When I meet with successful leaders, I am drawn to their stories.
How did they get where they are? What lessons have they learned along the way? What can they teach me and my audience?
I recently completed a podcast episode with my close friend, Michelle Taylor. Michelle is industrious, smart, strategic, driven by the notion of always bettering herself as a leader and improving the business she runs. Michelle happens to run the United Way of Delaware, one of the largest not for profits in the state. She is simply masterful at working with and for each stakeholder in the business and the community her business serves.
All of us seem to know the United Way, yet we are all not quite sure what they do. In this week’s podcast, you’ll hear from Michelle about how they are making a difference and are doing more than just “saving babies”. While that is, very obviously, an amazing mission on it’s own, the United Way is supporting the community through the pandemic and championing diversity, equity and inclusion through meaningful partnerships, programs and relationships.
You’ll also learn about Michelle’s leadership journey. In her eyes, titles never mattered. She’s a leader because she wants to help the people she leads thrive and to make a real difference. Michelle will never brag about a good leader, however, when you interact with her, you know you’re interacting with a great leader who is fair, honest, and direct.
Michelle and I also discuss the important “why” questions: Why she comes to work every day and why her business exists. Defining your “why” is a great prompt for getting to know yourself, your motivations and what makes you truly happy. I’ve talked about getting to know yourself in my recent articles, and defining your “why” is a key part of that.
Through the years, Michelle and I have bonded while discussing change in business: the best way to navigate these changes and lessons learned over the years. We discuss these lessons within the podcast.
In the end, the conversation in this podcast is like every other one I have ever had with Michelle. We share ideas, work on business problems together, and study how business works and operates. We are always improving something. My hope is that you can find a nugget that resonates, inspires or just makes you think in this episode.
Until next time friends,
Chris