PLYMOUTH, Mich.–After some 40 years with Community Financial Credit Union—and a family history that goes back even further--CEO William “Bill” Lawton has announced plans to retire in July of 2022.
Lawton’s career began with the credit union in 1982, and under his tenure he has overseen growth from $300 million in assets in 2004 to more than $1.2 billion in assets today.
Below, Mr. Lawton participates in a CUToday Q&A Exit Interview in which he shares his thoughts on lessons learned during his career and more.
CUToday.info: How did you come to be involved in credit unions?
Lawton: The short answer is that my dad was CEO of Community Financial Credit Union from 1958 until the mid-1980’s. I started working at the credit union in 1974. I was promoted to CEO in 2004.
The long answer is that credit unions have been in my family for a long time. My maternal grandfather, Hugh D., lived in West Acres, a cooperative housing development that had their own credit union. He was on the board and knew Al Mable, the managing director of the Michigan Credit Union League. My mom then got a job with the Michigan Credit Union League after she graduated high school, so when she married my father she introduced him to the credit union world early. After working at several credit unions he took a job at Daisy Employees Federal Credit Union.
The Daisy company was moving out of Plymouth, Mich. at the time; however, the credit union stayed in Plymouth and transitioned to Plymouth Community Federal Credit Union. After the transition they hired my father to manage Plymouth Community Federal in 1958. At this time he was one of their only employees, since much of the staff had followed the Daisy company to Arkansas. Back then, the credit union was even operated out of a local hotel room that was “donated” by the owner until the credit union could find a permanent home.
CUToday.info: If you could go back and speak to yourself on day one on the job, what advice would you share?
Lawton: If I could go back to my very first day, I would tell myself to focus more on the service you provide to your members and to the communities served than you do to the numbers. If you build up the community and the members within it, everything else will follow.
CUToday.info: What have you learned about driving and managing growth during your career?
Lawton: During my career I learned the easy stuff--providing great member service and creating a great culture. However, I also learned that connecting with your communities is not that easy. We can miss on the basics when we are distracted by “the next great thing” that everyone else is doing. It’s important to get the basics right and keep a laser focus on that.
Also, I’ve learned to communicate and connect with team members in a way that motivates them to make sacrifices and work harder to accomplish the service our members and communities desire. When your team members make personal sacrifices to create organizational success, you as a leader then need to be ready to make organizational sacrifices to ensure team member success as well. Together, we can create the kind of organization and credit union that helps the community thrive.
CUToday.info: What have you learned about managing and leading people during your career, and has that changed?
Lawton: One of the best things I’ve learned about leadership during my time at Community Financial is that when you have a great team that knows where we want to go, get out of the way. Cheer them on, help them break down barriers, and give them the space to find their own solutions and make their own mistakes. Providing them with what you believe is your best idea does not always create the best result for the credit union.
CUToday.info: You’ve been quite active in outside organizations beyond the credit union. What is the value in that, and how do you ensure both you and the CU makes the most of such relationships?
Lawton: What is the value in making our members’ lives better? What is the value in helping your neighbor? I guess it comes down to a fundamental belief that doing these things is good and that doing good is important. If we create an organizational culture that allows our team to accomplish community service in a way that is meaningful to them, those efforts make a positive difference by making our communities better.
Additionally, I don’t think it’s on the credit union itself to make the most of these relationships. We can promote them after they happen, but if we push too hard on the front-end, it’s not genuine anymore; it’s more like work and it’s not as personally rewarding for our team. I’ve found that when we open doors as leaders and make it easy for our team to become involved in the community, our team members walk through those doors on their own. By allowing team members to make those decisions on their own we have created a culture of helpfulness and mindfulness that resonates with the community.
CUToday.info: What is your view on the future of credit unions, if there is to be one?
Lawton: I think there is a great future ahead for credit unions as long as we continue to stay focused on what is in the best interest of our communities (or SEGs and associations) and our members. If every decision that credit union team members and volunteers makes are based on this question, rather than what’s in it for us, then the future of credit unions is a bright one.
We also need to work with vendors that look at credit unions through the lens of “how can we help credit unions help their members better?” When the credit union movement works in this way our members see and feel it. When they see and feel it, they will continue to want to be a part of it.