We recently connected with Meloney Linder and have shared our conversation below.

Meloney, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?

I work in higher education. Most of the teams I have been brought into lead were either newly created, often bringing together teams who had never worked together before. Trust building is key in building a team along with allowing and encouraging each team to develop goals for how they believe they can best serve the organization and meet goals. When issues arise, as they will, the same approach of bringing the team together to figure out ways to improve collaboration, communications, process, etc. is important. This approach creates ownership of the outcomes and builds trust.

When recruiting a team, I build expertise and strengths that offset my own. Each direct report is stronger in their respective areas than I am; I provide strategy and resource support along with removing obsticals that come up. I also tell my hiring mangers to hire at the right level for the position, and every hire should elevate the average of the team.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

An accomplished higher education administrator with broad experience in marketing, brand, public relations as well as internal communications and operations. Results driven. Strong mentor and coach, recognized for making positive organizational impact. I have a proven history of building strong teams and improving performance. Experience in marketing and communication, information technology services, and digital media.

My specialities include brand, higher ed marketing, public relations, corporate communications, web and digital media, IT leadership, and executive leadership. Additional experience in crisis communication, re-branding, reorganizations, IT strategic planning, CRM system implementation, web redesigns using agile methodology, and higher education leadership.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Don’t let your ego and emotions control you.

I am a passionate individual, and I have learned over time to listen, observe, and then speak. Speaking in the heat of moment leds to unintended responses, and as a female in the work place it reinforces stereotypes that are unhelpful.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have moved many times over my 30 year career. First for my husband’s career and then later for mine. When moving across country for my husband at the time, I had to work to create opportunities for myself in areas I had no networks. I did A LOT of informational interviews and created connections that always created new opportunities.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meloneylinder/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meloney-golombiecki-linder-ma-0730b96/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mglinder

Image Credits
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