff in between, like worried, anxious, fearful. Right? And you know, the whole gist of your Tina talk and, and what we're talking about today is that words matter.
[00:20:47] And so, you know, she calls up this gal and says, listen, I got to get this dang report done. And I bet you her words were like, no problem.
[00:20:57] Genice Decorte: Yes. Yes. Right. I was so grateful that she picked up the phone, number one. Oh, a lot of people don't pick up phones anymore. It's crazy.
[00:21:08] Nicole Greer: I know. I know.
[00:21:09] Genice Decorte: It's rough. And back then it wasn't really a cell phone time, so she picked up the phone. She helped me and I'll always be grateful for that. And she's an amazing leader.
[00:21:22] Nicole Greer: Yeah. Yeah. I think the other thing too is, you know, I'm always teaching leadership and doing leadership training and that kind of thing. And being available, being open, and having this like willingness is essential.
[00:21:36] Genice Decorte: Huge.
[00:21:38] Nicole Greer: Yeah, so good. So good. Yeah. And you know, you said also in your Tina talk, is that how did you feel yesterday when you received the compliment, right? So, you received a couple compliments at the Inspire conference after you gave your Tina talk. So you've been doing this as you've shared, you know, I've been doing this a long time. And you're the CEO, you mentor other people, but people give you a compliment and it still brings a tear to your eye. What, what do you think is happening there?
[00:22:06] Genice Decorte: I don't know. It's crazy. No. It was a great session and we had to compliment somebody and they had to give us a compliment. So I had a couple people come up to me and compliment me on different personality traits, things about me, and whether or not they meant it, I don't care, Nicole. I took it . I received it, I received it, I held it, I hugged it, but it did, it brought tears to my eyes because the words that they said were just joyful. They impacted me. They made me feel very good. And like I said, I'm not really that-- I'm emotional, like I have a very high personality, so, I don't get down very often-- but when somebody compliments you like that, it really makes you feel good. And it wasn't a generic compliment. Right? Oh, I love your outfit. Oh, you look great today. Oh, thanks for making me laugh. No, these were very specific compliments about who I am, and I took those and they brought tears to my eyes and I loved it. Who doesn't love getting a great compliment?
[00:23:22] Nicole Greer: Right, right.
[00:23:23] Announcer: Are you ready to build your vibrant culture? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference or organization to help them with their strategies, systems, and smarts to increase clarity, accountability, energy, and results. Your organization will get lit from within! Email her at nicole@vibrantculture.com and be sure to check out Nicole's TEDx talk at vibrantculture.com.
[00:23:51] Nicole Greer: So, you know, in the work that I do, I teach people all the time to give feedback. And sometimes when people hear that, they're like, oh, like correction. And well, that's part of it. But there's an old, old book. I bet you Genice, you read it 'cause we all read it and back in the day, and it was called the One Minute Manager
[00:24:09] Genice Decorte: Yes. Great book. Yes.
[00:24:12] Nicole Greer: Right. And so pull that thing out, everybody. Get a used copy for $1.99 and get it sent to your house. But the One Minute Manager, one of the things that says in there is catch people doing things right. And so this idea of giving a compliment or what I call a celebratory C3, there's a little recipe I have, I'll just share it real quick. Get your pens ready. You tell people, here were the Circumstances or what was going on when I saw you do this, right? So you, you play a little movie for them about the circumstances. Then the next thing is, is here's the behavior or the Conduct, the second C, Circumstances, Conduct. And then the third thing is the Consequences that kind of behavior has in the workplace or on me personally.
[00:24:55] So, you know, you can give a really nice little piece of feedback. It's like 11 years ago when we were at this conference, you came up to me, you sat down with me, you showed me empathy, you shared kind words with me, and consequently, I've never forgot it.
[00:25:11] Genice Decorte: Absolutely.
[00:25:11] Nicole Greer: Right. Like that's a great piece of feedback, right?
[00:25:14] Genice Decorte: And what I also do is-- you know how sometimes getting called to the principal, the manager's office is, oh no. What did I do wrong? I bring people in. And by the way, can I tell you one of my pet peeves with managers?
[00:25:31] Nicole Greer: Please, please.
[00:25:32] Genice Decorte: And I know a lot of people do this, and I apologize if you're one of them. I hate when managers send out an email. I'd like to meet with you at 9:00 AM tomorrow. And it's 10:00 AM the day before. I hate that. I think that is so torturous to people. I'm like,
[00:25:51] Nicole Greer: I agree.
[00:25:52] Genice Decorte: Like if you're going to meet with somebody, just say, boom. All right, do you have five minutes?
[00:25:57] Nicole Greer: Can we talk?
[00:25:58] Genice Decorte: Yeah. Don't torture them for a whole 24 hours about it 'cause they don't know. Or if you are, if you have to prepare them, say, Hey, I want to meet with you about X, Y, and Z. Okay? And would nine o'clock tomorrow work for you? Like let them know. Give them a heads up about what the meeting's about. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox, but that is a pet peeve.
[00:26:24] Nicole Greer: I think you're, I think you're right on. And here's the thing too, is that when you're going to do a celebratory thing you know, you can say, I want to talk about your success on Project X, right? But if it's something corrective or constructive, it's important to actually do that feedback really quickly too, right?
[00:26:43] Genice Decorte: Yep.
[00:26:43] Nicole Greer: Not wait 24 hours. If something wasn't so hot today at 10 o'clock, let's get it done before five o'clock today, you know?
[00:26:50] Genice Decorte: Yes. I'll call people in and just say, "I just want to let you know," and they're like, oh, no, they're scared, right? Yeah. But like, I give 'em a compliment. I tell 'em something that they did great because I don't want people to perceive being called into my office as a negative. Does that make sense? So I'll,
[00:27:10] Nicole Greer: Oh, a hundred percent.
[00:27:12] Genice Decorte: I want them to know, I see what you're doing positive, and I want to recognize you for that. Again, it goes back to the words can inspire and motivate people. Now, sometimes I do have to call people in and say, okay, you know, I noticed this, this, and this, and it may be not the most positive conversation. But I also, as a manager, feel like you've got to address issues quickly and swiftly.
[00:27:42] Nicole Greer: I agree.
[00:27:42] Genice Decorte: Like you cannot let something fester because if you do, it gets way bigger than it ever needed to be. And I think managers have issues confronting employees and addressing problems. And I feel that's,
[00:28:01] Nicole Greer: I agree.
[00:28:01] Genice Decorte: That's the worst thing you could do, Nicole. You've got to, when you see an issue or behavior that needs to be addressed, just do it, like you said, swiftly, quickly. Like, let's, let's talk about this.
[00:28:16] Nicole Greer: Yeah. And you know, and here's the thing about these people who are doing these things you don't like. They don't know 90% of the time.
[00:28:25] Genice Decorte: They don't.
[00:28:25] Nicole Greer: 90% of the time. They're out to lunch. They have what we call a blind spot. They're like, oh, I didn't realize, you know? And so most times when you correct 'em, they're like, oh, I didn't know. And you're like, well, I just wanted you to know. So now you know.
[00:28:41] Genice Decorte: Right, exactly. I know. I agree with you a hundred percent. They have no idea. And once you address it , it's good. They get it. And then sometimes, like if you see they corrected the behavior, I bring them back in.
[00:28:58] Nicole Greer: Right.
[00:28:58] Genice Decorte: And I, I praise them. I'm like, oh my gosh, I saw that you did this you took our conversation to heart and you're doing so much better. Thank you so much. And that just reinforces the behavior.
[00:29:11] Nicole Greer: Yeah. And you know, just yesterday I was working with a manufacturing organization out in the eastern North Carolina. And there's this, this beautiful young guy, right? You know, he's so cute. He's so eager. And so after the training was over and he's, I said to his leader, I said, I just love that kid. That one right there, just so eager and just, you know, was raising his hand and asking questions and yes ma'am-ing me and no ma'am-ing me, and you know, he was just delightful. I love this kid. And he goes, yep. I said, what? You know, like, he kind of gave me this, mm-hmm. and I said, what? What's going on? He goes, oh, well, you know, we've really had to work on him in terms of being on time, being pleasant, doing this, doing that. And he said, we finally got him I think where we need him now. What's going on with this young guy? Well, obviously nobody ever taught him. If you're on time, you're late. Right. Nobody, nobody ever taught him smile, you know? And so they're molding and shaping this young man. That's going to impact his whole life, Genice.
[00:30:20] Genice Decorte: Oh, huge. Huge. Because you're going to set him up for success for his next move. Yeah, yeah. And a lot of people, like I have employees that, they would come in at 8:05, 9:05, 9:10, and I had to reel 'em in and say, no, we open the doors, you've got to be here at a certain time. This is what's accepted. But they kind of, especially if it's their first, second job, like they're not, they don't know. You've got to, you've got to tell 'em again, like nip it in the bud, talk about it, have a conversation. Hopefully they learn. If they don't, well then there are other options for them in the world. It's a big world. This might not be their, their best fit, you know? And I do believe when I interview people, I'm like, you're interviewing me as much as I'm interviewing you.
[00:31:18] Nicole Greer: Oh, I love that.
[00:31:19] Genice Decorte: 'Cause you've got to make sure this is a good fit for you, as much as I want you to be a good fit for us. But we're both doing the interviewing.
[00:31:28] Nicole Greer: Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. Hey everybody, when she said there's a lot of opportunities in the world. So I have a philosophy. I agree with yours. You know, I'm interviewing you, you're interviewing me. Write that down, everybody. That's a very good philosophy about people. Fit matters, right? So sometimes it's just not good.
[00:31:47] The second thing that she said is, and, and how I phrase it is, is you coach them in or you coach them out. I mean, like,
[00:31:53] Genice Decorte: Right.
[00:31:53] Nicole Greer: If you have to tell 'em eight times you can't be late again, like, really, this is it, and then they're late again, then you got to let 'em go. But you know, maybe the next place they'll get the message. You know, you're just a person on their journey who's sharing words in the best way you know how to share words so that they can have a better way in life. All right. So I love those.
[00:32:14] So I have a couple of things too that you mentioned in that Tina talk that I just thought every leader should be doing. Now, you said "I have one-on-one lunches with my people." And
[00:32:27] Genice Decorte: I do,
[00:32:28] Nicole Greer: I was like, what would it be like-- you know, and even if you're in a huge organization, like ginormous or something, just, you know, your direct reports.
[00:32:37] Genice Decorte: Right.
[00:32:37] Nicole Greer: Or key people that might be up for a promotion you need to get to know better or something. But tell me about these lunches. You shared it in your talk. I loved it.
[00:32:46] Genice Decorte: Well, I believe, and this is just me, but I do believe that your employees know you better than you ever thought. And they know your customer members, people that they're helping, serving, working with. You need feedback from them. It's critical. But they need to feel safe. Like it's a safe space. They need to feel trusted because if you aren't going to listen to them and respond to them and hear them, then they're going to stop talking. They'll shut down. And so at the lunches, I give them a list of questions I'm going to ask, right? I give at least a month before. But then during the lunch, I tell them, I want you to be brutally honest and tell me how you feel I'm doing as a leader, as your manager. And remember, I give you feedback, right? Now I want the feedback. 'Cause when I give feedback, I give positive and negative. And I know we don't like to use that word, but I tell them what they could do to do better, to be better. I think feedback is important. Mm-hmm. Both good, bad, and ugly. So I said, this is your chance to give me that feedback. What could I do better? And I have a notebook and, and so when I'm at the lunch again, but I'm showing you my notebook of feedback from the lunch. Yeah. So I take notes and I follow up on those notes. So during the one-on-one lunches, they are brutally honest. I'm actually very lucky. My employees will walk in my office and go, let me tell you, we need to fix this. This is not right. I love that. I my COO says they're too much sometimes, and I'm like, you can never be too much. Let me have it. I need to know where our problems are so we can try to fix them. So I love that I have very outspoken vocal.
[00:35:01] Nicole Greer: Right. And that's just called candor. Yes.
[00:35:03] Genice Decorte: I love it. Yeah, so during the lunches we've actually come up with some great ideas. They've come up with some great ideas, and we've actually made changes based on their feedback, you know, in our lending program. We have a credit rebuild loan. We expanded that, we enhanced it. We have a short term, kind of like a payday loan. Instead of 300, we went up to 600. So we've done a lot of things through these lunches that I wouldn't have had that one-on-one session. They get to pick the place. It could be two hours, three hours, four hours. It's their time. So based on when we kind of run out of steam, that's when I call for the check and we wrap it up. I'm a talker, but they do 90% of the talking, and I write down my notes and I listen.
[00:35:57] Nicole Greer: Hmm. So good. Listen to that, everybody. A leader who listens. That's fantastic. All right. I love that. So there's these one-on-one lunches, but like peppered in between all the time as this consistent communication kind of theory that you have or philosophy that you have. So talk a little bit about how you keep this consistent communication going with your peeps?
[00:36:19] Genice Decorte: The number one negative feedback I get is communication and information. So an employee will ask me a question, I'll respond to the employee. They'll take that information. They know what I just said, right? But nobody else does, and I've got three branches, so they don't get that information. So what I implemented a long time ago was when you email or Teams me or come in my office and ask me a question, whatever the response is that I give you, you've got to now summarize that in an email and send it out to the entire credit union, everybody. And that way we all have the same information at the same time.
[00:37:09] And I think that helps. The larger the organization gets, the harder it is to have that consistency. And so they also, now, they send emails to everybody saying, Hey, when you're looking up a debit card dispute, look for this, this, and this. And don't forget, you know, to make sure this didn't happen. And so now they just shoot each other emails with different types of tips and tricks so that we're all kind of on the same page.
[00:37:47] But communication is real time and you've got to be able to, as a leader, disseminate that information and not inundate. So I don't want to be confused. You can't send out 50 emails about different conversations. You're going to stop reading them. They've got to be relevant and they've got to have good information that's needed. If that makes sense. You can't inundate.
[00:38:19] And I also feel that leaders-- sometimes employees are like, well, they make all the big bucks. What are they doing all day? They're just sitting there twiddling their thumbs ordering lunch.
[00:38:33] Nicole Greer: That's right.
[00:38:33] Genice Decorte: I, I think it's important for you to also let your employees know what you're working on. After a board meeting, send out an email saying, this is what the board meeting highlights are. Or I send out an email saying, this is what I've been working on. We have monthly staff meetings where we all come together and I kind of go over, okay, just so you know, this is what I'm working on. It doesn't take more than five seconds out of your day, but letting your employees know what you're working on, I think helps. Sets the tone that, okay, Genice is working on this, this, and this. Okay. And it just sets the tone so they, they don't think I'm in my office eating bonbons and watching soap operas. So I, I did that.
[00:39:27] Nicole Greer: And typically the things that you say you're working on, it puts to rest some of the angst that people are feeling out in the, you know, out in the front lines as we say. Right? It's like, oh, she's working on that. Well, thank God, because that needed worked on.
[00:39:43] Genice Decorte: Yeah. Because it'll impact my work life. Yes.
[00:39:47] Nicole Greer: That's that's right.
[00:39:48] Genice Decorte: Yeah. Like we're switching, we're converting debit card processor, which is a big undertaking.
[00:39:54] Nicole Greer: I bet.
[00:39:54] Genice Decorte: When you, you leave one processor for another. So they know I've been working on that. And it will help their life in the long term. Short term, it's going to make their life miserable.
[00:40:05] Nicole Greer: It's going to be messy.
[00:40:06] Genice Decorte: It'll be messy. But in the long term it'll help. So we have a lot of communication. And even still, with all this communication, that's still the number one complaint. Timely communication information.
[00:40:24] Nicole Greer: Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:40:25] Genice Decorte: Like consistent. Yeah. So any other suggestions people have for that, I'm all ears. 'Cause consistent communication's very important to me.
[00:40:35] Nicole Greer: Yeah. And I, what's bubbling up for me, I got all excited is I, I just did an employee handbook for a client up in Detroit and the client is a Jewish temple. You know, like my client list is the most diverse list you've ever seen in your life.
[00:40:52] Genice Decorte: I love that.
[00:40:53] Nicole Greer: So Rabbi Mike and the director, Brian, they're like, we've got this handbook. And they had an individual inside of their congregation that helped them with the handbook from a legal standpoint. And so, it was, it was legal proof, I mean. Perfect. But when you read it, it read like a contract or something, you know what I mean? It was very legalese and and they're like, you know, we're a house of worship, you know, God, you know, I mean, and we're, we're a community where we love each other. And he's like, what can you do with this handbook? And I'm like, well. You know, what we'll do is we'll just take this and we'll communicate it with the right words, which is what Genice is all about. And so we rewrote it making sure that the legal was still in there. But then what we did at the end is after every part of the employee handbook I we put in there and why this should matter to you. Right? And so we had like the, you got to be on time. You got to be on time thing. You know that, I mean, it was in the handbook. It's in everybody's handbook. But then we put in there why this matters to you. Well, you can rest assured that we are going to hold everybody accountable so that when we come to work, everybody's at work, we can get our work done and we can leave on time.
[00:42:14] You know, those were the things we put in there. And so it wasn't like be on time. It was like, here's why you need to be on time. So I think, you know, communicating the why.
[00:42:25] Genice Decorte: Absolutely. Wow. Handbooks are important.
[00:42:28] Nicole Greer: Oh my gosh.
[00:42:29] Genice Decorte: Because it sets the tone for the organization, so when you get attorneys involved, it's poof. It's beautiful, well written, articulate, but boy, it doesn't have a lot of resonation though for the every day. We're just trying to get through life and why is this important? So I love how you went, "Why does this matter?" in the handbook. And just kind of simplified it because that's what employees care about.
[00:42:58] Nicole Greer: Right, right. And you know, the other thing Genice just shared, I don't want y'all to miss it, but she's talking about a change management project she has going on. Like she's changing her debit card person, people, vendor thing, and it's huge. And so the communication inside of that, and, and I bet you there's delays and confusion and all the things that go with change. And it's like, I thought we were going to do this and I even told you we were going to do this, but guess what, we're not doing that anymore. 'cause I learned this. Now we're doing that.
[00:43:26] Genice Decorte: I do that all the time. Stop Nicole. You're in, you're in my life here that I do that all the time. My poor employees. Yeah. Yeah. I'm always flipping it.
[00:43:36] Nicole Greer: But all the folks that are leading, like, they don't know everything until they learn something new. Right? So
[00:43:42] Genice Decorte: You don't know what you don't know.
[00:43:42] Nicole Greer: Have patience with your leaders. That's right.
[00:43:45] Genice Decorte: Amen. That's so true, Nicole. And I change things up on them all the time. Like when I first came to this credit union, 19-- well, actually, it's 20 years ago, I've been with this credit union now. And when I first came here, they were all siloed. They did this job and that was it. They did this job and that was it. And I'm like, Ooh, what if you're out sick? What? What if you leave? So I mixed it up and ever since then I've been mixing it up.
[00:44:16] Like for a small credit union, we're on a good cutting edge technology path. So we, we've stayed ahead of the curve in most situations because I'm always like, what do we need to do? What's next? And so for employees, the communication part is vital. 'Cause if they don't understand why this is next, you, they just see it as horrible workload and something new to learn. So you've got to explain how it's going to help them. I say "WIIFM", What's In It For Me, you know?
[00:44:51] Nicole Greer: Right.
[00:44:52] Genice Decorte: WIIFM. So I tell them what's in it for them. Well, if we go through this, then maybe we'll have less phone calls because we're doing the chat feature now and responding to a text takes like 30 seconds versus talking on the phone takes like two minutes. So, you know. Not everything has a positive spin for them, but most of the things that we do make important positive changes for their work life. So it does help them.
[00:45:22] Nicole Greer: Right, right. And you know what's so cool, again, about the "credit union land," as you called it, is that they may understand that I got to just work harder right here for this time being, but they have such a deep love for their members that they're willing to do it for the people they serve. Right?
[00:45:39] Genice Decorte: And do you know that I still have members walk into my office, tears in their eyes. Hugging me, thanking me for helping them, whether it was two days ago or 20 years ago.
[00:45:55] Nicole Greer: That's right. Got me my first car, my first house.
[00:45:58] Genice Decorte: Yes.
[00:45:59] Nicole Greer: My Christmas club account.
[00:46:02] Genice Decorte: Oh my gosh. And we do these scholarships for high school seniors that started October 1st. And, you know, we get a deluge of people. And then I have the recipients from the scholarships come back, you know, 15 years later, telling me what they're doing and how it helped them.
[00:46:21] Nicole Greer: Right.
[00:46:21] Genice Decorte: I mean, it just really, everything we do here makes you feel good. It does. You're helping people, like we deal with a lot of medical. And when I have medical issues, I count on them. They know what drugs, what tests, what to do, say, that's not my wheelhouse. But when they come here, we want to make it so that we help them start to finish. And, and when you're dealing with money, it's personal, it's important. A lot of people are struggling a lot day to day to day. There's more month than money. We want to be able to help in whatever way we can, whether or not that's just with budgeting and financial counseling, or whether it's actually like refinancing a car loan to lower interest rate in a lower payment that gives them more money in the month. So helping people is why I've been doing this for almost 40 years now. I feel good. I sleep well at night.
[00:47:34] Nicole Greer: You should. You should. That's so good. All right, well, how could you find Genice, if you want to talk to her, go work for her? She can be found on Facebook and so, go to facebook.com/genice. Let me spell her name for you, G-E-N-I-C-E.decorte D-E-C-O-R-T-E. She's also on the Twitter. She's on the Instagram. And then of course she's on the LinkedIn, which is where you should get up with her. And then what is the website for your credit union? Can you share that with us?
[00:48:03] Genice Decorte: It's healthsharecu.org. So health, share, cu for credit union.org.
[00:48:15] Nicole Greer: Fantastic. Fantastic.
[00:48:17] Genice Decorte: I would love to have anybody reach out and just give feedback and we'll have a conversation.
[00:48:23] Nicole Greer: Yep. That sounds great. All right,
[00:48:25] Genice Decorte: Nicole, you've been wonderful too, by the way. Your presentation at Inspire knocked my socks off. It was so good. So anybody who is looking for that motivational powerhouse, they've got it in Nicole. She is one of a kind.
[00:48:42] Nicole Greer: Oh, you are so sweet. Oh, well, I have had so much fun chatting with you. Hey everybody, will you do us a favor? It takes one second. Go down below wherever you're listening or watching, and click on the little like, leave a little love note for Genice, which you thought she said was fantastic. That will help the podcast, that will help Genice. And, you know, your words matter. That's what we've been talking about, this whole, this whole thing. So Genice, I'm so grateful for you being on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. I'm grateful.
[00:49:10] Genice Decorte: I am too. Thank you so much, Nicole.
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