In 2023, Hope Garrett presented an ambitious strategic plan to her Board of Directors. She was energized. Focused. Clear on where her credit union needed to go. But the board saw something else

“They were afraid I’d burn out and leave,” she said. “So they told me to hire more people.”

For Hope, CEO of Education Personnel Federal Credit Union in Vermilion County, Illinois, that mandate was a turning point. After years in the role, she had built deep expertise, but she had also become the hub for everything.

“Half the work in the credit union could only be done by one person, and that person was often me,” she said.

Her team knew to come to her with questions, but too often, she was the only one who had the answer. “About 50% of the time, the answer was inside my brain,” she said. “I needed to get that information out—on paper or on screen—so the credit union and staff could function independent of me.”

All of that came to a head a couple of years ago; an unexpected health issue took Hope away from the office for a month, without warning. It revealed just how much lived only in her head.

“Some things went smoothly. Some didn’t,” she said. “That was a real epiphany.”

Lay It All on the Table

Before she could delegate, Hope needed a full picture. “I love a good spreadsheet,” she said. She created one that mapped every task, every person, and every knowledge gap across the credit union.

The results were eye-opening. The team relied heavily on institutional knowledge—most of it undocumented—and as a result, far too much was bottlenecked at the top with her.

Hope started and led a full-scale cross-training effort. But she didn’t stop there

“I made a rule: I wouldn’t hand off anything I hadn’t written a procedure for,” she said. “That way, everyone’s getting the same training. And if I’m out, they’ve still got a resource to turn to.”

Doing Less to Lead More

To support that shift, Hope created three new roles: COO, CFO, and Marketing Specialist. She also introduced a Teller II position, offering frontline staff the chance to take on additional duties in exchange for incentive pay.

“They were bored,” she said. “They had time, they wanted to grow, and they wanted to make more money. I couldn’t promote everyone, but I could give them meaningful, bite-sized pieces of my workload.”

The impact was immediate. Tellers became more engaged. The leadership team had room to breathe. Hope was no longer the only one who knew the answers, and she finally had space to focus on growth.

“In the last year, I’ve worked more on strategy than in the previous ten combined,” she said. “And I’m never going back to the old way.”

Growing Pains

Letting go came with growing pains. “The relief didn’t come right away,” she said. “It was hard work; the team’s learning curve was steep. But then people got their legs under them, and I could finally breathe.”

Hope’s transparency with her team has helped smooth the transition.

“They’ll ask me, ‘How did you do all this by yourself?’ And I tell them—I didn’t, not always. But we’re in a much better place now.”

While the impact on members might not always be visible, it’s there

“We’re doing what we’ve always done to help our members. Now, we just have more people available to do it.”

A New Chapter

After more than a decade as CEO, Hope was finally in a place where she could lead strategically instead of operating in survival mode. But even with a stronger team and better systems in place, it didn’t mean the road ahead would be easy, or that she had all the answers.

That’s where CUWLA came in.

“It kept coming up at conferences and in conversations,” she said. “People would say, ‘You really should check it out.’ So I did.”

She joined less than a year ago, and right away, it felt like the right fit. “The message board was the first thing I saw: people helping each other. It’s a lot of ‘how did you solve this problem? How do you guys handle this? Does anybody have a policy for that?’ It’s just really nuts and bolts.”

CUWLA became a sounding board. A toolbox. A community of women who understood what it was like to carry the weight of a small credit union. An engaged group that was just as eager to share ideas as it was to ask for them.

“I was actually able pretty early on to help out another credit union that had an accounting problem that we had already gone through,” Hope said. “That was kind of nice because I thought, ‘Okay, this is a group I can actually contribute to.’”

Don’t Go It Alone

Even though she’s still new to CUWLA, Hope already sees how it fits into her continued growth, not just as a CEO but as a leader who’s building something that lasts beyond her.

“I’m never going back to the old way,” she said. “Perhaps I can share this success with others outside my credit union who are facing similar challenges

After all, she’s seen firsthand what happens when knowledge, leadership, and responsibility are all concentrated in one person. And now, she’s living proof of what’s possible when you start sharing the load.

“It’s just really good to feel like you’re not alone!,” Hope declared.

For other women leading small credit unions, transformation like Hope’s doesn’t have to happen alone. CUWLA is here for you—consider joining today.