Crossings

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Crossing the road, crossing the bridge, crossing the river, crossing the ridge, I’ve crossed many times before. I did not know why. Now I know, I must try. What a year it’s been. I don’t need to tell you. You’ve got your story. I’ve got mine. Lots of lessons learned. So I’ll try to share […]

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Crossing the road, crossing the bridge, crossing the river, crossing the ridge, I’ve crossed many times before.

I did not know why. Now I know, I must try.

What a year it’s been. I don’t need to tell you. You’ve got your story. I’ve got mine. Lots of lessons learned. So I’ll try to share here.

One thing’s for certain: it’s been a year to remember (our 70th anniversary in business) and a year to forget (a pandemic that’s taken more than 200,000 American lives and upended so many others).

Crossing off

Yes, it’s almost time to cross 2020 A.D. off the celestial calendar. That’s a good thing. It’s also a fine time to begin taking stock of where your business is right now, and planning, ever so cautiously, for what 2021 might look like. In business and marketing circles, that means it’s time to develop new marketing plans — objectives, strategies, messaging, media tactics — aimed at improving the bottom line.

To get there, businesses need to begin rebuilding top-line awareness and sales. No one ever cut their way to market leadership. It’s time to cross off what didn’t work, and in some cases what did work. File it under “P” for past. As managers and business owners, we know intuitively that what got us here won’t get us there. So, we better get busy creating real value for the future. That starts now: today. It starts with reimagining what our business or organization might become.

Crossing swords

If your 2020 has been anything like mine, this pandemic has put you face-to-face with some of the most challenging business situations you have ever encountered. You’ve had to make some gut-wrenching decisions. You’ve had to have difficult and uncomfortable conversations. You have had to speak truth to power. Not liking conflict one iota, that has been extremely hard for me. But sometimes, a hard turn crosses over into a fresh, good stretch ahead. So it is, and we move on.

Crossing the road

Now it’s time to hit the crosswalk. Cross the street. Walk on. Take the path less traveled. At my little marketing company — remember that book from your childhood, “The Little Engine That Could,” by Watty Piper? — we are doing just that. Some may ask, why did Riger cross the road? Well, the answer is obvious isn’t it: to get to the other side.

Is your shop, large or small, facing similar steps ahead? Now is the time to talk it over to get more customers, clients, or donors walking across the marketing bridge and crossing your threshold — be it brick and mortar or virtual. Talk about what’s working and what’s not working for your business or nonprofit. Get at the crux of the communications biscuit.

So here’s to crossing over to a better tomorrow.

But first, two more notable quotes about crossings, one weighty and one just fun.

• “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” — Poet Robert Frost

• “Yesterday I saw a chicken crossing the road. I asked it why. It told me it was none of my business.” — Author and Comedian Steven Wright

Steve Johnson is managing partner of Riger Marketing Communications in Binghamton. Contact him at sdjohnson@riger.com

Are Your Employees Zoning Out in Zoom Meetings?

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

Tips from a remote veteran The coronavirus changed the world into a planet of remote workers, but several months into the pandemic some companies and individuals are still grappling with the challenges of working apart. Employees have more distractions at home and some can find it harder to focus. Questions persist, such as: Can video

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Tips from a remote veteran

The coronavirus changed the world into a planet of remote workers, but several months into the pandemic some companies and individuals are still grappling with the challenges of working apart.

Employees have more distractions at home and some can find it harder to focus. Questions persist, such as: Can video conferencing be as effective as in-person communication? Will workplace culture — and production — suffer from a lack of traditional human interaction?

Many companies and employees weren’t prepared for this major life switch.

Companies became obsessed with maintaining their brick-and-mortar culture despite the fact their offices were completely deserted. I heard several horror stories about companies mandating that employees eat lunch on camera or play bar games with cocktails on Zoom after an exhausting workday.

Not only were these extra obligations not necessary, they didn’t consider the busier new lives of harried workers — many are now homeschooling kids and juggling schedules with spouses also working from home. Some remote workforces have transitioned smoothly, but a great many need to learn how to adjust.

Drawing from experiences I have had advising companies on how to work remotely and maintain performance, here are some tips on getting the most out of online meetings.

• Flex your virtual meeting time. From managing hundreds of regional and global online events, I can tell you the maximum anyone should be in an online meeting is four hours. Two hours is much better for a maximum. When they run longer, your participants are going to experience significant muscle and eye fatigue, not to mention be tempted by the incredible distractions that come with working remotely.

• Template everything. When managers ran meetings in a conference room, they could ban phones and have everyone’s attention. With remote meetings, managers have lost that control. They need to build virtual walls and a structure to keep things on track. This is where templates for meeting agendas, action items, business reviews, etc., come into play. Make these available from the central dashboard and reinforce on calls where they are and how to find them.

• Protest pointless meetings. Pointless includes inviting a whole host of people to a meeting who don’t need to be there. Don’t take valuable chunks of work time away from team members for a call they don’t need to be on.

• Great meetings like contract discussions. Back in the day, informal meetings in a physical office sometimes allowed employees to shine in front of their bosses. But online loosey-goosey meetings without any real point don’t get anyone anywhere. To accomplish anything of substance, set a strong agenda and stick to it. Get opinions from everyone. For the introverts not comfortable with sharing, consider implementing anonymous input forms. You’ll be amazed how engagement increases. Like a contract, you need to document what the team decided and what priorities have been set. Put those in the meeting minutes, distribute, and follow up on them.

• Don’t drive yourself to distraction. Train yourself to cut down distractions to improve productivity. Turn off your phone and notifications. Otherwise, someone is going to ask you something and there will be that dead air as everyone waits for you to respond.

Many companies are trying to replicate the in-person experience by wanting to get everyone in front of a screen for multiple hours over multiple days. But they have the opportunity to rethink and re-engineer the experience in ways that make sense in a new world when nobody is in the same room for a meeting.

Cynthia Spraggs is author of “How To Work From Home And Actually Get SH*T Done: 50 Tips for Leaders and Professionals to Work Remotely and Outperform the Office.” She is CEO of Virtira (www.virtira.com), a completely virtual company that focuses on remote team performance.

5 Steep Costs that Companies Pay Because of a Toxic Boss

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Working for a difficult or temperamental boss is common in the U.S. One survey [from global staffing firm Robert Half] showed roughly half of the employees quit their job due to what they termed a bad boss. But high turnover isn’t the only downside such bosses cause. Abrasive or toxic leadership creates many other costs

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But high turnover isn’t the only downside such bosses cause. Abrasive or toxic leadership creates many other costs for organizations and employees as well — from personal health to the company’s financial health.

Toxic behavior in leadership at the workplace has a trickle-down effect that spreads throughout the leader’s division. And if left unchecked, it can spread through and adversely affect the whole organization.

Talented but toxic leaders are brilliant jerks whose volatile behavior causes the people around them to be much less productive and successful than they can be. These are bosses who intimidate, isolate, undermine, and divide. And the longer a company lets the behavior go, the more the costs will mount.

Here are some of the costs to an organization when toxic leaders cause a deteriorating work environment:

Communication is compromised. When a boss is a difficult character with unpredictable moods, people fear telling him/her anything less than good news. As a result, problems that leaders could help solve go unsolved or are rerouted around them. These kinds of leaders also show favoritism, creating resentment, individual agendas, and more dysfunction. Employees who once collaborated well now gossip behind each other’s backs and projects suffer.

People lose motivation. Toxic leaders want most of the credit and are quick to shoot down others’ ideas. This kills confidence in some team members as well as creativity and motivation. Talented and intelligent people aren’t being fully utilized. Why would employees offer a fabulous idea when they feel their boss will take that idea for themselves or humiliate them in front of the group?

Strategies don’t get fully implemented. Company strategies call for streamlining between leadership and staff to plan and implement. But often, the strategy never gets off the ground, or if it does, not smoothly. It’s tough for the team members to get aligned as they should when there is distrust or fear of the leader. It’s hard for people to follow consistently when the leader is pushing back or pushing too hard.

Absenteeism and ‘presenteeism’ add to the troubles. Presenteeism means you’re physically present at work, but not really there mentally. And absenteeism is a common effect of volatile leadership as workers don’t want to be there at all. If you’re present but don’t desire to be, then you are too upset by how the leader acts to feel comfortable or capable of doing your job at a high level. Absenteeism could involve legitimate health issues that are the result of the stress the leader creates. And that leads to major organizational costs.

Leader and employee turnover both rise. A study by the Centre for Creative Leadership shows that about 40 percent of new executives fail within the first 18 months. You want your leader to grow on the job and be a catalyst of growth for your organization. But that doesn’t happen when people are burning out quickly on them. And when you have relatively high employee turnover as a result of toxic leadership, the constant change disrupts company performance. We all know the financial costs of recruiting and replacing people, and then there is the cost to the company reputation. The word gets out quickly and talented prospects will be leery of joining.

It’s amazing how just one brilliant jerk can offer a company so much potential, but ultimately set it back by doing so much harm. Companies that let the behavior fester do so at their own peril.

Katrina Burrus (www.ExcellentExecutive-Coaching.com) is author of “Managing Brilliant Jerks: How Organizations and Coaches Can Transform Difficult Leaders into Powerful Visionaries” and founder of MKB Conseil & Coaching and Excellent Executive Coaching, LLC.

America’s Standing in the World

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Call it American exceptionalism or not, the American people have always embraced the idea that we live in an exceptional country. We are grateful to be Americans. We take a lot of pride in our country, as we should. Pride and patriotism are among America’s greatest strengths. Having said that, we need to be clear-eyed about

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Having said that, we need to be clear-eyed about our limits. Sometimes we tend to think we should always be No. 1, no matter what metrics we apply. That attitude can lead to arrogance and a lack of interest in the world.

There are always things we can learn from other countries.

South Korea’s success in containing the COVID-19 pandemic is instructive. The U.S. has just over six times the population of South Korea, but we have had nearly 300 times as many COVID-19 cases and nearly 500 times as many deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Other Asian countries have also had notable success in containing the virus. We could learn from them.

Recently, the New York Times reported on the 2020 Social Progress Index, which ranks countries on measures of health, safety, nutrition, education, freedom, the environment, and other factors associated with quality of life. It’s a bit of a shock that the U.S. comes in 28th. By some measures, we are outstanding: Our universities are the best in the world, but we are No. 91 (out of 163 countries) in access to quality basic education. We have the best medical technology, but we are No. 97 in access to quality health care.

By most measures, the U.S. was the unchallenged world leader, roughly from the end of WWII to the early years of the 21st century. We had a positive, optimistic vision of our role in the world and the importance of our global engagement. We built the institutions that created the post-World War II international order. But from Vietnam forward through Iraq and Afghanistan, we learned some of the constraints on our power.

These challenges prompted us to re-examine our role in the world. Gradually, we accepted the costs as well as the benefits of being No. 1. The question arose: Did we really want to be the world’s leader in all things?

The issue of America’s role in the world — what it is, and what it should be — is the central question in U.S. foreign policy. My sense is that we should play a prominent leadership role in world affairs, recognizing we should actively engage in the world, and that our values and ideals are our best tools.

We should be neither interventionist nor isolationist. Use of force, while always at the ready, should be a last, not a first resort. Instead, we should emphasize our economic and political strength, our diplomacy, our support for development, fair trade, and our efforts to secure arms-control agreements and combat climate change.

With our goal to spread democracy and freedom, our foreign policy has a strong moral component. But we also have to be pragmatic and sensitive to other nations, especially allies, work to maintain the support of the American people, and defend our vital interests.

Such an approach will strengthen and sustain America’s standing in the world.

Lee Hamilton, 89, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south central Indiana.

Cazenovia College

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

JESSE HARASTA has been promoted from assistant to associate professor status at Cazenovia College. Harasta, Ph.D., began his career at the college as an adjunct instructor in 2013. He served as a term instructor and Summer Experience program instructor in 2014. In 2016, Harasta was hired as an assistant professor of social sciences and as

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JESSE HARASTA has been promoted from assistant to associate professor status at Cazenovia College. Harasta, Ph.D., began his career at the college as an adjunct instructor in 2013. He served as a term instructor and Summer Experience program instructor in 2014. In 2016, Harasta was hired as an assistant professor of social sciences and as director of the International Studies program. At Cazenovia College, he has been instrumental in administering international programs, spearheading a new study-abroad location in Japan, establishing new courses in Japanese and Arabic, starting the college’s first international-student exchange and a new summer program for international high-school students, and organizing an international-affairs symposium. Harasta earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from SUNY Geneseo and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Syracuse University in cultural anthropology in 2009 and 2013, respectively.

TRACY TRACHSLER has also been promoted from assistant to associate professor status on the Cazenovia College faculty. Trachsler, Ph.D. has been at the college since August 2016, when she was hired as assistant professor of sport management and program director for the college’s Sport Management program. For the past four years at Cazenovia, she has overseen Sport Management program development and administration of courses, created an eSport initiative, connecting academics and athletics, organized and led an advisory board of industry professionals, supervised annual student internships and advised dozens of Sport Management program students. She earned her bachelor’s degree in secondary education and Spanish at the University of Scranton, and her master’s (physical education/athletic administration) and doctoral (physical education teaching and administration) degrees from Springfield College. Trachsler previously was assistant athletic director of the Athletic Department and senior woman administrator at SUNY Cortland, a teaching fellow at Springfield College, a visiting assistant professor in sport management at SUNY Cortland, and a pitching and softball coach at both Cortland and Springfield.

Mohawk Valley Community College

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

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Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) has made the following new appointments, employee title changes, and promotions as approved by the board of trustees at its Aug. 17 and Sept. 21 meetings. CARLI AMODIO was named respiratory care instructor in the School of Health Sciences; Amodio joined the college as a respiratory care program tutor in 2019 and worked concurrently as a registered respiratory therapist at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta. She earned her bachelor’s degree in professional development and advanced patient care from Grand Canyon University, associate degrees in respiratory care and general studies from MVCC, and has been a NYS-licensed registered respiratory therapist since 2018. TABITHA CARTER was appointed to the grant-funded position of coordinator of distributed learning and will work with the Department of Corrections educational supervisor to develop and deliver MVCC curriculum to students in the prison system. She also will provide training and assistance to the faculty, staff, and students in using technology for online learning. Prior to joining the college, Carter served in several positions at Herkimer County Community College since 1997. She earned her associate degree in computer science from Herkimer County Community College. STEPHEN COOK was transitioned to the grant-funded position of coordinator of cybersecurity initiatives in which he will coordinate the day-to-day operations of MVCC’s grant-funded cybersecurity initiatives. Since 2017, Cook has served the college as coordinator of the Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Regional Resource Center. Before that, he worked as an investigator for Roman & Associates in Lynbrook, New York, and a criminal investigator in Superior Court for the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C. Cook also served in the U.S. Army as a Specialist E-4. He holds a master’s degree in cyber policy and risk analysis and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Utica College, and an associate degree in liberal arts from Herkimer County Community College. USHONA MCLEAN was transitioned to the grant-funded position of STEP and GEAR UP. She will provide direct services to the students in the Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP) and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) to help improve academic performance and promote the exploration of STEM fields and licensed professions. McLean has been with MVCC in various capacities since 2003, including as Office of Institutional Advancement manager, senior resident director, adjunct instructor, and, most recently, coordinator of CSTEP and STEP. Prior to joining MVCC, she worked as assistant director and transfer adviser for On Point for College. McLean holds a master’s degree in social policy and a bachelor’s degree in community and human services from Empire State College, and an associate degree in liberal arts and science from MVCC. She also holds a child development associate credential. JAMEL MOYER has been appointed to the grant-funded position of STEP program specialist. He will provide direct services to students in STEP and assist the director in developing, implementing, and evaluating the program. Before joining the college, he served as a case manager of the Pathways to Justice Careers at the Oneida County Workforce Development Board, a chemical-dependency counselor at Insight House Chemical Dependency Services, a correctional officer with the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department, and a child-care worker at the House of the Good Shepherd. Moyer also is a part-time unit supply specialist with the Army Reserves. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Utica College. KENNY STOVER was appointed HVAC instructor in the School of STEM. He’s the owner and operator of Stover Heating and Cooling in Vernon. Before joining the college, he also worked as a bus driver for Vernon Verona Sherrill Central School District; in Park Maintenance for Holmes County State Park in Mississippi; as an engineering lab technician for ECR International; and he served in the U.S. Army as a communications supervisor. Stover holds associate degrees in digital animation and HVAC, both from MVCC. SAINGGHECH UNG was transitioned to the grant-funded position of GEAR UP coordinator. In this role, she will manage programming and support services while overseeing the delivery of a wide range of instructional and intervention services to support GEAR UP retention and completion. Ung has been employed by the college since 2012, working as a tutor/adviser in CSTEP, a tutor/college instructor/grade supervisor for GEAR UP and Math Corps, and finally as Math Corps supervisor. Ung also has served as a Young Scholars site assistant at Utica College and a residential counselor at Sitrin Health Care Center. She holds a master’s degree in health administration from Utica College, a bachelor’s degree in biological science from University at Buffalo, and an associate degree in mathematics and science: biology option from MVCC.

Oswego Health

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

After 33 years of dedicated service to Oswego Health, PAT MAIN, laboratory administrative director, announced her retirement on Sept. 1. She had been working closely with her team to ensure a smooth transition. Oswego Health has promoted two internal laboratory staff members who will be stepping up to lead the department. ED HALE has been

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MELISSA BUNCE

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

MELISSA BUNCE, physician assistant (PA) has joined St. Joseph’s Physicians at St. Joseph’s Health Women’s Health Services in Auburn. A board-certified physician assistant, she has more than 17 years of clinical experience. Before joining St. Joseph’s Health, Bunce served as a physician assistant in primary care, internal medicine, and HIV medicine at clinics in Arizona

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Visions expects early 2021 opening for new Ithaca branch

Banks & Credit Unions, Regional News, Subscriber Only

ITHACA — Construction is moving along on the upcoming Ithaca branch of Visions Federal Credit Union. The new office — located at 410 Elmira Road, near Home Depot and Kohl’s — is expected to open in early 2021. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania–based PWCampbell designed and is building the new location, and Paolangeli Contractors, Inc. of Ithaca handled

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Chemung Financial profit jumps in 3rd quarter

Banks & Credit Unions, Regional News, Subscriber Only

ELMIRA — Chemung Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CHMG), parent company of Chemung Canal Trust Company, recently reported that its net income soared to $5.7 million, or $1.19 per share, in the third quarter from $2 million, or 40 cents, in the year-ago period. “Third quarter results included a 4.8 percent increase in net interest income and

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“Third quarter results included a 4.8 percent increase in net interest income and a 1.2 percent reduction in non-interest expenses, when compared to the third quarter of last year,” Anders M. Tomson, president and CEO of Chemung Financial, said in the banking company’s earnings report. “Our efficiency ratio continued to improve throughout the year as did our non-interest expense to average assets ratio, reinforcing our continued focus on expense management. We have remained committed to supporting our clients as they navigate these uncertain times, pivoting to assist as they begin the SBA’s loan forgiveness application process… Our company is well-positioned from a capital and liquidity perspective to provide the necessary stability to our customers and communities as they work toward renewal and recovery.”

Chemung Financial generated net interest income of $15.9 million in the third quarter, up from $15.1 million a year prior, due mainly to increases of about $200,000 in interest income on loans, including fees, about $100,000 in interest and dividend income on taxable securities, and a decrease of about $800,000 in total interest expense. That was offset by a decrease of roughly $400,000 in interest income on interest-earning deposits.

The increase in loan income resulted from a rise of about $400,000 in interest income on commercial loans, primarily attributable to a $210 million increase in average balances on commercial loans and receipt of $1.2 million of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fees. That was offset by a decrease in portfolio average yield due to a decrease in interest rates. Interest income on mortgage loans increased by about $300,000 primarily due to a rise of more than $36 million in average balances on mortgage loans. These increases were also offset by a decrease of about $500,000 in interest income on consumer loans, which can be attributed to both decreases in average balances and average portfolio yield on consumer loans.

The increase in interest and dividend income on taxable securities was due mainly to an increase in average invested balances of $67 million. The decrease in interest income on interest-earning deposits was due mainly to the sharp drop in interest rates on overnight deposits with the average yield on interest-earning deposits declining from 2.22 percent in the third quarter of 2019 to 0.31 percent in this year’s third quarter. The drop in interest expense on deposits was due primarily to the decreases in average interest rates paid on interest-bearing checking, savings, and money-market products in response to the Federal Reserve’s large interest-rate cuts in March.

Chemung Financial posted a net interest margin of 3.2 percent in this year’s third quarter, compared to 3.63 percent in the same quarter last year. Average interest-earning assets increased by more than $320 million in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year. The average yield on interest-earning assets decreased 66 basis points in the third quarter, while the average cost of interest-bearing liabilities fell by 34 basis points, compared to a year earlier.

The banking company took a provision for loan losses totaling about $700,000 in the third quarter, down from $4.4 million in the third quarter of 2019. It said this decrease was primarily due to a $4.2 million commercial credit exposure it faced in the year-ago quarter that it did not have this year.

Chemung Financial produced non-interest income $5.3 million in this year’s third quarter, up almost 8 percent from $5 million for the same period in in 2019.

Non-interest expense in the latest quarter fell slightly to $13.4 million from $13.5 million in the year-ago quarter, led by decreases in pension and other employee benefits, as well as other non-interest expenses — offset by an increase in FDIC insurance costs.

Non-performing loans totaled nearly $16 million at Chemung Financial as of Sept. 30, or 1.02 percent of total loans, compared to $18 million as of last Dec. 31, or 1.38 percent of total loans. The decrease in non-performing loans can mostly be attributed to the charge-off of one large commercial mortgage in the second quarter of 2020.

Chemung Financial explained that as its management evaluated the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its loan portfolio, management identified what it believes are higher-risk loans through a detailed analysis of industry codes. The banking company determined that an additional provision specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic was not necessary in the third quarter.

Chemung Financial had total assets of nearly $2.2 billion as of Sept. 30, up 21 percent from $1.8 billion at the end of 2019. The banking company attributed the rise mainly to increases of $229 million in loans, net of deferred fees, $112 million in securities available for sale, at estimated fair value, $18 million in interest-earning deposits in other financial institutions, and $10 million in accrued interest receivable and other assets. That was partially offset by an increase of more than $1 million in allowance for loan losses. The increase in loans was due primarily to the growth of $216 million in commercial loans and $39 million in residential mortgages, offset by a decrease of almost $26 million in consumer loans. Chemung Financial said almost $190 million of the increase in loans was related to the PPP.

On or about Nov. 20, Chemung Canal Trust Company will consolidate two branches, reducing its total from 32 to 30. The Big Flats branch at 437 Maple St. will be consolidated into the nearby office at 29 Arnot Road, Horseheads. The branch located at 1054 State Route 17C in Owego will be consolidated into the nearby branch office at 203 Main St. in Owego.

Established in 1833, Chemung Canal Trust says it is the oldest, locally owned and managed community bank in New York. Chemung Financial is also parent of CFS Group, Inc., a financial-services subsidiary offering non-traditional services including mutual funds, annuities, brokerage services, tax-preparation services and insurance, and Chemung Risk Management, Inc., an insurance company based in Nevada.

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