Debra Schwartz is a big believer in making the job fit the employee.
The chief executive of Mission Federal Credit Union since 2008, Schwartz says the financial institution moves workers into different positions pretty regularly.
“Sometimes they are not wildly enthusiastic at first, but I think that is one of the things I am good at,” she said. “I have a pretty good eye for where I think you can be successful, and I want to you to be successful. So, let’s put you where you have the best chance.”
Schwartz won the leadership award in the large company category in this year’s Top Workplaces survey, a t project of the San Diego Union-Tribune and Energage.
Founded in 1961, Mission Fed is San Diego’s largest member-owned, not-for-profit financial institution exclusively serving San Diego County. It has 262,000 and $4.5 billion in assets.
Schwartz sat down with the Union-Tribune to discuss the challenges of leading Mission Fed through the tumultuous times of COVID 19. Here are some excerpts, which have been condensed for clarity.
Q: What is your leadership philosophy?
A: Hire great people. Hire people who are smarter than I am and empower them to do their best.
Q: How do you determine that?
A: I have been in the industry for a long time and I have a lot of s. And once I work with you, I stay in with you forever.
I literally have a Zoom call tonight with three people who I worked with in the early ’80s who are still friends. A couple of individuals on our senior management team I had worked with in different capacities decades earlier. I think those connections that you keep are really important.
Q: What is a double bottom line?
A: A double bottom line is really cool, and it is why I love my job.
I worked in banking for over a decade, and the bottom line is the bottom line. Every year it should be more than the last.
For Mission Fed, a double bottom line is, we are a financial services firm. So we have to be structurally sound. We have to be fiscally sound. But at a certain point enough is enough and you give back. You give back to your community. You give back to your employees. You give back to your .
So it isn’t just make that bottom line bigger and bigger every year. It is OK, we have done what we needed to do. We have a great return on assets. We have a good capital ratio. What can we do to give back?
Q: In this time of COVID-19, how do you maintain the culture and keep people doing their jobs?
A: It takes a lot of leaders at all different levels. Culture is really important.
I was not a huge fan of remote work before this started, because I think to have a culture you need to be together. But we found other ways to do it. And in some ways, there are some people I see more via regular Zoom conference calls than I did before.
Q: How have you dealt with coming into the branches with financial issues because of the pandemic? That must be stressful for your branch employees.
A: Our staff has always been super member focused. They really want to do what they can.
We came out pretty fast with number of programs. We did an automatic skip-a-payment for , without having to ask.
That took a lot of pressure off the staff. They didn’t have to deal with a lot of requests.
We also had a financial assistance loan that is centralized with very few requirements. were eligible for financial assistance loans. So, we tried to automate and simplify the process as much as possible.”
Q: What is the biggest thing that you’ve learned from the pandemic?
A: I have learned the cream rises to the top. A lot of people have been surprisingly resilient, and a few people haven’t, like with any organization.
But for the most part people have been resilient and focused. They have done a really good job of balancing remote work. We are continuing to be productive. We are continuing to get the books balanced and the loans funded with so many of our employees working from home.”
