.png)
The Path To Leadership
We podcast about strong leaders, loyal employees, avoiding burnout, and raising profits building strong cultures. Everyone is a leader, but the path isn't always easy. Developing critical skills to build stronger, more successful and profitable organizations.
The Path To Leadership
Building Connections and Resilience in Leadership with Heath Horyna
Discover the remarkable journey of Heath Horyna, whose career path took an unexpected turn from biologist to the Manager of Distribution Project Management at Evergy. Heath shares how a personal tragedy inspired him to seek new horizons, leading him from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to the electrical utility industry. His story is one of resilience, adaptability, and continuous growth, showcasing the power of leveraging past experiences to thrive in a new field. Gain insights into how Heath's regulatory knowledge and communication skills propelled him forward, proving that sometimes the most unexpected detours lead to the most fulfilling destinations.
In our compelling discussion, we also highlight the transformative impact of the Leadership Kansas program, a journey marked by profound connections and community engagement across the state. We delve into the art of navigating change and the pivotal role of communication in leadership, especially during transitional times. Learn strategies for fostering a supportive environment and implementing change with accountability and flexibility, ensuring growth and adaptation in any organizational setting. Whether you're leading a team or seeking personal development, this episode offers valuable lessons in leadership and adaptability.
Follow Catalyst Development on LinkedIn @catalystdevelopment and @drkatieervin
www.cdleaders.com
Learn more about Supervisor 101 at www.cdleaders.com/supervisor101
Theme music by Emma Jo https://emmajo.rocks/
Hi everyone, Welcome back to the Path to Leadership. I'm super excited about my guest today. It's another one of my Leadership Kansas classmates. Hey, Heath, how are you Good? Hi, Katie, Thank you for having me, Of course. Of course, I am so excited for our conversation. It's so funny because recently I recorded an episode with Josh and James and you know I say this with everyone it's like you're my favorite classmates. It's so hard to get you all into one spot because we've had so much fun together.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We are like a family, the more I think about it. We just met up here in Topeka and had a dinner and I felt like it was a family reunion. It is. We are definitely bonded for a while Forever.
Speaker 1:Yes, I agree, I agree. Well, before we jump into all of that, will you tell anyone who you are, what you do, all of that good stuff?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. My name is Heath Harina. I am the Manager of Distribution Project Management for Evergy. What I do is I help the organization and all my teammates manage our distribution construction projects. I always tell folks that we're right here in the center of America, but we focus here in Kansas and Missouri hugging the state lines in between both, both from Hutchinson to Sedalia. But my background has been in a lot of leadership but now focusing primarily on project management for construction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and so I know you have such an interesting story of how you got there, so can you share a little bit about your career journey and how you landed here?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. If I was to call myself when I first got out of college and said hey, heath, this is you from the future, a distribution project manager working for an electrical utility, I would answer and say I think you got the wrong number. This is Heath Harini you're talking to. Growing up, I followed dad's footsteps. I wanted to do everything that dad did. Dad was in the utility world, but he was in the water, wastewater world for cities and municipalities. Every time dad would go to work when I could, I'd follow him to work and he'd teach me all he could about working in the water and wastewater utility. So I thought that's where my career was headed. In fact, that's where I got it started was working for a municipality. I worked for the city of Hayesville and their wastewater department and I really enjoyed what I did.
Speaker 2:I came out of Southwestern College as a biologist, newly married and just ready to take the world by storm, learning as much as I could, applying my knowledge as far as I could, and I always wanted to learn more. I'm very inquisitive, sometimes to a fault I was very inquisitive, but I wanted to learn and grow as much as I could. I got involved with some of the management and some of the leadership there, as being part of some committees. And the organization in Kansas that oversees a lot of the environmental requirements was the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and I grew fascinated with that organization to be able to one be the regulator but also there for support. A lot of the folks I interacted with I learned a ton from, and the more I interacted I got you know I want to be a part of this. This is pretty amazing. You get to travel as the regulator but you also get to share your knowledge too, and I was fortunate enough to apply and be an environmental scientist for the state of Kansas, so I worked out of the Wichita office for eight years in their environmental department. I would travel multiple cities, a lot of the cities that we went to in Leadership Kansas. So it was a kind of a homecoming reunion for me a bit, because I got to do both. I got to see the manufacturing in Hutchinson, I got to see the manufacturing in Wichita, I got to tour facilities. A tour is part of the inspection process but do the facility tour and get to learn some of their management and learn people and then share some of my knowledge as the regulator and that was fun. Working for the state of Kansas that was amazing was growing and we were getting to the point where I was wanting to continue to grow and learn and continue to build my resume and I was looking for opportunities.
Speaker 2:An unfortunate event did happen when my wife was pregnant. We ran into some complications there and we were whisked away up to KU. As time went on, cameron was born and she's been our miracle child and she kind of is a demonstration to us that anything in this world is possible if you're just strong enough to fight for it. We did lose Kenzie in that and it took a toll for us and I kind of geared down a little harder and I gambled on myself and I said you know what, if we're going to do this, let's really look for some opportunities here.
Speaker 2:And Westar at the time had a position open up in their environmental department. I talked to my wife about it a little bit and she said well, if you feel like this is the right move for us, let's make it happen. And it was. The company has been amazing to me and my family. The opportunities came big In that journey. In between there I had served as a council member. So I got to hone my skills in communication quite a bit and I got to peek behind the curtains to see how municipalities and utilities work.
Speaker 2:From a regulator perspective you can see a lot, but when you're making the decisions also, it's a different story, it's a different feeling. So I got to take all that institutional knowledge I had and apply it to Westar. I didn't know much about the electrical utility. I knew the environmental rules really well and I knew a little bit about rate base and how rates at rate structures were set up. But the operational organization I'd never been a part of one.
Speaker 2:The family was living in Derby at the time and I was staying out of a hotel and I would stay late in the office at night and I would pull open file cabinets and I just start reading. I'd read as much as I could. I'd read books, I would read old files that we had submit for reports. I'd just try to learn as much as I possibly could. I knew what time I had to leave, because our janitorial staff would come in and they'd turn all the lights off. So I'd be sitting there at my desk reading. All of a sudden lights would go off. I'd go oh, that's my cue, I need to go. And then when the family moved up, we got our house up here and I still had that kind of drive, that dedication.
Speaker 2:I had this one golden opportunity. I tell myself don't screw it up. You have this chance to take the skills, the information that you gleaned from your father and all the other mentors that you've had. You know they've invested their time in you. Now's your time to pay it forward and to really take this to the next level. And so I really got interested in chemistry. And when you think of chemistry and electrical generation, a lot of folks don't associate the two very often. But in most of our steam-powered units they use water to create the steam. So you want to make sure you get the opportunity to lead Evergy's electrical generation chemistry fleet Some of the most remarkable people I've ever met in that process, because they've had to learn how to get the water to a state that is extremely clean, to go through this process and it's been through multiple opportunities of them just understanding and testing and analyzing their equipment, knowing what the best step is and the best process of treatment, and it was been so. I was very fortunate. I was leading some folks that were extremely intelligent and well put together. I was very impressed. So I had an opportunity to come over to distribution, which is interesting because my little brother also works in distribution.
Speaker 2:Distribution in the power world is probably the area that people are most familiar with, because it is where everybody's homes gets powered from. From a uh, from a step-by-step basis. All the power that we have is generated at our power plants and then that power goes into a substation and most of the substations in neighborhoods, where you have these structures sitting up and it's behind a fence and all these wires are coming in um, that's a substation, so it hits a substation. Then it goes to these big wires that are out in the middle of Kansas that we see when we're driving through these big we call them frame structures. That's our transmission, so those take the major power voltage and send it to the towns and then it takes a step down further and goes into distribution. It goes out to the residents.
Speaker 2:So I worked in the distribution portion, the portion where everybody's getting their power from, and so I'm moving from a place where I spent about 20 years of my experience in from a water chemistry perspective and get put into a project management perspective, and it was at that transition I had decided I am going to check one box off of my bucket list and I'm going to get my MBA If you need to learn more about the business instead of the chemistry, right.
Speaker 2:I went after my MBA and it helped me out tremendously and I had a ton of supporters here. With the company, I had a lot of opportunities to put what I was learning right to work and that was amazing. I just finished that up. It was right as Leadership Kansas was kicking off in May, or kicking off I guess and I was able to finish that up and I got to walk with my daughter, who was she's graduating high school. So we graduated on the exact same day at roughly the exact same time. So I did my graduation, I did hers and I gave her one of my pins that I got in college and she put that on her lapel and I go, you walked for both of us today and that was way more impactful to me than for me graduating or walking for graduation, and ever since then it has been a fun ride Been learning opportunity after learning opportunity and just giving back as much as I can to folks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, and I love your journey and you know, I tell everyone you know, leadership is that journey Like there's going to be experiences and opportunities and I appreciate you sharing all that and even the hard stuff that we take and we grow from, and it's not easy but it gets us to this really amazing spot that we're at with all the learning that we got.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, use it as a foundation, yeah, and know where it as a as a foundation and no, no, we came from as a source of strength.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. Well, and talking about leadership, kansas I mean that's this has been one of the cool things. It's funny, my husband said the other day. He said I love listening to the series where you're having all your classmates on Cause it's so fascinating, especially to hear how everyone's so different. I was just recently. I drove up to the middle of nowhere to hang out with our classmate, nick and his amazing team at INA Alert and do some leadership development for them leadership development for them. So can you talk a little bit about you know your experience in LK and kind of why you did it and what you took from it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I remember when I was asking other alumni you know, what is Leadership Kansas, what did you get out of it? And I heard myself in the response to that answer when I was thinking about this question. And I have a friend that's applying for Leadership Kansas this go-around and he asked me so what do you think of Leadership Kansas? What was your take on it? And I told him I go to be honest, I could talk to him about leadership every station that we were at for a long time. But if I was to give some of the best insight, or my best insight, of what is leadership cancer, what did I think about my journey? I would probably summarize it as it is one of the greatest experiences that I've had professionally and it's going to be even better if you continue to apply yourself to it.
Speaker 2:Some of the facilities and cities we went into we got to look behind the curtain a little bit and meet some of the movers and shakers. And when we first started off on our journey, I was so excited Going to Dodge City. We're going to Garden City, but Dodge City. I celebrated my birthday with everybody. They sang me happy birthday. That was great and the relationships that we were building in each one of these communities. We were finding some communities like in Dodge City. It was Garden City. No, dodge City had taken some of the byproducts that they were using. Wait a second.
Speaker 1:Let's ask.
Speaker 2:Garden. I'm getting the two cities mixed up now. Wait a second, let's ask Gar. I'm getting the two cities mixed up now, Taking some of the byproducts that they were using and turning it into a reusable fuel that was going back to the gas lines. Going up to Manhattan, getting into the helicopter tour down to Wichita and then Eldorado Correctional Facility and meeting with some of those leaders.
Speaker 2:Some of the best things that I took away from was knowing that we have all of these resources and all of these amazing minds and all these amazing leaders, all these protectors around us at all times working, and we made so many connections as leadership continued and I was connecting with a lot of these leaders that we had met, a lot of the messages that they had, and I'm looking across the bus going.
Speaker 2:You know, this bus is full of movers and shakers too. These are some of the key players that are keeping Kansas running, whether it's from education and training that you're doing, Katie, whether it's from education and training like that you're doing, Katie, to to those that are creating some, some communication and securities for us, those who are working in humanities or those who are working in our community and making sure businesses are being structured correctly and being a resource for them. I mean it was amazing, it was eye-opening to kind of have that experience. So Leadership Kansas had a profound effect on me and an impact on me. The things that I hang on to the most are the fact that this is a state of some well-run individuals who have got a huge resource and a significant amount of leadership to provide for the state. We're moving in a great direction. There's a lot of good things happening here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree, and it's funny. I forget who I was talking to recently Maybe it was Josh and we were talking about. It's hard to put into words, like it's just this, this feeling and this like hope and and connection and and family all across the state. I mean, it's just, it's funny because just this past week, you know, I was up with Nick and then I was down in Pittsburgh with some of our classmates down there and planning actually to come up to Topeka here in a couple of weeks and my son's going to Wichita and so it's like, oh, who from Leadership Kansas is in the area that I need to make sure that I have a meal with or just get to see or whatever, and so it's just a really neat connection to be able to now have it. And it is an exciting time because people are submitting their applications for next year and I was, before we jumped on, writing a letter recommendation for a good friend and it's like, oh, I can't wait for the next group to experience what we got to experience.
Speaker 2:Yes, that very first day I think it was Michelle had said like there's a prize, or try to be that first person to memorize everybody's name. And I was looking across and like, oh my goodness, I don't think I'm ever going to do that. Now there's a name I can't forget.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, there's 40 names I will never forget. Yeah, it is the class that we create the Wolfpack. We are a Wolfpack, we are tight. Create the Wolfpack. We are a Wolfpack, we are tight. And it's amazing and honored to be a part of our class, but also to have had the opportunity that every organization opened their doors up to us and we were fortunate enough to hear their story and what they have gone through. That definitely helps paint a stronger picture to Kansas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree, and it's so interesting when you think about our Leadership Kansas class and the Wolfpack that we created and your role at Evergy. It really requires you to build those strong and effective teams. So how do you do that as a leader of your team? How do you build your strong teams?
Speaker 2:It's a great question. Some of the approaches that I've used have been the very first thing is know what the expectations are. Let that be the foundation of how you're building your team. So, starting with either your leader, or maybe it's the mission, vision, values that you have in front of you, but know what those are, let that set in and then know how are you going to add value to that. Once you get those fundamental understandings of your organization down, or maybe your team down whether it's a nonprofit team or you're just kind of creating a quick subcommittee know what the foundation is and then align your team to the strengths of what the uh, the deliverables are.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I there was a book that I was reading one time uh, five levels of leadership, I think it was. There was a story within that but very true and I think I reflect back on it quite a bit um, where they were watching a basketball team, uh, and all these basketball players were players, were shooting, and they decided let's put these guys in the right spot and once they got to the right spot, some pretty good things were happening. So, finding the strengths of your team and then taking those strengths and getting them in the right position, being successful, because when folks are batting 1,000 each time, when they're doing really good at something that they're really good at, they're excited to do it again. And I'm that way anyway. If I'm really good at creating code and I have an opportunity to really express myself in creating code, that's where I want to be. Don't put me in a doctor's office doing prescriptions.
Speaker 1:I have no idea what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 2:That wouldn't be very good. But aligning me with the position that highlights my skills and not so much my weaknesses. So building effective teams, knowing what the rules are and then aligning those team members with it and creating a scorecard, creating something they can see what progress looks like. Am I doing the right thing? And continuing to feed them with the right resources? And making sure you're tooled up with the right resources too. Whether it's as simple as having a calculator and a writing pad down or the right computer, having internet connection, you know making sure their team is getting tooled up correctly.
Speaker 2:And probably one of the biggest things that I've been fortunate enough to have given to me is grace giving, letting people have the opportunity to extend as far as they can and if they make a mistake, talk to them about if a mistake was made. But know that that's part of the growing process giving that grace and being responsible, but also giving them the opportunity to maximize their capabilities and their role. Yeah, build those effective teams. And I would say, lastly, just open communication. That's the glue that keeps us all together effectively communicating and knowing who to communicate with and how.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and I think those are all so important and I know we've talked about this before and I've asked you this question just flat out. I am always so inspired by your positivity and growth mindset and like who I aspire to be on my best and worst days, and there's some days now, since we know each other, that it's almost like what would Heath do in this moment. And so can you talk a little bit about why positivity is so important to you and kind of your philosophy behind that?
Speaker 2:I think positive. It's always been a part of my ethos. I've always been a positive guy. At one point in time young, young in my career I want to be a comedian, a stand up comedian. Nothing brings me more joy than seeing somebody smile or making them laugh. I'm not adverse to having that hard conversation, but I would much rather see people smile and I know there's probably studies out there that say whenever people are in a positive attitude they're more engaging. And I know I am. I know when I'm feeling good, I got a good smile on my face, things are looking up, I'm going to have a good day.
Speaker 2:I had a leader one time. Tell me if you're coming to work one day and whether somebody cuts you off or you got a phone call you weren't expecting or something went wrong. Think about that very first day. You got your job. You got the phone call. Hey, you got the job, how excited you were. And do a quick check. Are you feeling that way or are you 180 from that? If you're 180 from that, maybe take a walk around the block or maybe a Maybe give yourself a few minutes to kind of get recalibrated. If you're still not calibrated, maybe take a day.
Speaker 2:Positivity spreads well, but negativity also spreads a little too fast. But I've always gleaned towards being positive and the alternative is not that great and I think the more positive, especially from a leader's perspective and it it grows substantially. It's also important to, I think, make sure you're capturing the zeitgeist of the room correctly and you want to be genuine in your approach. If it's a serious, you know, if you, if you're in a serious decision-making situation, uh, coming in overly positive might not be the right angle to come in at. So you definitely got to read the room pretty good. But if it's at the core of who, you are just making sure it's genuine and making sure that it's being received correctly. There have been times that people go. Are you genuinely this happy or are you fighting back something? I go? No, no, this is just me at my core. I am going to make somebody smile eventually, but maybe not right now. That's that's generally where it comes from. I love coming to work happy and I love going home happy. It makes me sleep easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think you're so right and I think you know when you think about and some of my doctoral research is on employee satisfaction and happiness at work and it's true, you know, when we're happier, we're more engaged. We, you know we were more motivated, like all of those things are, so are so true and I think it's so interesting too, as a leader and this is something that I know you work really hard on is bringing people from all different backgrounds and experiences together. How do you help your teams feel connected and engaged and, you know, involved in the work they do?
Speaker 2:That's a good question and I would say, depending on the scenario, but in general it's making sure they're informed, making sure they know how we're adding value to the overall impact of the organization or the project that we're working on. How is what they're doing important to what the next phase or next step is? And having those open conversations. Keeping open door policy is also very important. If you have a scenario where one of your team members is working on something and they're like, oh my goodness, I got a question I need to talk to Heath about hot dog, this is I think I'm in a bind here and you're not available it could stick with them the rest of the day and really impact their performance as they finish out the rest of the day and really impact their their performance as they finish out the rest of the day maybe the rest of the week if you're not available. But having that open door gives them that opportunity to be, to have that conversation with you.
Speaker 2:I I always tell people I got a a standing rule Don't rest unrested. If you have something on your mind, call me. I got a phone. If I don't care if it's midnight, if it's something that's really preying on you and you can't get past it. Whether it's something at work, I ask you to do something at work. Or if it's a ball game and you've got to be there early, we've got to be there late. I don't know what we're supposed to do. Call me, I'm perfectly fine with that, because I guarantee I was in the same position once before. It's not a good feeling to not be able to get clear direction on whether you're doing something right or wrong. So having that open door, I think, definitely helps build that level of engagement.
Speaker 2:But one of the biggest things I found beneficial on it and I think leaders talk about this all the time just demonstrating it when, um, when something comes up and it doesn't go as planned, uh, being the first one to say I'm responsible for that taking, giving credit, but taking. I don't so much want to say blame. Uh, it's funny. My team will say, uh, I never say challenge, I always say opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I've always been like the I think it was, is it? Nelson Mandela says I never win or I never lose. I always win or learn. I love that saying. I am the exact same way, but if something does go awry, I, if it's on my team, it's my responsibility and I want my team members or folks that are working closely with my team to be able to work with some creative freedom within their lanes, but also some creative freedom that they can put themselves out there and not worry about whether or not they're in a situation they can't get out of.
Speaker 2:So keeping that open communication, but also letting them know I got your back, we're going to make it through this, all right, and if we don't, we'll take a step back and figure out where we didn't do right and not do that again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and you talk so much about communication and connection and relationships, and I'm fascinated because so much of your career has been about change, management and growth, and we know change is not always easy and it's scary, and we're in a time where there's just so much change going on. So how do you effectively implement change within your organization, your team, community, just all over? What are some tips and tricks we can use?
Speaker 2:So some things that I automatically think of is I know that change is not easy, because I know I myself, once I get a process working, once I get a system set up, this is my baby, right, I got this rolling.
Speaker 2:This thing is set up just fine. Is my baby right? This is this? I got this wrong. This thing is, this thing is set up just fine. Um, it changes hard. And understand you recognize, you know, whatever we're about ready to do, if we're going to make a change big, medium, large or small, um it it just recognizing this change is going to impact somebody. Um, more than likely it's going to impact the group actually making the change, but it could be impacting other support groups that are affected by the change.
Speaker 2:So, acknowledging that this is going to be hard, also saying I'm going to give some grace, ready to roll out, or what we're about ready to dive into is going to. We could be changing legacy operations, we could be changing something that has been in place since the organization first started. So honoring that and giving folks time and getting some buy-in. So start your journey with a well-known plan of action or a well-known statement that this is what we're working on gang. So, if we're going to stand up this new tool everybody knows the tool, why the tool, what we're planning on doing, how we plan on getting to it and then getting some involvement, getting some buy-in from all your major stakeholders saying, hey, we couldn't do this without the work that you've done in the past. And so I want you on my team to help me figure out how do we take this to the next level. And then, if it's not working, let's keep a list of things that's not working, let's go revisit it and be open with if you make a change and it's not the right one, owning that, say you know what. We gave this, this a try. It didn't quite work. Um, let's take a step back and see where did it fail. And continuing to, to involve folks in that process.
Speaker 2:Uh, change management, uh, in some situations sometimes it goes just perfectly smooth and everything goes great. I I would love to figure out how those things happen, because not always change management does great, but having those structures in place, having a process in place, having it known in place. Some of the times where change management has a tendency to fail is where big, critical items fail. There was no clear plan established. There was no communication cadence established. There were too many moving parts. You tried to change too much. Um, think big, start small, yeah, and your way up to that, and and maybe, thinking big, the big component. It could be months, weeks, months, years down the road.
Speaker 2:Uh, and be comfortable with that transition. If it is something that has to be done on the hot step and you know you have to start this process and end it in a window that you had not foreseen communicate that out and let them know. Let folks know this is going to be bumpy, but we will get to this end point. And when we get to the end point it may not be where we need to be and we may end up maybe 180 from that, but it's because we learned through this process together and then we'll continue to grow this process. So, starting with a plan, having a clear communication cadence, being comfortable with ending with a product that you may not originally thought you needed or didn't end up originally the way you did end up the way you originally planned it, and and always looking for ways to have a having grace worked into the components. No, you're going to change. Something is and it's going to be, detrimental to somebody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and I love you know you talk about grace and I think it's so interesting, not just in change management but day to day, but especially in change management like we're so we're so afraid to fail, we're so afraid it's not going to go the right way or, you know, it makes us uncomfortable, and so we're so focused on the process that we forget the, the people and the things, and and what we know today may not be the right decision in three, six, nine months. And so, being being willing to pivot, I think sometimes we're afraid to even just pivot because that means we failed and it's like no, it means we're evolving is what it means.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, and and being able to to take that in. I would tell folks I go, take information as data. I go, you're going to get two results the results you want, or data to help you get the results that you want. Don't look at it as, oh, I failed, just like you said. Wait, I didn't fail this. This is the outputs that I end up getting because of the inputs that I put into. It Wasn't what I actually looked for, so maybe I got to either change my inputs to get different outputs or maybe the output's better than what I wanted. So yeah, taking data in, processing it and saying, okay, this is step two, just like a football game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree. Well, and so I asked the same question of everybody at the end of the show. This has turned into one of my favorite questions, to the level you're comfortable sharing what's the biggest leadership or career misstep or mistake that you've made?
Speaker 2:That's a good one. We could probably have a whole show, I think I think one that I think about the most is over the years, particularly with. I do feel like I had a boost in my career because of my father. He was in the industry for a long time when he started mentoring me. So by the time I got into a position to where I was in a leadership role, or I was in a position to make change happen in a leadership role, or I was in a a position to make change happen.
Speaker 2:Um, I, I was, I was excited. It was really okay, let's do this, let's get our hands dirty. I, I feel like I can connect with everybody, I feel like I can get into this and I and I just go, I make things happen. Um, and, uh, sometimes you go too fast. Yeah, you don't want to go too fast here. I would always hear it as your eyes are bigger than your tummy. You know you go and try to get so much and you're doing good work and you got the. You got the best nature in mind to to get things happening, but sometimes you're rushing to a little quickly. So in those situations I got to take a step back and go. Okay, what is our overall goal here? What do we want to accomplish and how do we want to do it?
Speaker 2:Because sometimes going fast is slow and sometimes going slow is fast, so I always got to keep that in the back of my mind. I'm excited. I really want to help folks. I really want to be a part of the solution. I'm excited. I really wanna help folks. I really wanna be a part of the solution. I really want to get to a point where we made things better.
Speaker 2:Whatever it is, it has improved because of what we're doing and if you go too quickly to that, it can have the reverse effect. At times. You can come in with a positive attitude. Now you may have rubbed folks the wrong way because you're trying to oh, I got this new widget that's gonna help you out so much. Attitude. Now, you, you may have rubbed folks the wrong way because you're trying to. You know, I got this new widget that's going to help you out so much. And like, oh, wow, you just crashed my whole systems that I was working on and I don't know what it is that you're trying to do. Um, so, uh, so, starting slow, having conversations, uh, and still having that same energy, still having the positivity, uh, in in any scenario. Um, and I've coached some folks on this if you want to be positive or if you're a positive person.
Speaker 2:You're working around somebody that's bringing kind of some good energy, some good positive energy, which is great. But you also want to be productive as well. You want to know the difference between movement and progress. You want to know that you're adding that value to it and you want to make sure you're doing it in a way that is helping those around you and people want to work with you. You could be very positive and feel like you're productive, but you're not going anywhere and folks aren't keen to working in that kind of environment, and so you're not doing yourself any good.
Speaker 2:So if you kind of stay positive, you move in a productive manner that's showing progress, and you're doing it in a way that's attracting folks. Folks want to work around you and you're collecting it and you're doing it in a way where you're performing your job at the best level. Doing it in a way where you're performing your job at the best level, do everything, the best you can, every single day, for your role to add value to the overall objective. Your group leaders or your team leaders everybody's going in that same direction. Good things happen. They might not happen today, they might not happen tomorrow, and I'm sure if folks do the polar opposite, they'll see career progression. That could be a gamble of long odds too. I'd much rather be in the boat where I'm having a good time. People around me are having a good time, we're all being productive and we're all meeting expectations, and that's a team anybody can come to work on, happy and go to bed and have a good weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I love that so much and I am so thankful. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me and with my listeners, and I just I look forward for us to continue this conversation as part of the Leadership Kansas alumni but, more importantly, as friends. So I just really appreciate you. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really enjoyed Good good, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you everyone for joining me this week on the path to leadership, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye, everyone.
