At Chartway FCU, Leaders Aren’t Born – They’re Made

A reigning philosophy at Chartway Federal Credit Union ($3.1B, Virginia Beach, VA) is that leadership can happen anywhere in any role. So when pandemic-era shifts in the workforce sparked the “war on talent,” the Viriginia cooperative was already looking inward.

“We wanted intentionality around retention and building a strong internal leadership pipeline for succession planning,” explains Jill Edsall, Chartway’s director of learning and talent development. “The leap from staff to supervisor is a big one, so we wanted to give people a safe place to practice those skills before promotion.”

In 2024, Edsall and her team launched Chartway’s Emerging Leaders program, a 12-month leadership development journey for those looking to grow at the credit union.

“Organizationally, we’ve always focused on creating a culture of continuous learning,” she says. “This program identifies a pocket of high performers where we can invest more time and energy. That focus is meaningful to them. They’re eager for more and ready for more.”

The first cohort of Emerging Leaders completed the program earlier this year, and the second cohort is already well into its second module. Edsall says that quick success is due in part to widespread buy-in across the organization.

“That elevated its visibility and reinforced the commitment to investing in our future. It was powerful, and I think it speaks volumes about our culture,” she Edsall.

Potential > Position Or Performance

One of Chartway’s organizational competencies is “opening doors for the underrated and overlooked.” Edsall says this was top of mind when designing the nomination process. Rather than creating an opportunity that requires nominations in order to participate, interested employees can self-select and express interest.

“That was really important because we wanted to identify potential, not just performance,” Edsall says. “The application process asks about aspirations, leadership experiences, and how they’ve stepped up informally. It helps us gauge alignment with program goals.”

To ensure fairness, Chartway removes any personally identifiable information before a cross-functional committee reviews applications. This reduces bias and keeps the focus on potential, not position or visibility. Top candidates are considered well-aligned with the credit union’s purpose and self-motivated to grow and improve.

For its first cohort, the Emerging Leaders program received about 60 applications – far more than was expected, notes Edsall.

“That validated the untapped need we were addressing,” she says.

Of the 60 that applied, Chartway decided to aim for 20 to 26 as an ideal class size.

“Right now, this feels like the right size, but we’re reassessing the cadence. For cohort three, we may consider running two cohorts staggered six months apart,” Edsall says.

Inside ‘A Month In The Life’

The Emerging Leaders program is split into four “pillars” with each covering a different leadership topic.

The program focuses on one pillar per quarter, with a different topic covered during each month. Monthly work is divided among three activities: self-driven learning, a workshop, and real-world application.

Over the course of the curriculum, participants complete:

• About 1 to 2 hours of self-paced learning to build foundational knowledge.
• A workshop or 2-hour session for application, reflection, and collaboration.
• Experiential activities applying skills in real scenarios, like shadowing a meeting.

“It’s not technical – they’re not learning how to manage a budget,” Edsall explains. “Instead, they’re learning about our organizational competencies and how to lead within any role at Chartway.”

During the program, participants are assigned a peer mentor within their cohort and intentionally paired across departments to bring diverse perspectives. These pairings rotate quarterly, which helps participants build broader relationships. There are also shadow sessions, lunch-and-learns, panel discussions, one-on-one leadership mentoring, and a book provided each quarter that aligns with the learning themes.

At the end of the 12 months, everything participants have learned culminates with a capstone presentation in front of senior leadership and other leaders across the organization.

“We thought it was important for participants to provide a highlight reel of their experience, such as what they learned, how they applied it, and the results that they saw,” Edsall says. “It gave them a chance to reflect and also practice presenting in front of an audience.”

Always Learning, Always Improving

These capstone presentations serve as essential feedback on how participants feel about the program. Edsall and her team also ask participants and leaders to complete pulse surveys and evaluations, including the Gallup Engagement Survey.

“One notable improvement we saw was in the question, ‘At work, I have the ability to learn and grow,’” Edsall says. “That uptick reflected not only the program participants, but also mentors and others who benefited from the new development opportunities the program created across the organization.”

After just one graduating class, 35% of those emerging leaders have been promoted – a higher percentage than expected.

“We’re incredibly proud of them because it speaks to the effort they put into their development,” Edsall says.

With Chartway’s second cohort of Emerging Leaders already underway, Edsall says there are plenty of lessons learned from year one. For example, how to help participants manage the program’s workload on top of existing responsibilities.

“We spent a lot of time assessing pace and content. That was huge,” Edsall says. “Another big realization was the importance of leader support. We created the program with participants in mind, but quickly realized we needed to equip their leaders as well.”

As a result, a side-by-side “leader curriculum” has been introduced with tools for hosting effective one-on-ones with program attendees.

“Both of these lessons were acted on right away, and we see the program as continuously evolving with feedback shaping the future,” Edsall says.

Chartway’s second cohort is expected to complete the Emerging Leaders program in July 2026.