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The Build a Vibrant Culture Podcast brings together amazing leaders, entrepreneurs, and experts to share the successes, challenges, and secrets to living and leading as a VIBRANT Leader.
Tune-in each week as Nicole Greer interviews a new Vibrant Leader.
Email her at nicole@vibrantculture.com
Nicole x Megan Cook
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Nicole Greer: [00:00:00] Welcome everybody to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. My name is Nicole Greer and they call me the Vibrant Coach and I am here with an another vibrant, amazing, full of light kind of guest. Her name is Megan Cook. Let me tell you all about her. Megan Cook is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in business administration, leadership, and human resources as Co Founder and Chief Administrative Officer of Happy Companies, which I can't even tell you how much I love the name of her company.
Megan finds joy in helping others build exceptional teams and coaching those around her to excel. She believes that at the heart of every organization is its people, and that breaking down barriers through understanding fosters deeper connections, which is ultimately the key to personal and professional growth.
I couldn't agree more. Megan thrives on connecting with her team as a self professed data nerd. She is, she also loves diving into the numbers and spreadsheets because there's truth in those [00:01:00] numbers. In her role, Megan oversees critical functions, such as HR, finance, and administration, administrative operations at Happy Companies, ensuring that companies backbone remind, remains strong and agile.
She also collaborates closely with the Happy Science Team on the Happy Assessment and Happy Work Styles, which aim to understand and improve workplace behaviors and dynamics. Megan works with the team to ensure that the behavioral science behind the Happy Assessment is robust, sound and effective. Her goal in life is to ignite passion in everyone, helping them feel understood and empowered and to be their best selves, what I would call letting people shine. In her work at Happy Companies Megan remains committed to pushing the boundaries of how teams can communicate, collaborate and work more effectively together. Please welcome to the show, the Co Founder of Happy Companies, Megan , how are you?
Megan Cook: Thank you so much. I'm doing great. Thank you for the warm welcome. [00:02:00] I'm very excited to be here.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, we are so glad to have you and I think that the work you and I do is so aligned. We think that vibrant and happy are synonymous. So we're in great shape. I think I have my, you know, my maybe my sister from another mother, a much younger, a much younger sister, but nonetheless, so I am so glad you're here.
And so the first question I always ask kind of out of the gate, I'm collecting definitions of leadership. Just tell me a little bit about your thoughts about leadership.
Megan Cook: So for me, leadership comes from a very service minded place. I have a strong connection to servant leadership. And so my definition of leadership is really like meeting people where they need us to be.
Um, and so I think part of the importance of leadership, right? To be really effective leader is this idea of being able to motivate and get people and inspire them to do the things that we need them to do. And that could be on a football field that could be in a classroom and [00:03:00] that could be in a business and organization.
Um, and, uh, I think part of the challenge that comes with that really is that, um, oftentimes people feel like, oh, you're just trying to get me to do something. There's like almost like a manipulation. There, and it doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel like a, uh, coming from a place of, um, you know, engaged leadership, and so really like for, for my focus on leadership, it comes about being very people centric, understanding your team, understanding the needs that they have and putting those, you know, primary and center into the business and the organization from every aspect of strategy.
And again, just like really intentionally meeting others where they need us to be in the moment.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. I love what you're saying. Yeah. I, I, I think, you know, uh, that old saying, uh, that, that, you know, like people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. [00:04:00] Yes. I mean, you know, it's kind of that thing, right?
Like,
Megan Cook: I love that quote. Yes.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. Yeah. And it's like we, we know that you're the boss and everything. You're the leader, but like, do you emote this feel of caring and that, I mean, really that's what it is that emo that emoting of emotion of care is a difference, uh, between the manipulation and the servant leadership piece. Yeah. Oh, I love, I love your answer. Okay. Everybody write that down and have, Hey, if you want, if you want a good classic read, go get Robert Greenleaf's book, Servant Leadership. Pull that thing out. Give it a read. That should be on your bookshelf. All you leaders out there. Well, I'm curious about you.
Can you tell us about your journey in the field of human resources? I've got a lot of human resource folks that listen to this podcast and what inspired your focus on people leadership and organizational coaching?.
Megan Cook: I would say that's a shift that probably happened in the last, uh, you know, seven to ten years, really. Um,_ I think_ [00:05:00] initially my career started the way a lot of people in HR's career starts and administrative careers where I was very compliance minded.
And I was all about, I can make the most detailed process and I'm going to be able to track, you know, every deliverable in the most effective way, and, um, I, and that's not to take away the importance of compliance. I think that that's a really important aspect of Human Resources. I think it's definitely something that, you know, continues to be, um, you know, center to kind of the foundation of HR.
But what was what I started to realize is that at the end of the day, you know, people are in every organization and an understanding people understanding diverse work teams understanding how to build strong teams and connections solved, you know, almost every problem that could possibly come up when, when you're looking to really build a healthy organization and a strong and [00:06:00] vibrant culture, right?
So, so many of these challenges that organizations come into on a day to day basis, if you, if you break it down, they're people problems. And so focusing on people leadership, and putting that people center, um, to your strategic objectives, putting it to the center of, you know, everything that you're doing on a day to day basis as a leader and as a team suddenly begins to open up a whole new world in terms of understanding and relationships and the ability to, you know, engage with your team and in a different way. And so I think that that was part of that journey for me was having to push myself. I'm, um, you know, if you're, if anybody is familiar with Happy, the assessment that we spoke about that you mentioned earlier.
Um, the Happy Assessment it's rooted in DISC, which is another really well known, um, assessment. And, um, you know, you have all the, yeah. So I, I'm a, I, that was one of the turning points [00:07:00] for me was I, um, James, my co founder, I came on board at a different company that we worked at together and, um, he had me take a DISC assessment and really started to like dive into, you know, helping me kind of understand myself. I, uh, had a lot of goals that I wanted to accomplish and realized that I had to be able to kind of get uncomfortable with some of the things that might have been my natural approach and getting to push myself outside of that natural approach and to be able to do that I had to understand my team better.
I had to understand the people I was working with. I had to understand myself and the impact that I had on them and to be able to kind of understand them. And so that's the root of kind of pushing me into that um, mind spaces. As James and I were developing Happy Companies we really were thinking, you know, how can we just help people understand each other?
How it's been so beneficial to us. We felt like it really [00:08:00] was a game changer in terms of our ability to build relationships with each other and strong teams. And so that's great, but we felt a real passion for being able to bring that to every organization and, um, help everybody's, you know, work relationships become healthier, stronger, improve communication, and then being able to kind of see at the end of that, there's also really amazing business outcomes that can be attached to that process. Um, so it was a, it started with a journey of self reflection first and foremost, and then understanding, uh, you know, how transformative that was, and then really building a desire and a passion to help create that experience for other people and other teams.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah. And, and so, uh, one of the things that I truly believe in is self reflection like Megan is talking about. So, um, I don't know what y'all do every single morning when you get up out of bed, but I spend the [00:09:00] first hour of every day sitting in a chair, uh, thinking about how did yesterday go and what do I want to have happen today?
And I think that that's huge. And then also, um, this idea of stopping and saying, you know, what's my personality? Yeah. Absolutely. Right, and so that's what your assessment does. Do I have my story right?
Megan Cook: Yeah, so it is very similar in some ways in terms of the foundation of it to a DISC assessment. And, and I say this coming from a place of being essentially assessment agnostic.
Of course, I, you know, I feel really passionately about Happy Assessments. But we also understand that there's a lot of different, um, types of assessments that are out there. Um, but what we think that Happy is doing, that's really powerful is taking that and putting it into a platform that kind of like drives it down to every member of your organization and makes it really accessible.
So it's exactly that you go through the process. It's a very quick process. You get a work style that everybody within your company has access to. And then really [00:10:00] the, like the big game changer is this idea of, you know, now within Happy the system understands me, it understands you, and it can provide personalized coaching to both of us based off of our different work styles.
And that's kind of that foundation again, of really like, how do we better understand each other? So if I'm going into a meeting and I'm, and I know I'm going into a meeting with somebody that has a, a, a fairly different style than me, maybe I'm a very data-centric person. I ask a lot of questions, which sometimes can, uh, annoy people because they want to just like move forward and move it along.
And I like to drive into like every little detail, but there's, you know, other work styles out there. That what they need from me in that moment is to put the questions to the side, to enjoy the moment of, um, you know, creativity and innovation and not start to like break down the process yet. Let's just have an opportunity to dream.
[00:11:00] And that is, you know what I mean? Yeah. And, and so. It helped me learn like, don't go in and rain on someone's parade right away. Right. Like, let's, like, there are different things that people need. Not that that was ever my intention. I, you know, it was never an,
Nicole Greer: Of course not
Megan Cook: intention. Yeah. But there's this difference between, you know, our perception and other people's perception of our behaviors.
And so the ability to kind of go in and have that understanding and that preparation, um has been really powerful, and I think that that's, um, you know, ultimately what we're trying to do. You hit it on the head. It's a, it's a tool to help teams better understand each other.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, there's this old adage, everybody listening, you probably know this one. But there's this, saying that goes do unto others, um, you know, as they would like to be done unto right?
Um, and. I think that's huge. It's the platinum role. You know, there's do unto others as you would like to be done unto, that one, but I, I like this one, uh, [00:12:00] as well. I think they're both good, but do unto others as they would like to be done unto. So yeah.
Megan Cook: It's amazing that you mentioned that because really that was one of the very first lessons that I learned all those years ago when I took that first assessment and I was going through this self reflective process.
And at the time that was that platinum rule is something that the leadership coach that we were working with, you know, really helped me understand is it's like, you can't go into a conversation and approach it the way that you would want the part, the other party to, you know, deal with you. You have to approach it in a way that's going to be effective to communicating with them.
Because ultimately, you know, If you can't get the message across, then then that's on the communicator, right? So we have to make adjustments and we have to shift and we have to adapt in order to be able to, like, here to put the message out in a way that they're going to be able to receive, you know, as it's intended. And I thought that was such a powerful lesson of just kind of that paradigm shift of Oh, wow.
Okay. I need to [00:13:00] really look at this from a different perspective. And, um, and that was, that was exactly that quote was one of the things that really like kind of propelled my thinking forward and how to, to work on building these better, stronger relationships.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, yeah. And so, um, you said you were, uh, assessment agnostic, and I am just like the gospel of assessments, um, which, you know, I just, I love them.
I'm certified in so many of them because the way I look at them is that, um, you know, they, they're just different mirrors. Like you're going to the circus and there's all these funhouse mirrors or the carnival, and there's all these, you know, the one that makes you look a little wider, one that makes you look tall and skinny, one that makes your face look weird.
You know, assessments won't make you look taller, skinnier, weirder, but what they will do is help you go, Oh, Do I do that? Yes. Yeah. Is, is that, is that sometimes the experience of me? So you know, Megan, one of my favorite questions I ask clients is, what is it [00:14:00] like to experience you? And most times they're like, isn't that a powerful question?
So put that in your, put that in your question pocket. Yeah. Put that in your question pocket. But it's like, people say to me all the time like, oh, I never really thought about that. And I'm like, well, it's high time you did because, you know, the experience of you is going to be, you know, I love what you said.
It's on the communicator, you know, so either you're helping this situation or you're hurting it. I mean, that's just how it is. And so just help be a helper. Yeah. Servant leadership, you know, is what Megan's favorite thing. Okay. Yeah. All right. So I love your journey so far. Okay. So you've been a strong advocate from shifting HR from compliance centric.
So let's just pause. Cause you, you tapped around it, you talked about a little bit, but compliance centric. So I have this thing where I'm talking to HR people, we have to stop being the principal's office. Is that what you mean? That's what I mean. [00:15:00] Okay. Yeah. Right. It's like, people are like, I got to go to HR and like, they fear it and they're like, it's like.
Megan Cook: Scary. Yeah. There.
Nicole Greer: Oh, that's terrible.
Megan Cook: There moments in my career where I would be like, Hey, can I have a meeting with you? And you see someone's face drop , and they're like, oh no, I don't . You know what I do? What's it about? Suddenly like that. And that's, that's not, you know, that, that's not really the, the purpose of HR and when we're really like, you know, utilizing it in, in its best sense.
And that's not HR in a company that has a strong, happy, vibrant. culture. Because they're meant to be, um, you know, in a position to represent and advocate and all of these powerful things. And, um, I think oftentimes we kind of get stuck in this box where it's like, we become a roadblock, you know, and I, and I, you know, but have been guilty of that, not again, not to take away there.
Of course, there's so many things that are in place because they are really important to workplaces and [00:16:00] there's parts of HR and that compliance side of it that that have to happen. What's amazing now is there's so many cool tools that allow us to kind of automate some of those processes in certain ways.
And so we can put a little bit more focus on the people within the organization. But I think just being very intentional about making sure that, you know, we're shifting it so that that's not solely the, the, the box that we are in or the place that we're operating from, because we want the workplace to be compliant, but we also want our employees to feel motivated and engaged and excited to be there and connected to a mission and connected to a vision. And so there's a lot of other aspects of, you know, how you can build an organization and really focus on that engagement and culture part of it, um, that are powerful and really important to having like driving true organizational success.
And I think that's a [00:17:00] big component of it.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, I totally agree. So, uh, this idea of shifting from being compliance principal's office to like, maybe even having fun when you visit HR, um, and so I, I think that that's an important thing. And I just want to share a quick story. I know a HR director, her name is Ruth.
And whenever you go to her HR, uh, office, she's got like, this wheel carnival wheel and you spin it and it lands on Milky Way or whatever and you get the Milky Way or, you know, she's just, she's got something fun going on in the office all the time. She bought this popcorn machine and like, everybody knows that she pops popcorn, like in the afternoon at two o'clock.
So sit by and get a bag of fresh popcorn, you know, and it's just little things like that, that, um, you know, kind of shift it and then just, you know. Just being friendly, I think is a big thing. All my HR friends, smile at people. Yeah.
Megan Cook: What Ruth is doing is she's building an opportunity for connection [00:18:00] and she's building an opportunity for trust, right?
So it's, it's as simple as popcorn, but really what you're doing is you're having an opportunity to engage with the team and to create a space for now. They feel comfortable to approach. They feel like they're working in a place where it's safe to go to, you know, whoever the HR director is and, and have those conversations.
And so some of those things, you know, are, are so simple, but it's, you know, you're able to kind of create those connections with the team and, and really like so powerful because now it's breaking down that barrier between, you know, different types of teams.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So fantastic. So in your experience, what are some of the key elements that contribute to like a happy, vibrant organizational culture and how, how can we address these?
Like so I've got HR people going, okay, order the popcorn machine, get some [00:19:00] Happy Assessments cooking around here. You got three things to do already, people. All right. So, so how would you, uh, what key elements would you kind of put to work?
Megan Cook: You know, I think a lot of that is some of the things that we've touched on before, but that trust building, right?
So creating that trust within your team. Um, it's very central to a lot of the other things that you need in order to be effective. So to have good communication, you need to have trust, right? In order to have good collaboration, you need to have trust. And in order to build that trust, again, we really need to be able to, to best understand each other.
So I feel that Vibrant happy cultures are built on that, like trust that communication clarity. I think clarity is a really important thing. So finding ways to explain the mission or the goals or the expectations in a way that fits the person that you're speaking to. So kind of going back to that, like, how am I communicating this to [00:20:00] the part to this individual, am I doing it in a way where they're able to, like, really hear and absorb it. Because we're not on the same page we're not going to be working effectively together, and if we're not working effectively together, it just doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel, um, you know, like the type of place that we want to be every day.
And so that's why. part of what we're trying to help establish. And with this, you know, AI enhanced coaching tool that we've created is this ability to kind of support this continuous learning and relationship building that we feel are really like the foundation of that thriving culture.
Nicole Greer: That's fantastic.
All right. So here are the things we need to work on. Trust, communication, clarity, and making people feel good. So I just want to throw this out here to enhance what Megan is saying. So back in the day, 2007, I took a coaching course got a certificate and it's such a simple concept, but I don't think leaders often think about it. But all day long people are somewhere on this thing that I was taught is called the [00:21:00] feeling scale. And so I mean one minute I'm happy the next minute I'm angry the next minute I'm frustrated the next minute I'm happy again, so, you know Thank Pete. You're going up and down all the time, right? You know, on this feeling scale. Um, but I think that that thing of servant leadership that Megan mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, um, and then just kind of like Ruth's example that I shared a minute ago is about you know, leave people better than you found them, you know, so, so take them up the feeling scale.
So just, just as a little, um, uh, moment here of teaching, uh, draw an arrow that's going up and down. There's a carrot on the top and a carrot on the bottom, the carrot on the top, uh, the top feeling I've ever heard, you know, like I, if you've got a better one, Megan shouted out, but Yeah, that's like the best feeling word I've ever found.
Okay. And then the, the bottom word is not a joke. Megan and I as HR professionals, we'll tell you, um, it's suicidal [00:22:00] and that's not, that's the real deal. There's a lot of that going on. Okay. And the joke is, you know, how do people, you greet them at work. What do they say? How are you doing? I'm fine. And I think fine is closer to suicidal than it is to euphoric.
Megan Cook: I agree. Yeah.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. And so, you know, you don't have to have popcorn, you don't have to have a spinny wheel, but you can have like a smile and you can have this thing where like you're checking in on people.
Megan Cook: Yes.
Nicole Greer: And when people say, how do I build trust? Yeah, it's like, just check in on people. So I, like today I have a coworker, her name is Jennifer and she went to one of our job sites this morning and it's, like I said, there's a hurricane coming through North Carolina, everybody.
And I just texted her and I said, you good? You safe? You all right? And she's like, good, good, good. I'm like, okay. You know? So it's, that's as simple as that. Right?
Megan Cook: Yeah. Yeah. And then at a leadership perspective, helping really to like push that messaging down to the, to throughout the entire organization, right?
[00:23:00] So it's not just coming from like the HR leadership perspective, but our, our managers having these meaningful conversations, how often are we checking in? You know, is your one on one just a checklist of. your tasks or are you asking people, how are you feeling? Do you feel supported? Is there, is there things that you need from me?
And, you know, more and more, what I've kind of discovered is that there's a lot of organizations that have the very best of intentions when they're promoting up, but they're, they're not necessarily going through the process of truly, uh, training and providing guidance to new managers on how to deal with a team, because it's more the responsibility of a manager.
It really is a little bit more than just, hey, make sure that this project gets done. You have humans now that collectively report to you and there's feelings and emotions that are attached to that. And so, you know, helping to kind of drive that messaging [00:24:00] down throughout the organization's leadership and management to make it more effective at scale, I think is, is really important as well.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, and so, um, uh, just a simple, shameless shout out, one of the things, uh, that we do at Build a Vibrant Culture is we have this class, and it's called Employee Performance Management, which is a key HR thing, but we're not teaching our managers, to Megan's point, and it's a whole class about how do I have a one on one.
Yes, because we're like, have one on ones and everybody's like, okay, okay, they're all doing it differently.
Megan Cook: There's not. Yes. Yeah, I completely agree. There's, it can be very unstructured and there's not necessarily a purpose and maybe it's just very focused in one area. Dealing with human beings and dealing with a team of people is you have to be able to have a dynamic approach.
And I think that that is a place that I, you know, I'm really seeing that if we can start to tap into that and help companies understand how powerful it is to, [00:25:00] to really get your managers to engage with their teams effectively. Um, the, how, you know, that will directly tie towards those business outcomes that we, you know, we often see the, the business leadership that's so focused on. Those business outcomes come from the way that people behave, right?
The actions that people take. So all of the business outcomes are attached to the, to the people. So focusing on that is going to, um, essentially drive those business outcomes in a, in a stronger way.
Nicole Greer: Okay. So everybody write that down. All business outcomes are, say it again.
Well, now I can't. I relate it.
Megan Cook: All business outcomes. Here we go. Yeah. I relate it. Come from the actions and behaviors of people. Yeah.
Nicole Greer: Okay. All right. That is totally tweetable and Instagrammable. Everybody write that down. Okay. And you know what? One thing I always think, Megan, is like, you know, I'll talk to leaders and I'm like, okay yeah. Process, procedure, widgets, production, sales, whatever. But like, if everybody in your company got picked up [00:26:00] by alien state, nothing's going to happen. I mean, you have to have the humans.
Megan Cook: Yeah. Yes. That's right. Yeah.
Nicole Greer: And so, so, and so here's the thing. Don't promote people to people managers. If they don't like people, that's what
Megan Cook: I could not agree more. Yeah, I think that that's a shift that needs to kind of change a little bit. And some of the thinking that we have is there's this idea that, like, that's always the end goal, and that's not always what's best for the team or best for the individual. And so what's more powerful is finding ways to still grow up, grow and develop a team or a team member. And that doesn't always need to mean that at some point down the road, they have to have direct reports. You can still grow and develop a team member in other ways. They can grow in scope of responsibility and skillset. They can grow in a lot of ways that isn't directly connected towards people.
You could also find ways to help kind of, you know, I was probably somebody that 10 years ago would have been looked at as not a people manager, [00:27:00] right? I told you that I was very driven by compliance and data and not necessarily connection. And, uh, there are people that also you could help them develop that awareness, but you got to kind of identify that and help develop that plan for them and give them the tools and the resources on the front end.
You don't want to just like throw them into the deep end of the water and see what happens because that impacts not just the new manager, it's going to impact their team and ultimately. all the other teams around them. Right. So in this cross functional world, we're all working with each other in some way.
So, yeah,
Nicole Greer: That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And you can turn, you know, don't take a great technician and turn them into a manager if they don't have the people stuff yet. Yeah. I'm with you. I'm with you. People can learn this stuff. I mean, yeah. And it's also like having children. Yeah, it is. You learn how to do it, you know.
Megan Cook: Yeah, no one gave me a handbook. I did get the, you know, what to expect when you're [00:28:00] expecting, but I didn't get a handbook. You have to kind of learn along, along the way. A little on the job training in that aspect for sure.
Nicole Greer: Oh, 100%. Absolutely. That's fantastic. Okay. All right. So, um, uh, people are challenged out there.
Megan, lots of challenges in the ways of our, in the way of our leaders and our managers. But here's the thing, the challenge, the obstacle is the way. So what common challenges do organizations face when trying to improve workplace culture? I'm curious about your answer to this because this is what you and I are trying to do all, all day long is improve workplace culture.
So what do you think the challenges are and what should, what should they do to be more effective?
Megan Cook: Um, I think a lot of it comes from from miscommunication in terms of, and so miscommunication turns into misalignment, right? Um, organizations, uh, are, could, could always improve or look at ways to better create clarity in terms of mission and alignment and focusing on bringing in [00:29:00] teams that are really built and putting people, you know, in the right roles on the right team. Um, and, and creating that kind of shared vision and alignment. So to me, I think that like one of the biggest challenges to really strong culture is that area that is like through miscommunication that kind of builds a little bit of mistrust.
And, and ultimately, you know, I think it's important for business leaders and organizations to understand that the decisions that we're making impact people in their lives, right? And so,
Nicole Greer: oh my gosh, say that again, because we have this lifeline, we're traveling another one of my favorite little models and like work is like a big part of your life.
Megan Cook: Yes.
Nicole Greer: And that's why people get sour on these companies is they're like, I don't want to live like this.
Megan Cook: Yeah. So you, you are at your office, you know, engaging with your coworkers, engaging with your team, you know, maybe more than you are during the work week than you are with your [00:30:00] family. Yeah, exactly. And, and that is a very, that's a very common life experience I think for a lot of people.
And so ultimately. You know, what, what we want is we want to feel connected to that workplace. We want to feel connected to our team. We want to feel connected to the mission and we have to understand what that mission is. We have to understand, you know, what the objectives are and we have to understand the people that we're working with and what our role is within that kind of matrix.
Right. And so I think really focusing on clarity of mission, building like human connection, especially in, you know, today's hybrid diverse kind of workplace where we have so many people that are in different areas. A part of our team definitely works like hybrid and remote schedules. And so you don't have the same kind of natural organic opportunities to engage in
Nicole Greer: the proverbial water cooler.
Megan Cook: Yes. Yes, [00:31:00] exactly. And so, you know, I've heard a lot of feedback and that was kind of like, we're going to all get together and sit on a Zoom call together. And that's going to help us build our culture sometimes doesn't always feel organic.
It doesn't feel authentic. I guess is what I should say to the team. And so. If that's the case, what are we, how are we doing that? How are we managing it? Let's take a look at it. Let's see how we can actually build these connections in a more authentic and organic way. How can we focus on team members really understanding each other, supercharging that.
Um, one of the unique things about Happy that we feel is like, once you take that assessment, you get that work style, it gives you this information within 10 minutes. And so it's a really easy way to kind of bring somebody on board and have them have access to information on their team right away. So using tools like that, where you can help teams better understand each other, provide those insights to help navigate the changes and the challenges with communication.
Um, because the last thing you [00:32:00] want is for a feeling to kind of settle and then it festers and then you're starting to build resentment and disengagement, right? And disengagement. The, you know, that is the end of a vibrant culture. So we have to continue to find ways to like push past that intentionally and provide these tools and resources, you know, from a leadership aspect.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And, um, and I, and I love what you said, you know, may not feel authentic to do that Zoom call. Um, and that's true. Uh, you know, a lot of leaders are, you know, like back to when we were talking about coaching people one on one, having the one on ones is a big part of trust building.
So, um, they were like, well, what do we say? What do we do? Um, and see if you would Google what to do on a Zoom call for your team, you would get like 48 things that you could do on a Zoom call.
Megan Cook: Ways to get people talking and having like, you know, more engaged conversations. Definitely. Yes.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. And. And really what it takes is a [00:33:00] leader who's brave enough to push past inauthenticity, is that a word, inauthenticity, until we get to authenticity, right?
So there's always going to be like this little weird space, you know, and I, And I think you just got to navigate the weird space. And then one day people are like, let's get on a Zoom call, you know, and they're excited. I mean, it will happen, but it won't happen. It will not happen. If the leader doesn't want it to happen, will it to happen?
You know, all those, all those things. So I want to say something about Zoom calls just real quick. So here, here's an idea for all of you listening. So, uh, back during COVID, uh, nobody wanted to get in a room and do training. And so I have a lovely, lovely colleague named Amy Wartham. She gives me a call.
She's like, how would you like to do SAP training, which is very technical German enterprise software training. And so, you know, I signed up and I had a lovely time. Uh, [00:34:00] but one of the things that Duke Energy did, they were the customer, Duke Energy, which is a huge company out here, Megan, I'm sure it's like California Power. What's, what's your, what's your big power company out there in California?
Megan Cook: We have SoCalEdison.
Nicole Greer: Okay. All right. So it's probably maybe not even as big as that, but it's like in five or six states. So long story short, we got this box in the mail and it said, do not open till Friday at four o'clock.
And so what does everybody want to do? They want to open up this box, but like, we're all holding each other count. Don't you open your box. I'm not opening my box. So we're doing all this.
Megan Cook: I love that. All right.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, so this box comes, right? And it's not very big. It's just, you know, yay big. And so it comes, and so finally, we all get on a Zoom.
Please don't miss this, everybody. We all get on a Zoom. Like, all 100 of us get on a Zoom. And, uh, and then we have this, like, it's time to unwrap your box. And so we unwrap our box, and what's in the box but, like, gourmet chocolates. And like, this one's got [00:35:00] this fancy cayenne pepper, what, you know, it was just all this crazy stuff.
And this one has a sesame seed, Japanese, whatever, whatever soy sauce. And we were like, what is happening? And, and then they hired this guy, uh, to get on and teach us how to taste chocolate.
Megan Cook: Oh, I love that.
Nicole Greer: I know!
Megan Cook: The anticipation and just getting everybody excited about it. I was like writing it down because I think that's such a fun idea to do something like that.
I think that's great. Yeah.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. And I mean, and it was like, the whole program was like a year long and like, they did like, they did like two or three things like that, but I'm still talking about all three of them. So yeah, I'm just saying, I'm just saying it cost them a pretty penny to send us this chocolate, but it created so much energy in the group, right? And, and energy is vibrancy. Energy is happiness, right? You know, so I think that's really important. All right. I got another, I got another question for you, Ms. Megan. So how important, you've, you've talked about this a little bit, but connection. So I want you to [00:36:00] maybe dive into connection a little bit.
Um, well, how important is connection in the workplace and what strategies can we do to connect people?
Megan Cook: Yeah, I think, I think that connection is really that like bottom layer, the building layer for these relationships, right? And in my opinion, relationships, again, are one of the most important aspects towards building a strong culture because we're, we have to learn how to work effectively together.
We have to better understand each other And, um, being able to, like, make those connections with other people, um, and, you know, create space for that and to intentionally go through a process of trying to understand the other members of our team and help them to understand us is really important as a part of that connection.
Um, I do think that there's a lot of value to like aspects of team building. So the things that you were talking [00:37:00] about 100% Um, that's the kind of stuff that I love, you know what I mean? And it's really, it's really fun to see, um, within teams. I, I think that, um, when it's possible for teams to create connectivity Uh, you know, together physically together.
That's awesome and wonderful. It's not always possible. And I understand there's some teams that work completely remotely, but if you have hybrid teams, or you do have in office teams, and you can create a space where you're able to enjoy each other's time and learn about each other, you know, outside of just roles and responsibility and to do lists and things like that.
So kind of intentionally creating a space that could be something as simple as company lunch or going on a walk or a hike together or something along those lines. It doesn't have to be connected towards like a bunch of expense, um, but being intentional about it. So put it on the calendar, make sure that your team is [00:38:00] creating a planned intentional space for this, have, you know, a couple of people or a person that's in charge of creating, you know, just quick ways for you to put that intention together.
A business leader might look at that as time wasted. I look at that as time invested. That is that time that you're going to be spending together, building those connections, understanding your relationships with each other, learning about people as, you know, the human aspect of them outside of the workplace is going to pay back tenfold.
I now understand a member of my team, you know, has three small kids and her mornings are a little hectic and maybe I can understand to provide a little bit more grace if she pops in a little bit later in the day than I had anticipated or if something unexpected comes up because I have the context.
You know what I mean? The context of, of understanding what that is. And, um, in the places where you're not able to have that like physical interaction, it doesn't mean that you still can't be intentional in terms of the way that [00:39:00] we're communicating and talking to each other. So the same way you would plan that company outing, you know, to the park, plan it, put it on the calendar, create those meaningful one on one conversations.
Work to really learn about your team, learn the things that they need from you. Learn the things that, you know, you talked about like energy, right. And I like, I always come back to that as well. So I think that's such a powerful message. Different people get energy from different experiences. Right. And so understanding what is it and my team that's going to boost someone's battery and what's draining their battery. And when their battery, I know their battery is drained because they're doing something that's challenging for them, or maybe forces them to get uncomfortable, or it forces them to like work outside of their regular behavioral style.
I know that that's going to drain their battery. So it's my job as a leader. How can I reconnect it? How can I help them recharge it? Um, so really like that comes down to that understanding [00:40:00] and, and providing that intentional work of I think something that you spoke to earlier, really helping people understand that they, that they're supported, um, and that you, you know, you're putting in the effort to, to recognize them as a fully developed human being with a, with a full and vibrant life, you know, and they'll bring that vibrant energy back into your work culture as well.
Nicole Greer: That's fantastic. Yeah. And so, um, in terms of connections, I've got a couple of ideas for you that I have witnessed. Um, because Megan is like, it's connection, connection, connection. She couldn't be anymore correct. Um, so, um, one thing that, um. I was introduced to kind of at an in between place in my career.
So, uh, Megan, in my past, I, I did the restaurant thing. I did the apartment management, property management thing, and then I did the raise your baby thing, um, which was such a blessing for eight years. Um, but my husband will say I quit and got three jobs the next day, which is probably true, but anyway. I worked at the [00:41:00] Y and I started raising money for charity and, you know, whatever.
I mean, cause I don't sit around very well, but then in my little transition, uh, back into the work world, when I started, uh, Build a Vibrant Culture, I worked with this guy named Lance Armstrong and, and so, uh, he was the broker, not the biker. So he was in real estate.
Megan Cook: I love that.
Nicole Greer: That's a great tagline. And he had it on his business cards and everywhere. I love that. What a fantastic, what a fantastic guy. But he had these lunch and learns and like every, you know, every week he would put us in a room and we would read a book on sales or customer service or real estate or whatever, um, or whatever the latest and greatest thing out there was that he was interested in.
You know, people, you might think, our people don't want to read a book. We all had so much fun reading these books and teaching ourselves. So there's the first thing, do it Lance Armstrong, the breaker, the breaker, not the biker we do. Here's another, uh, fun thing. There's a, there's a, uh, [00:42:00] TV station is called Inspiration Network.
It's in North Carolina. It's in South Carolina, technically. Uh, but right on the North Carolina, South Carolina, Charlotte border. And when people get hired, they get a Fitbit. Oh. And it's. They have beautiful grounds. I mean like beautiful sidewalks and trees and flower beds and it is the most gorgeous place you've ever seen.
And so one of their cultural things is, is let's go take a walk.
Megan Cook: I love that.
Nicole Greer: And then there's this whole thing about like, Okay. 17, 000 steps. I'm going for a walk, you know? And so it's not like people are constantly walking, but like, if I need to talk to Megan about a project, I can go on a, you know, a 1000 step talk walk with her.
And then the last thing, the last thing I'll say about this, another idea for you, um, is when I was in the property management business, uh, I worked for this company called Summit, which is now Camden Properties. And I will never forget Ray Jones was one of the [00:43:00] owners and he calls me up and he's like, Nicole, I'm coming to your property on Thursday,
I'm taking you to lunch. And I was like, what? And I was like, this is Ray Jones. It was, this is a big deal. And he just like took me for a sandwich. And he's like, I just want to tell you, thank you. And so like the skip level thing. It's huge! Like, he didn't tell me anything to do. We didn't walk the property.
He didn't investigate anything. He didn't talk to me about why this number was that number or any of that mess. He's just like, I'm buying you a sandwich. Where do you want to go? And I'm like, let's go to Panera. You know, until we went to Panera. So, I, and, I, that, Those are great. That just lived with me for, it's living with me still.
Please don't miss that everybody. 20 years ago. It's still living with me.
Megan Cook: I love that. Yeah. Those are all great. And what's great is those are those opportunities to create that authenticity that we were talking about, right? Yes. Like that was an authentic experience. You walked away knowing there wasn't a gimmick to it.
It didn't [00:44:00] feel like weird to you. He just wanted to thank you, have a moment, build a connection. I love that.
Nicole Greer: And who doesn't like free lunch? Okay. So here's the other thing, Megan. There's, there's all these things in HR world, like the trends that are out there. We got a lot of trends going on out there and they're shaping the future of Human Resources, um, and workplace culture.
How do you see the role of technology? She dropped the AI bomb just a few minutes ago. Uh, so tell us a little bit about the trends and technology and AI. What do you see happening out there?
Megan Cook: Yeah, I come from a place of feeling very excited about a lot of the shifts that we're seeing and the technology changes that we're seeing.
Um, because, and I know that AI, especially in the HR space, people have a lot of feelings about it and they're not quite sure exactly how they want to approach it. Um, there's fears that, you know, AI is going to replace workers and [00:45:00] displaced jobs. And my position is that when used, you know, when used appropriately and when used responsibly, that should never happen because AI is great at helping. make life a little bit easier, right? But it's never going to replace a human being. So at Happy, we do use generative AI to help us create some of the coaching content. That content then goes to expert coaches who curate it, who look through it, because it's very helpful to like get that starting point.
But human beings are really the ones that have the expertise and the specialty. And so I think businesses, to be able to effectively tap into that resource need to do it in a responsible way and need to understand that, like, how can I utilize this tool to make space and make it easier and better down the road, you know, by automating things, making, um, an aspect of someone's job easier because there's maybe some just routine work that they had to do that now we can automate through, [00:46:00] um, a certain technological tool.
Well, guess what? Now that person has a bunch of brain space and a bunch of time that they get to put into being creative and innovative and building your business and feeling more connected to their work. And so in a lot of ways, I think that it's a very exciting time in Human Resources because these types of technologies, it's almost like, uh, my opinion might be counter to what some people think, but I think that they actually will increase the that the center of leadership more towards that people centric leadership focus because now we're creating systems that allow us to operate, you know, a little bit more effectively, perhaps a little bit more quickly and great.
What do I get to do? I get to really put time into thinking through how I'm creating mission alignment. You know, I'm, I'm less worried about automating my payroll processes and I get to put more time into my one on ones with my team every day, which ultimately those types of conversations should be the number one goal and the [00:47:00] number one, you know, um, tasks that's on hand for managers and leaders.
But oftentimes we get stuck in the routine, we get stuck in the work, you know, itself. And so I like to look at it as how can we take this technology and create, um, an opportunity to really push it towards space for people, leadership space for connection. Helping people feel more excited and engaged in their work by allowing them to focus on the things that fulfill them that fill their cup that charge that battery that we were talking about.
Right? So, um, that's kind of the place that I like to look at it. I have, I'm trying to, um, you know, think of it really in terms of an optimistic mindset, because I, I really don't see any place where these types of technologies specifically a are, it's never going to replace yeah. You know, a human being a we have amazing AI enhanced coaching that provides insights.
That's not going to replace a human coach, but human coaches aren't available [00:48:00] to everybody. So how can we utilize it to, like, create these effective, you know, supercharged kind of enhanced conversations? But also understanding it's there's, you know, there's a whole new other world out there that's never going to go away.
And this is meant to kind of improve upon and make life better, in my opinion. Um, and so that's the place that I, that I'm really operating from is I'm very excited about where this kind of technology and HR is moving.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, I, I see AI as kind of like the cherry on the top. You gotta have a solid, you gotta have a solid human connection.
You gotta have a solid understanding with the people you work with. And then if AI can like be the sprinkles or the cherry, that's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And um, yeah. I, I'm trying, I'm racking my brain to think of this guy's name and I cannot think of his name, but he wrote an article, I read it the other day and so I'll try to find it and put it in the show notes, but he, he said, uh, [00:49:00] he had this article and he said, AI is great, but you know what, it's missing experience and story.
Yeah. And, um, and that's the human condition right there is that we, we are built on stories, built on experience. And so it's just an accompaniment, you know, it's just the sour cream on your baked potato. Okay. I'm hungry. Can you tell? Okay. All right, very good. All right. So, um, what, uh, here, oh my gosh, it's the top of the hour.
I can't believe we've already spent all this time together. Uh, but it's been so great to hang out with Megan with Happy Companies. Um, so what core message or takeaway? I know my listeners are like, wait, wait, we love Megan. Ask her another question. So I'm going to let you freestyle here. What What core message or takeaway would you like listeners to gain from your experiences and the work that you've been doing?
So like give them a final major nugget here, Megan.
Megan Cook: Got it. Okay. So I would say there's two things that I always try to get my team to think about. The [00:50:00] first is that, um, as long as you're safe, it's okay to be uncomfortable. Right. So in workplace relationships, sometimes we have to get uncomfortable. That's where the growth is.
And that's part of that, like self discovery, self reflection, adapting outside of our natural style. So, um, I had to get real uncomfortable outside of my kind of natural, more introverted tendencies. I probably would never imagine I'd be on a podcast or somebody 10 years ago. Right.
Nicole Greer: Because she's a natural everybody
Megan Cook: so putting in that kind of, again, intentional, Um, and then it starts to feel a little bit more comfortable and you start to like, feel, build that confidence. So, as long as you're safe, it's okay to feel uncomfortable. And then, um, I always say, I think leaders are readers. So, you know, I
Nicole Greer: Oh my gosh.
Megan Cook: I really believe strongly in, um, you know, constantly learning from others and the best way for me that I found to be able to take in the most knowledge from other, uh, leaders and other [00:51:00] experts or just other people's life experiences, regardless of what you're interested in is reading. If you, you know, get the audio books, if you, if that's more accessible to you, there's tons of ways to like, get that information and distill that information, but never stop challenging yourself to learn more.
I've spent many years trying to absorb information. I probably know about a thimble full out of the oceans worth of great leadership content that's out there. Right. So, um, that's another message that we always. It's kind of try to distill down to the team is just leaders or readers. So continue to, to challenge yourself to learn from others around you and, and, and take bits and pieces, you know, and start to integrate them in to be able to kind of create your own, your own leadership style.
Nicole Greer: Yeah. Yeah. And that just is right in there with my lunch and learn. So here he is. She's got a whole bookshelf behind her. Yeah. So what, what are you reading? I'm going to give a couple of plugs. So I'm reading this book right now by William Sparks. Oh, I got to write that one down. [00:52:00] Actualized Teamwork. So do you know, everybody knows Maslow, right?
The hierarchy.
Megan Cook: Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Greer: Self actualization. So it's like how to have a self actualized team. Um, so I love Dr. Sparks. Um, and then I'm also, I'm a big fan of all of Gino Wickman's work. And so right now I'm reading Rocket Fuel.
Megan Cook: That's a great. That's it. I think that's back there somewhere.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, is it on the shelf? Okay, good. Alright, so, so both Megan and I are reading it. You should read The Rocket Fuel, everybody. Okay, alright, what are you reading?
Megan Cook: So I just went through a big, like, month long spree of reading every Patrick Lencioni book that I possibly could.
Nicole Greer: Oh, MJ! Love him!
Megan Cook: So I have been, like, I've read through, I think about four or five of them.
We're really working on, um, kind of creating some intentional culture building. You know, and so trying to like create systems for our teams and I, and I really connected with those books. I would say, honestly, anything that I've read by him is a great. And then just to show you that I [00:53:00] do, um, keep it on my, I do listen to audio books too.
So right now I'm also listening to work rules, um, which is yeah. Laszlo Bock. Um, what, what it's about kind of like the Google approach towards, um, you know, people centric leadership and managing performance and things like that. So, yeah.
Nicole Greer: Yeah, yeah, and I, and here's the thing about these books, right, is you might get, well, if you take notes and you underline and highlight and review, you might get 27 nuggets out of a book, but if you get, if you get just like one stinking nugget, Yeah, it's like worth everything.
And so, um, I'm going to do one more shout out, um, because I'm nerding out on the book thing because I'm, I'm a, I'm a voracious reader like when I was a kid, that's all I did was go to the library. Um, so, so, uh, another guy that you need to be reading is John Maxwell. And so, you know, all this whole time, um, Megan Cook, co founder of Happy Companies has been telling us, uh, it's [00:54:00] relationship people.
It's people centric people, people, people, people, people. And so, um, you know, he's got this book called the Five levels of Leadership. And I, I, I teach it all the time. Like I go in and teach it to new managers and existing managers, because again, they didn't get the proper training that they needed to handle people.
But yeah, in these five levels, the second level is relationship. Yeah. And. You know, so as she's talking about this, as you read all these other books, you'll see that like, while there's nothing new under the sun, hello, that, you know, if you want your people to be happy, you want to have a happy company, you're going to have to do relationship and connection.
And gosh, I'm so grateful that Megan Cook hung out with me this morning. So great to have you on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast.
Megan Cook: It's been just a joy. I really enjoyed our time chatting. Yeah. It was just a pleasure to talk to you.
Nicole Greer: You too. Okay. So where do people find you? Give us all the links and the websites and the stuff, give us all the stuff.
Yeah.
Megan Cook: So you can find [00:55:00] me on, uh, LinkedIn, but, um, most importantly, I would say check out Happy Companies. So happycompanies. com. Um, it's spelled just like it sounds and, um, you can learn all about, you know, the amazing platform and, uh, sign up for a demo, sign up for a free trial. Um, there is a free trial available.
So anybody that's interested should definitely go, um, check it out. Cause it's really powerful. It wouldn't cost you anything. You could pop right on, take your assessment, get that Happy Work Style. Um, and you know, and then you're right in your workspace and able to kind of like distill it down from there.
So definitely encourage everyone to take a look.
Nicole Greer: Okay. That's fantastic. All right, everybody. That's been another episode of the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. Here's what we have to do though. Before we go, could you please just simply go and click like do the little thumbs up for Megan and I, and if you would leave a little comment, you know, like I think Megan is amazing or whatever you want to put on there.
Uh, show us some love, you know, we would appreciate that so much. And if you would go over to LinkedIn, find Megan, Megan, [00:56:00] Cook, co founder of Happy Companies, and then Nicole Greer, Build a Vibrant Culture. All right, everybody, we'll see you next week with another episode of the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast.
All right, see you later, Megan.
Megan Cook: Thank you so much. Have a great day.