Leadership as a ‘giant experiment’

As the new chief marketing officer at First City Credit Union in Altadena, Calif., Royce Ngiam’s top priority is understanding his new team and its capabilities.

Ngiam, who joined the $868 million asset credit union last December, also serves as chair of the Marketing & Business Development Council. He offers insights into leadership, marketing, and the power of networking and collaborating with like-minded industry leaders.

Q: Tell us about your new role at First City.

Ngiam: My new role at First City consists of asking a lot of questions and learning. The credit union has been around for 85 years, and has a strong capital position and a loyal membership base. That doesn’t happen by accident.

We have a new, amazing leadership team, and my first order of business is to listen and learn—then figure out how to build on the shoulders of those who came before me.

Q: What are your top priorities right now?

A: My top priority is to understand our team and its capabilities—our extended team; not just marketing and business development. No one team or department goes it alone, so I’m prioritizing meeting the leadership team. It’s the first part of my 100-day plan.

I value meeting people and learning about their stories and journeys: Where did they come from, what brought them here, and how can I help them do what they want to do?

The second priority is to learn about our membership and select employee groups. Every credit union is unique. Once I understand our makeup, I can tap into the core values our members cherish and bring it all to the forefront.

Q: What skills are especially important for today’s marketing/business development leaders?

A: We used to focus on technical skills, and those are still extremely important. You have to be an expert in your chosen field to be truly effective, but that alone is no longer sufficient.

I also think a lot of people focus on the wrong things; looking for validation through certifications and education. The skills and traits today’s leaders need have nothing to do with either—it’s all about endless curiosity and empathy.

Our advertising mediums continue to change and evolve, as do our analytical insights and knowledge. It’s more important than ever to understand what the evolving landscape looks like and how we can shape it.

To truly shape this landscape, we have to understand how all of it works and not get tempted by shortcuts and tools that take away our understanding or create reliance on crutches.

The other half of this is the need for empathy for our members and our teams. As much as some of us embrace change and technological advancement, not everyone is on the same point of the adoption curve.

As we’re working with or for others, we need to empathize with them and meet them where they are. If members want cash envelopes or stand in line to deposit a check, our job isn’t to change their behavior, it's to create a value-added experience for both of us.

With that lens, how do we think about our interactions with members? How do we work with employees who are slow to adopt technology? How do we create safe spaces and conversations that bring everyone along at a pace that moves the business forward without leaving them behind? That’s empathy.

Q: Tell us about your role with the Marketing & Business Development Council?

A: I’m currently chair of the Marketing and Business Development Council, which allows me to work with about a dozen amazing leaders from credit unions of all sizes throughout the country.

When I led the Council’s Member Resources Committee (MRC), it was all about putting out quality products like toolkits, white papers, and webinars. Now, it’s all about standing up the team for the future—really thinking about continuity—and taking the great work done by the Executive Councils before us and putting our stamp on it.

It’s less about doing the work and more about focusing on relationships and people. It’s all about investing in people, not in things.

Q: How has your work with the Councils allowed you to advance in your career?

A: This group has been invaluable in advancing my career. I got started with the Councils by writing a whitepaper on payments. That’s when I joined the MRC. Volunteering with the Councils and creating content for other credit unions completely changed my perspective on the movement and my role.

Instead of just taking all of my experiences and learnings to better my own credit union, I was now thinking about how I could benefit all credit unions throughout the country.

Thinking about the movement as a whole and building solutions to support it changed my outlook on my role, the role of my credit union, and where we all fit in the greater scheme all centered around the member. Part of that learning and an opportunity afforded to me by the Councils is the ability to interact with virtually everyone in the credit union space.

The IQ of the group is greater than the IQ of any individual. Also, I've met some amazing people who’ve given me a lot of advice, insight, and motivation—mentors and friends.

NEXT: Leadership influences

Q: Is there one person who’s had a big impact on you as a leader?

A: Far more than one. I’ll start with my wife of 27 years, Angie. Without her love and support at home, there’s no way I would have gotten to where I am. I wasn’t even of legal drinking age when we met and worked as clerks in a video store while going to college. From those days to now empty nesting, having an equal—and often better—partner throughout that journey is invaluable.

Next is my friend, Foothill Credit Union CEO Mike Terzian. His leadership strength has always been his ability to get people who don’t even like each other to work together. I call him the “Great Facilitator.”

Early in our credit union careers, he earned a job I wanted at that credit union. I applied for it, but they came to him. Before they announced who’d get the role, he met with me and said, “Look, you deserve this job more than I do and I can’t do this without you. I treat this as more of a partnership than me being your boss.”

Imagine the impression that made. I followed him to what would become my dream job at the time. He encouraged and fully supported my commitment to America’s Credit Unions, and even was instrumental in helping me come to First City.

I can’t leave out my partner in crime, Mia Perez—my friend and co-host of The Leadership Experiment Podcast. She’s the chief administrative officer at a large credit union, and we met through the Councils Executive Committee. Working on this committee and on The Leadership Experiment together really pushed me and opened up my thinking.

And, most importantly, this list would not be complete without quoting Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Q: How would you describe your approach to leadership?

A: In a nutshell, leadership is a giant experiment that few get right—but that’s ok. Like any good science experiment, it’s as much about discovering what doesn’t work than what does, and then making it repeatable and sustainable.

The only difference is we don’t have the luxury of experimenting in a lab. We’re out there with real people and real emotions, often with real consequences on the line, so we have to get it right. This is where empathy comes into play.

Leadership also is about thinking with the end in mind: What’s the goal or outcome I need to achieve, and what do I need to do to make it happen? That’s especially true if I need to change my perspective, horizon, or approach to get it done.

We’re conditioned to believe in top-down bureaucratic or military management, but's that’s not how people respond today. I used to think that the person at the top knew all the answers and had all the insights. I now know that’s optimistic thinking at best.

Q: What’s one leadership mistake you’ve made during your career, and what did you learn from it?

A: Just one? Being a leader is admitting when you’ve made a mistake.

I recently made a public apology to two very talented individuals who stepped up in a time of need, and I’d failed to provide the proper background and notice on some procedural things. It was important to me that they and the rest of the team know that I take that miss on my part very seriously and acknowledged it publicly.

That’s not the first—nor will it be the last—time that I will take ownership and accept responsibility. That was the lesson: The mistake is unimportant, but it’s important to admit you failed and make sure the right people know that you know. Then, make it right.

The best leaders in any industry raise their hands and get in front of issues, take ownership, and pledge to make the meaningful change necessary to earn back trust, whether it’s from employees, customers, or the general public.

Conversely, those who shirk accountability or blame others quickly find there’s no one following them. It’s difficult to be a leader without any followers.

Q: What’s the best leadership advice you’ve ever received?

A: My favorite leadership advice comes from Aaron Burr in the musical Hamilton: “Talk less, smile more.”

Early in my career, I always had to try and prove to everyone that I was—or at least I thought I was—the smartest person in the room, and I deserved to be heard. Thanks to my experience at The Walt Disney Company and Councils, where I got to work with executives from around the world, I realized it was less about me talking and it was more about listening.v

Taking a top-down approach to management is a mistake because you’re providing a solution before knowing what the problem is. The best way to learn about a problem is to immerse yourself in the environment, do it yourself, and ask questions. Then you learn how to work toward the end goal and not focus on the process flow.

The best leaders don’t preach from the pulpit or talk at their audience, they actively listen and ask pointed questions. I want to be the dumbest person in the room. That means I’m learning and listening.

Q: What advice would you offer aspiring marketing/business development leaders?

A: Have no regrets and work hard from day one. Don’t waste your time. Always be focused and developing. Put in the work early and often.

Q: Are there any other thoughts you’d like to share?

A: I heard this in a presentation by writer and producer Kenya Barris: “We're not counted until we make ourselves counted.”

Don’t sit there meekly waiting your turn, hoping someone will call on you. Step up and make your voice heard. There’s no better way to do that in our movement than by volunteering for the Councils. Join a committee. All the real work happens by volunteers in our committees.

Get involved and put your voice and talents to work for the industry. Cheers!