Small Moments, Big Impact: People First Leadership Habits with Megan Humphries

Speaker A: Welcome back to the Mindset to Learn podcast. This season, we're talking to experts in the field of learning and development about what great leadership looks like. If you've ever wondered what great leadership looks like, you're going to love what our guest Megan Humphries says about leadership. She's a passionate L and D executive. She's been recognized by Training magazine as an emerging training leader, and she's here to talk to us about building trust through strategic delegation. We talk about why performance management is more than just a checklist and how those small acts of recognition can really

Speaker B: spark big shifts in morale.

Speaker A: Let's get ready for some practical tools with Megan's energizing insight.

Speaker B: Hey, Megan, thanks for joining me on the Mindset to Learn podcast. I'm so excited, so excited to talk with you today.

Speaker C: Thanks, Joanie. I'm excited to be here. Appreciate you inviting me to join. I always love your energy, and I'm looking forward to talking to you today.

Speaker B: Awesome. Well, for the. For listeners, Megan and I met through the local ATD Central Florida chapter. And y', all, she is phenomenal. So when you listen to what she talks about today on the leadership topic, please be ready to take some notes because she is, uh, a wealth. Has a wealth of information to share. And every time I listen to anything that she talks about, I just feel so inspired and I always learn so much. So we're going to start, though, by having Megan telling us a little bit about herself. Like, tell us about what drew you to this field. How did your career evolve?

Speaker C: Oh, that's a great question. Well, first and foremost, I love long walks on the beach. No, I'm just teasing. Whenever someone says, tell me about yourself, I always like to say that. But what's really drawn me to this is, you know, I didn't start off, I think, in organizational development or learning and development. I actually started off in customer service. And in customer service, a program that I was part of was teaching people how to sell through providing great service. And with that, then you start to show other people how to do it. So I feel like I kind of sort of tripped and fell into the training world because it's where customer service and sales collided. And I found that was such a passion helping people succeed. And in that case, many, many years ago, it was sales, so they were making money. So not only was I training them on, you know, customer service techniques, but I was also helping people increase their income. And I would have team members come up and say, you know, Megan, I was able to pay for My kids, college tuition, tuition because of this program. So it was really cool. And that's what kind of kept me there and kept me grounded because I saw how it helped people get where they wanted to be. Mhm.

Speaker B: And that really is what sparked your role in leadership, I'm sure, because I have a little bit of a connection. Yes, I went to school to be an educator, but before that I was in sales and I loved product knowledge. And if a customer came in or another colleague was there and we had a new product and I had learned about it, I was so excited to tell them all the different, uh, details about that product and why it was so beneficial and why it was better than something else and what made the quality, you know, something they were going to be used for a while and they wouldn't be wasting their money. And that's where I found a lot of my passion. I remember I used to sell mattresses, I sold luggage, but I used to get to sell down comforters. And understanding all the different types of down, the different levels of down. The different weird shapes they would put. They would sew into the quilting, uh, shapes.

Speaker C: Yep.

Speaker B: For fluffiness and stuff and more feathers and the material. There's a lot that goes into that. And I loved selling down comforters. In Florida, y'. All, in Florida, I could sell down comforters. So that's my connection. I love sales, and I think it really does tie well with learning and development.

Speaker C: Yeah, you think about the, like, the product knowledge, right. Ultimately, it's educating someone and, you know, if they want to say no, that's, that's perfectly fine. But like, it's the education piece, like helping people understand and making sure that they can make an informed decision. Whether that's, you know, training someone to be educated or just letting a customer know what options are available.

Speaker B: Okay, that got you into learning and development. So let's talk about the leadership part that you're doing. But before, what makes someone even better than a good leader? Do you know what I mean? Like, we've had people that, I don't want to be negative and say, let's talk about the leaders that aren't very good. But we've all worked for a good leader. But what makes somebody exceptional? Do you have an opinion on that?

Speaker C: I do. I've had the pleasure and truly the opportunity to be led by some good and great people. And I've had some really great leaders and mentors in my life. And there were a few key pieces that, looking back, what helped me in my journey Become a leader, too. That set my mentors and my leaders apart. From good to great was clear expectations and follow through. I've also had good leaders and I've had good mentors that say, here's what you should do. But then it kind of fell flat. There was no follow through. Whether that was follow through on my part or their part. It was like, we talked about it, we got really inspired, but then nothing happened. So great leaders that I've encountered, and not only my personal life, but my professional life as well, is you set the clear expectations at the beginning, and then we have a clear plan for follow through. And it creates that, uh, accountability. And it's helped me be successful to have someone else there that is holding me accountable to them or holding me accountable to myself.

Speaker B: Do you find there's a new level of trust that's built in that relationship?

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Because, I mean, you're setting the expectations at the beginning. You're saying, here's what I'm committing to doing here. Here's what you're committing to doing. And when we do follow through, it's now showing that I can trust that person or vice versa. Right. That person can trust me as well. And it just strengthens the relationship. Feels like I can go to them as a mentor or go to them as a confidant or even just to bounce ideas off of them. Um, it definitely creates some psychological safety between our relationships.

Speaker B: Yeah. I was thinking about this one leader that. Or my old boss that I love working for, and she was exactly like that. She was that leader. I talk about her a lot, and it might get creepy, but she was that leader who not only could she give good feedback, she held us accountable, we held her accountable. But she also put out all those fires for us so that we could do a really good job. And that's how she would show her devotion to us, is she knew what we needed to do our job. Right. And so she took care of all the other factors that or roadblocks. So anyway. Oh, Megan, I know that in your current job, you are supporting so many other colleagues. Right. Have you found that it's, like, important to know when or how to step back and empower them?

Speaker C: Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's no way that I could do everything myself. So it's super important to be able to have my team and those that I support feel empowered not only to know complete task, but also make decisions. I think about it, like, even in my role right now, with my direct team, if they came to me with every single decision that they have to make or everything that they're doing, we would never get any work done because there's just so much we have to do. So I always trying to remind them, like, you haven't given me a reason not to trust you. So trust that I agree with your decisions. And if you feel like you need a sounding board or you're not 100% sure, I'm happy to talk through. But there's not anything, at least in my time, uh, that I've encountered where if you make the wrong decision, it can't be fixed. And my team, I m feel like, has really grown to feel confident in taking things on, making those decisions and feel empowered in their role, uh, where they feel like their bucket is filled too. Right. They feel fulfilled. M. They don't feel like they're just taking direction or is what I like to call being order takers that they truly are business partners. Because I'm hopefully creating an environment where they feel empowered to show up to work every day, make decisions on the projects they're working on, um, work directly with leaders. They don't have to go through me to work with our senior leadership team. So there's definitely a. A piece that, in my role is not only to help people feel empowered, but remind them of past successes so they can keep feeling confident and keep feeling empowered and celebrate the successes too. Um, and that's just not with my team. Right. That's with, I think, anyone that we work with, peers and colleagues and even thinking about, like, managing up to senior leadership too, I think that's just a big part of culture in general, but certainly a way to help people feel like they are in control of their own work.

Speaker B: And I love that you say that because some of us have worked for people that are like micromanagers, and you're not doing that. So this is a great example of someone in leadership who is finding that balance of, um, hey, I may not have the answers. You don't need to come to me with everything. There's other people that you can go to and giving them that freedom, in a sense, to be able to go out and solve some of their own problems, because that does empower them.

Speaker C: Yeah. Have you heard of micro understanding versus micromanagement?

Speaker B: No.

Speaker C: There's some research and work on it that I've been looking up. Um, and it's something that, you know, in my industry, I hadn't heard before, but it's something that we've started to talk about at my organization because you hear things like oh, I've had a micromanager. I have a micromanager. So the difference between that micromanagement and micro understanding is you have to be involved depending on the situation. Right. I can't be completely hands off with my team. Micromanagement usually comes back to a selfish right. You want to be in control, you want to know what's going on. It's all about you and not necessarily about the greater organization or the other person. Micro understanding is I need to be involved, but I need to understand it. So if someone comes to me, I can intelligently tell them, here's what we do. Or I need to understand what roadblocks you have so I can take those roadblocks away. So something that, uh, my team and our leadership team here at my company have really been kind of honed in on with our field leaders and with our mid management leaders is talking to their teams about the difference between micromanagement and micro understanding. Micromanagement feels like a control. But if you're telling them, you, here's why I'm asking these questions, here's why I'm asking you to walk me through this. It helps the other person truly understand. It's we're looking for the things that are causing you to spin your wheels. Or in my case, I did this with a team member the other day where I said, walk me through when you're pulling this report. And she was doing it in a way that could have easily been automated and we saved her four hours. But had I just said like, tell me why you do the report this way, she probably would have been like, megan, why are you all up in my business and why are you? Yeah, but I actually sat down with her and I said, I feel like this could be going faster. And I know this isn't a report you like to do. Let's walk through it together. Let me see where there's maybe ways that we can change it or if the process doesn't work for you. Just because we've done it that way for how many years doesn't mean we have to keep doing that that way. But let's walk through it together. Let's figure out where the pain points are and let me help you figure out an easier way to do this. Where it took that moment where she probably could have felt like I was micromanaging her, but I spent just a little bit of time explaining how it's going to help her, that hopefully it helped her think of it more as like, let me help micro understand the situation. So we can come up with a solution to better help you. And it's just so interesting. I don't see a lot of stuff out there, but there has been some research and it's, it's really sort of a culture we're trying to build here.

Speaker B: So are there any other kind of practical tools that you're using or that you can provide other leaders? I know during your recent ATD CFL webinar you shared some incredible helpful tools like your, uh, 101 template. I think there was a smart goals worksheet and then my favorite is your Keep Stop Start guide. I tell everybody about that. So which of those tools do you find leaders might struggle with to implement most consistently?

Speaker C: You know, it's a great question, Joni. I haven't found that the tool themselves are hard to implement. It's the almost the accountability piece. And I'll tell you where I think I see the biggest miss in many organizations I've worked with and even just like friends that I talk to as well. You have the one on one template, but we're not either keeping consistent one on ones or we're not setting the expectations that we should have this template filled out and sent in advance so that it's a productive one on one. And it's so interesting because you asked earlier, right. What makes a good leader versus a great leader? My leader, Karen, she makes it a point that one on ones we have them weekly and even if she's super busy, that's the last thing that she moves. She tries to move everything else in her schedule and I mean she's a C level executive so I understand her schedule can be crazy and she gets pulled into all meetings. But she told me a long time ago when we first started working together, your one on one should be the last thing that you're moving if you can help it because your team needs that consistency and if you're setting the expectation that they should be prepared, if you're moving it every single week or you're skipping it every single week, it's going to show them that like you're not invested in what they have to say. So I would say that's one of the biggest myths I see. And I talk to friends and even my fiance in past organizations. I'm like, hey, well have you talked about this on a one on one or they'll say I'm having really hard time with this. I said, well did you talk about it with your leader this week? And I am always so surprised that people say I don't have one on ones with my leader. And it's such a miss because as a leader, that's your opportunity to set those expectations. But more importantly here, where you can help your team members and figure out what motivates them, where they want to go so you can help figure out what their growth plan is. So the tool is easy, right? You can fill out the agenda. But if you're not sticking to having consistent one on ones or giving each other the agenda filled out in advance so you can prepare to talk about

Speaker B: it, that is, that's great advice.

Speaker C: A ah, huge miss. Yeah.

Speaker B: Some people feel like there's so much on their plate and they've got all these responsibilities but, but really the most important thing are the people that, uh, you're working with. And I love that your organization prioritizes those one on ones. I wish more organizations did. Hey, if you're listening, tell your leader or if you're a leader, prioritize those one on ones. Because when you invest in your employees, you invest in your colleagues, it's that trusting relationship where they feel and you feel too empowered. You empower each other. It's just the result that happens.

Speaker C: Yes, it is. And I always tell people like, I schedule my one on ones for an hour. Sometimes it takes 15 minutes. My team and I don't have a whole lot to talk about. But then other times we take the whole hour. But something I really try and do is, you know, I, I stick to it. I make sure hopefully it's the same time if I can help it, every single week. And my team knows to come prepared with their agenda. And if we take the whole time, great. And if we don't, that's okay too. But it's their time to have dedicated focus from me to figure out how can I help them succeed.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's really awesome. So let's talk a little bit about performance management, because I know that's one of your key topics. And right now there's a common belief that performance management is mainly for new hires. I read that it's been like a trend. But you've pointed out that tenured employees often need just as much support taking on something new. So how can, like leaders shift their mindset? Notice how I plug that in there. How can they shift their mindset to seeing performance management like, as an ongoing support tool rather than just a corrective measure?

Speaker C: It's a great question. I'm not sure how I could say to shift your mindset better than just saying you have to recognize what your team has Skills in and what they don't have skills in. Right. And that's all about getting to know the person. So. So I think about one of my team members. Her name is Chris. She's our director of training and delivery and she's phenomenal. She has been with our company for over 10 years and anytime I have a question I always go and I ask her because she's got so much knowledge in the industry and when I came on board you'd think, you know, this person has 10 years experience. How can I help her? Uh, she doesn't need my help, right. She's, she's been doing it for a while, but she took on a really big new project and had I just said like, okay, you're good to go, let me know if you need any help, she probably wouldn't have felt very supported. I'm assuming she may have spun her wheels a little bit trying to figure out what to do. But I knew she hadn't done anything like that. So I started off the project with her being very clear as I would a new hire or a new team member. Here's the expectation. I'm going to show you what to do. We're going to do regular check ins. I'm going to follow up with you. And someone had said something to move forward that has really resonated with me. When you think about performance management for your tenured team members or your in seat members, when you have new team members you provide a lot of direction. And when you typically have team members who've been in seat for a while, they're doing well, you provide more support, meaning you're just kind of checking in. But anytime you're starting something new, direction feels like support when direction is what is needed. So for your team members who are starting something new, they need that direction. Right. They haven't done it before and it doesn't feel in most cases micromanage to them because they haven't done it and they're looking for your guidance doesn't mean you have to be there giving them every single step. But you should start off right with clear direction just as you would with a new hire. So I think having that shift of mindset of has my team member done it before? Do they have the skills to do it? And kind of doing a checklist in yourself like a checks and balance to see if you know that of your team member is a way to kind of shift the performance management mindset of um. I'm not just focusing on new team members, I'm Focusing on the current skills, the experience of my current team. And really, you don't know it unless you get to know your team, unless you ask them too. But that's, I would say, my biggest piece of advice. Right. Know your team, know their skill set. And if you don't know, start with direction at the beginning and then at your first check in, figure out how's it going, where do you need support and see if they are picking up or if they need more direction.

Speaker B: It makes me think about as a instructional designer, putting a learner Persona together for my learners. I need to know a little bit about their background knowledges with the new initiative, let's say what their strengths are, what are areas that they could use some more support. And the only way you're going to find that out is having those conversations, doing that quick little interview. I mean, you could look at work samples and you kind of know after supporting these same employees for a certain amount of time, who's got which specific skills that are going to benefit this project or this new initiative. But even somebody who is pretty confident in what they're doing still may run into a barrier or something that's frustrating them. They might be the ones that are finding those pain points.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Where they haven't seen it before or, you know, there's those hurdles that they need to jump over and they're trying to figure out how to do it in the right way and having those one on ones. And once you've built that trust and you're talking about it, it's a perfect way to keep that communication going as well and make sure that those new initiatives not only are successful, but the employee feels successful. Right. I know you have a program that you do for recognition and it's really a huge part of what you do as well. So let's talk about recognizing people in, you know, just those meaningful ways.

Speaker C: Yeah, I, I would say our, uh, recognition. I try and build it and obviously it's not just me building and it's everyone building it, but anywhere I go, no matter where I work, I try and think of recognition as a true team effort. Obviously there's different types of recognition. In my experience, I found that people are usually recognized by like kind of three motivational drivers. One is money. Right. We're all some type of incentive or, or some tangible item, like a gift. One is more my personal favorite, which is like your name and lights. Right. I'm a very competitive person, so I want to be like, if my leader was doing recognition, I want her to Announce it to everyone. Like, Megan did a great job. Right. And it's like your name and lights. Right. You want to be recognized amongst your peers, and that feels good. And then another one is more like being recognized for supporting others. So usually that's a little bit behind the scene, but people are motivated. Knowing that they're helping a team member or they're helping a customer or they're helping their leader. So when you figure out where each person is motivated by, it helps better to give them the type of recognition that's meaningful for them. I have a team member who does not like their name in lights. He absolutely doesn't like it. But what's meaningful to him that I found are, like, small go and I'll buy, like, a small note card. Have you seen those at, uh, like cvs? They're the little teeny, tiny ones. And I'll just be like, hey, you did a really great job on this, and I'll put it on his desk and. And he loves it. Right. But if I were to say during, you know, an all team meeting, like, Steven, you did a fantastic job, he'd be like, megan, please don't ever put me in the spotlight again. He doesn't like it. So I think a big piece of it is knowing what's your team member's motivational driver and how they like recognition. And those are just kind of three common ones. Right. Everyone has their own motivation. So I like to ask when I have new team members or when I'm meeting new peers, like, what motivates you? How do you like to be recognized? And then I make sure to do that.

Speaker B: Remember it.

Speaker C: Yeah, remember it and do that. And, uh, I'm a big fan of peer to peer recognition, so I encourage my team to recognize each other or recognize others. So quarterly, we'll do like an HR meeting, and we have the opportunity to recognize others. And I always encourage my team, like, yes, we work really closely together, and we give each other recognition pretty frequently. But who else on our broader team would you recognize? And it just creates this culture of not just working in silos with yourself, but organization wide. How are we recognizing how we're partnering with others and giving them that motivation and the recognition? But it's certainly not something that, like, one person can do. Right. We all have to do it. Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, you've cultivated that culture.

Speaker C: Yeah. So everyone has to do it. But I will say it. It does play a huge factor. And I've worked in organizations where you don't have a lot of recognition and it's not bad, but it's also not really inspiring or motivating when you get a good job. For me, I want my name to be in lights. Right. But if it's just, like, a team's message, hey, great job, that's not really motivating for me. Yeah.

Speaker B: It's too general. Right?

Speaker C: Yeah. Like, okay, thanks, I guess.

Speaker B: If you're talking to leaders, how would you coach them to build that recognition program into the regular routine? What would you tell them?

Speaker C: I have actually a list of 101 on one questions that. And part of it is around recognition. How do you like to be recognized? When do you like to be recognized? Do you like to be recognized in front of your peers? So it goes back to that first piece of knowing how your team is recognized. And then we also encourage recognition during team meetings or daily standups. So what's one thing that went well yesterday? Or who do you want to recognize for the week? If you actually have that as an agenda item on your agenda, uh, it helps you think through it. But more importantly, I would say the biggest coaching piece I've given to leaders over the last few years is be very intentional with your recognition and make sure it's specific. Because if you're recognizing someone for doing something right, hopefully you want the rest of your team to replicate that behavior. If I were to say, hey, Joni, great job yesterday. That was awesome. Well, the rest of the team doesn't know what that is. But if I say, hey, Joni, great job yesterday, you used the tool to edit our software that we were talking about, and you did it in the timeline and you emailed it to this person, and it really did help with the project. I'm clearly calling out the behaviors that we expect and that we celebrate. Yes. So that other people can say, oh, if I want to get recognized. Right. Like, maybe I should do the same thing Joni's doing. Or maybe those are the things I should focus on. But being very intentional with how you're saying the recognition is a big coaching piece too generic. Recognition is fine, but, like, you want to know, like, what did I do well? Why am I being recognized? So being very specific is also motivational, too.

Speaker B: I love that. So here's what it kind of reminds me of, y'.

Speaker C: All.

Speaker B: I was a K to 12 educator. I taught middle school for 15 years. And, you know, those kids are between the ages of 11, sometimes up to 15 or 16. I won't lie. Uh, and they're great to teach, by the way. Comical. You can be Sarcastic. But you still have to teach behaviors, and you don't always want to recognize the behaviors you don't want to see. So just like Megan saying, with us adults and real adult working organizations, it's great to recognize, like I used to do, those students who were doing the right thing. Oh, thank you for walking into the door so quietly today. That's exactly what I'm looking for. And I used to give out little tickets. So anytime somebody was doing something great, I would walk up and say the exact great behavior, very specific. I would hand them a little ticket to put their name on, and then they were part of a drawing at the end of the week. But it worked because those kids would do whatever was correct for those tickets. And if they weren't doing the right behavior, man, they straightened up right away. And then, of course, I would have to comment on that. But that's how we build that culture. It helps with our young brains, and it helps with our adult brains. Um, think about the last professional development or conference session you were sitting in, and you're listening to the person speak, and they're asking questions, and maybe they've said to you, hey, anybody who raises their hand and participates or asks this question or does this, I've got something for you at the end, man. You turn around and say all the people that sit on the edge of their seats right then and there, and they're like, yeah, I got to do what's expected of me right now. But the key, I think, here is setting those expectations up ahead of time, like you said, whether it's for how work is going to get delegated, whether it's for how you're going to set up those one on, um, ones and what you're going to talk through with those one on ones or what you're looking for as far as actions and behaviors and just those routines that you're wanting that are positive within your organization, setting those expectations at first and then always recognizing who is doing that. Because now they're your model. They're like your champion. Right? And if somebody has a question about, oh, how did you do that? Well, they know which colleague to go to now to explain it to them or to get help with it and then in return. I don't know about y', all, but when someone comes to me for help, it kind of makes me feel good. Like, oh, I know something that somebody wants my help with. Um, yeah, I'm kind of like Megan, too. I kind of like my name in. In the spotlight once in a while. I'M not really that competitive. But it does make you feel good, right? That you got recognized for doing something. Maybe you didn't even think it was like over and beyond. You were just doing the right thing. But getting recognized for that does make you feel more valued. And I don't know about you, but when an employee feels trusted, they feel valued. They're going to do better work. Um, so that's my little tidbit on that. Okay, so I'm, um, clapping. You guys don't see this, but every time Megan says something really cool, I've got like spirit fingers. I get really excited when she talks to me. Megan, what does it mean for a leader to have a mindset to learn? And like, is there a book or a resource or any other experience that's really shaped how you lead and how you grow?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think having the mindset to learn, it's one of them is it kind of goes back to I like to see my name in lights, which means I'm very competitive. Like I have an ego. Right. That's just kind of.

Speaker B: I love it. You need to because you, you are awesome.

Speaker C: Okay. It's my Leo energy coming out. But a big piece of it is like being open to feedback. Right. It's something that I always have to be reminding of myself too. If I want to better myself, I have to not only be open to feedback, but I have to seek feedback. And that might look like for me, I'm asking for feedback from my team members. And it's not just I'm asking it when we're doing quarterly performance check ins, which is just like a little bit more expanded version of a normal one on one. They know to come prepared because I'm going to ask them, what feedback do you have for me? What feedback do you have for me? What can I be doing differently for you? And I'll tell you, sometimes I don't love to hear it, but I can't grow unless I know what I can change to be a better leader for my team. Same thing with my leader. I say, what feedback do you have for me if I deliver something that I haven't delivered before? Of course we're going to talk about it, but I'm going to say, what should I do differently next time? What do you suggest I change so I can be better next time? And so I always hear people say, like, be open to feedback. But I think it's even a step further. Seek out feedback. Seek out feedback from your peers. And I'll tell you with, with me and kind of like my Leo energy, it is hard to do that. It is hard to hear feedback that, you know, I want to think I'm the best at everything, but it's not true. So I would say that's one thing. When you think about having the mindset to learn is like seek the feedback and be open to it and implement it even when it doesn't feel that great.

Speaker B: You know what I love about that that you're doing that is one, you've set that expectation with your team. But two, you're modeling it and you're expecting that from your own leader.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker B: So that is so powerful.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's. It is definitely helped me. And I will say it's not something I used to do, but I found that I can't grow unless I get feedback and yeah, you know, from your team. Sometimes it's hard to give feedback. Managing up right. Like telling my boss I would be scared to give feedback to. Not now because we have, uh, a very trusting relationship. But I want my team to be comfortable giving me feedback and I want my business partners to be comfortable giving me feedback. And it's all about how you react to it and how you seek it out. So yes, I think that's one big piece. And then I know you asked me too if there's been a resource. And it is super hard to think about one resource because there's so many great ones out there. I'll tell you a few that early in my leadership journey really helped me. And you have probably read and heard about this is the 1 Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard. It's sort of like an introduction into your situational leadership. So when do you give support? When do you give direction? What does performance management look like? And it's a really simple book, easy to read. When I first started out in People leadership, that was one of the first resources my manager at the time gave to me. And it's one that I frequently suggest to others because it talks about. Right. How do you change up your leadership style based on the person and based on their skills and experience. So that's always one I suggest and the other one that I use every single day, without a doubt. I coach people to. It. I uh, train people to. It is crucial conversations.

Speaker B: Yes. I have that one on my bookshelf back here.

Speaker C: Yes. It's so good. And it's hard conversations. Right. They're not fun to have. But when you practice and you feel confident in them, you can have those conversations and it's, it feels good after One of my teammates, Greg, I asked him this week, I said, okay, what's one thing you're really proud of last week? And he said, I had a crucial conversation and it didn't feel good, but it had a good outcome. So, like, as a leader, that makes me feel good that I'm like, okay, you're doing it too, and you're having the tough conversations, but organizationally we need to have those hard conversations. So those are two books that I would say that I'm always suggesting. If you look on my bookcase, I have sticky notes and my pages are dog eared. I use them all the time. I have lots of highlights in them and if you haven't read, read them. They're really great, easy to read books.

Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. So much value in this conversation, y'.

Speaker A: All.

Speaker B: Megan's gonna tell us where we can connect with her because I'm sure some of you wanna reach out and hear more from her. The other thing I have to say, my cheeks hurt just because I smile so much when we talk. And I'm sitting here going, oh, my goodness, for the last half hour I've been smiling. Her positive energy not only comes through in her voice, but her face lights up the room. So I just sit here and smile at her and I'm like, yes, you can.

Speaker C: Blushing. The listeners can't, but you can.

Speaker B: Fabulous conversation. Megan, tell us where we can connect with you.

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn. It is LinkedIn.com meganlhumphries or you can also connect with me via email. It's MeganLhumphriesOutlook.com I'm always happy to meet like minded people. Talk shop with professional development. If you can't tell, it's my passion and you'll have to usually tell me like, megan, that's enough. Stop talking. So please connect with me. Um, I'm more than happy to talk shop and, you know, connect with you.

Speaker B: Megan, thank you so much for this great conversation. I am so excited to not only share everything that you talked about with the listeners, but hopefully you'll be on the podcast again when I come up with another cool topic that you're an expert on.

Speaker C: Oh, yes, I would love to. Thank you for having me. And then, Joni, we had mentioned earlier about some resources I provided during one of the webinars for. Yeah, I am happy to share those with your listeners. I am a huge fan of sharing tools. Have you heard, like, don't gatekeep, right? I don't want to gatekeep any professional development tools. So I'll share those with Joni. And then if anyone wants to email me or connect with me on LinkedIn, I'm happy to share those too.

Speaker B: Fabulous. Thank you so much.

Speaker C: Thanks for having me.

Speaker B: Joni,

Speaker A: did you love that conversation as

Speaker B: much as I did?

Speaker A: Megan always brings so much of her heart, clarity, wisdom to any discussion that

Speaker B: I've ever had with her.

Speaker A: I just loved her reminder that delegation isn't just about handing off tasks, it's about building trust, don't you agree? And creating those spaces for others to grow. And I hope you also felt how contagious Megan's passion is for people development. Big thanks to you Megan for sharing your energy and your expertise with us and listeners. Thank you for tuning in. Keep listening and keep learning.