We recently connected with Allison Keeley and have shared our conversation below.

Allison, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

What Corporate America gets wrong isn’t industry specific, in my opinion, and has its societal roots in our school system. School is designed to teach us a specific set of information over a set period of time. To do this, school emphasizes the idea that there is only one right way and failure or stepping outside the accepted way of doing things is bad. To be able to stay on track with the curriculum, most often in classrooms that are over-full, and teachers insist on a certain amount of conformity and decorum. When a student doesn’t maintain the stated level of behavior and success, they are sent to the principal’s office. As a result, the structure created says failure is bad and leads to disciplinary action. This structure is then directly translated into the norm for most of Corporate America.

The standard practice of promoting based on an employee achieving high results in their particular area of expertise combined with the fact that the typical way to advance levels is to become a manager of people versus a track to subject matter expert, the result is people in management who have little to no managerial skills. Subject area experts become managers who are now spending less time doing what they enjoy and more time dealing with people and all the daily communication and management challenges that come with them, and often without the benefit of management or communication training. Since good communication is rarely a focus in schools, this leaves new managers woefully unprepared for the role they’ve been promoted into.

Then we have the disciplinary model that corporate structures have inherited from the school system. Being asked to ‘step into my office’ by a manager is often perceived as ‘going to the principal’s office.’ A reprimand from a manager is typically reinforced by a write-up designed to gain enough evidence to show ‘cause’ to fire an employee and a review system that follows a 5-point rating system similar to the A through F grading system (only you can almost never attain the ‘A’). The reviews are led by the same managers who were once subject matter experts and are now managers who often don’t have the skills to clearly set expectations and build team support for company objectives, may forget to share what their employees are doing well, and can be quick to point out all the ways they are failing.

All of this leads to disengaged employees, struggling managers, and a structure where communication is a struggle in all directions. Given all of this it’s no wonder many companies have disengaged employees, teams with low morale, and high turnover. These are the key problems that have led me to the work I do today. I equip leaders with the tools and perspectives to communicate clearly and effectively navigate hard conversations. One of my clients implemented the tools and perspectives she got working with me to successfully shift from the standard corporate disciplinary model to a collaborative, supportive model.

This client is a manager who had a situation where she had to issue a write-up, and an employee who historically didn’t take responsibility for their actions. My client and I discussed strategies around shifting the narrative of the disciplinary conversation to achieve a different outcome this time. During the conversation, my client shared that her desire is to support her employees while also balancing the needs of the clients whom she, the employee and the company ultimately serve. She explained the actions she as a manager had to take as a result of the employee’s actions, in order to help the employee clearly see the whole picture and her role in the issue. The result was the employee not getting defensive, taking responsibility for her actions, and in fact acknowledging that she could have communicated earlier and would do better with communicating better in the future. A complete positive shift in her attitude, and a shift in how the manager and employee related to one another.

Allison, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My career journey has definitely been anything but linear, with some seemingly unrelated, but ultimately connected stops along the way. The adventure began when I was six and living in Belgium: the television did not speak English, and everyone spoke more than one language. I was fascinated by the discovery that there are many ways to communicate. Like most children, I was also enchanted with animals. I wanted my first job to be with an animal park, but the park near my home moved miles away one year before I became eligible to work. Dang it! This is the first thread that led me to where I am today.

In my sophomore year of college I revitalized the college’s cheerleading program, an activity that had disappeared due to lack of funding. The uniforms were gathering dust – it turned out that all we had to do was put them on and start yelling. I recruited a co-captain, built a budget, and began fundraising. I learned about cheerleading and taught others how to do it. I also learned a lot about leadership and coaching. This was the second thread.

And then it was time to declare a major. Uh, oh. I was thinking about English (Mom’s major) but found linguistics more interesting – but there wasn’t actually a linguistics major at my college so I worked with the school and designed my own in social-psycho linguistics. It was the perfect combination of sociology, psychology, and language.

Still, the animals called. In my senior year I worked on my college’s research boat. I learned about marine animals and shared this knowledge with others while outside on the ocean. So what if my degree suggested otherwise, I was going to work with animals after all. This was the third thread.

Are you with me so far? The threads are communication, animals, and coaching.

From there I found the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at Moorpark College. I made it past the competitive application process to get degree number two, an associate of science degree.

Then it was time to get a job. First, I worked at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, then the Santa Barbara Zoo in California. I loved being a zookeeper, but something was missing. Isn’t this where everyone’s life becomes less idyllic? The work is not what you thought it would be. Tighten your seat belt because the story gets even twisty-er…

I visited Moorpark College and a former instructor of mine mentions a graduate assistant position in elephant reproduction research. I applied, got in and got a stipend to live on, and a scholarship to pay for my coursework. It was a free ride to a master’s degree (who wouldn’t do that?) in natural and applied science with an emphasis in animal reproduction. I was one month into this program when the professor asked if I wanted to work for a traveling circus for a semester.

Time to run away and join a circus??? No shhhhh – !

Actually, there was a lot of poop, but that was fine by me. For five months, I was a veterinary assistant, living on a train with animals and circus performers. Now I have sawdust in my veins. And what about the free degree? After the circus, I doubled back to complete my master’s course work and earn my third degree. Sawdust lingered in my bloodstream, so I returned to the circus for a second one-year tour as an animal spokesperson, veterinary assistant, and public relations coordinator. But a total of seventeen months on the road was enough and it was time for a job change… Again.

I went back to the zoo world only to discover exactly what I discovered before: I loved being a zookeeper, but something was (still) missing. After all this back and forth, it was high time for some realizations.

The first one happened while on safari in Tanzania. There were three threads – communication, animals, and coaching – and I had dropped two. I would never be completely satisfied working solely with animals. How could I pick up communication and coaching? Domestic animal veterinary practice was a logical choice.

I worked as a receptionist, a pharmacy tech, a vet assistant, a surgical discharge nurse, a front office manager, and a co-practice manager. It was rewarding to work with pets and people, but you guessed it, I was not fulfilled.

And then epiphany number two finally did the trick. I was driving a car on a seven-hour road trip. My fellow passengers were a mother and son caught in a communication conflict. I spent the entire trip helping them clarify their issues and work through them. Was I exhausted? Not a bit. I stepped out of that car ready for round two. At last, I had found my main passion and joy – communication coaching.

Through my communication coaching and consulting I help individual leaders provide clear, effective communication designed to be collaborative instead of punitive, which in turn creates teams that work better. I love training leaders how to lean into hard conversations and navigate them effectively. I bring the unique perspective I acquired working with animals – learning about their natural environment and instincts and observing their behavior – to the work I do with my human clients. Because when behavioral and non-verbal communication align with clear verbal communication, even the most difficult conversations can happen with ease.

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

My biggest pivot moment so far is when I was inspired to pivot from working with animals to working with people. I didn’t make the shift because I don’t still love animals (I do and I always will), but rather because it was no longer fulfilling. I realized that without the fulfillment part I would only be going through the motions and work would leave me drained and unhappy. Neither the animals nor the people in my life would get the best version of me.

I also realized that the animal world is full of Subject Matter Experts who were compelled to become managers of people in order to move up in their career, even though many of them started working with animals because they wanted to minimize their interactions with humans. This rarely makes for stellar managers. I moved from the zoological world to the companion animal hospital world where my focus was mainly people, but I could still get the daily interaction with the animals I love. It was a steppingstone. Once again, I noticed people to people communication was a challenge for many and career advancement typically meant managing people. The more I talked to people the more they shared that this was true in most businesses.

This is when the big pivot happened. I wanted to lean into my degree in social-psycho linguistics and show people better ways to communicate. To give them the training on how to be clear, effective communicators. To show them the value of having those hard conversations and how to make them less scary. That was the pivot to communication coach and consultant, and life as an entrepreneur.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

During my business journey I found myself wanting to know what the right thing to do was before I did it. I wanted answers to all the “how’s” instead of believing that I could take the first step and trust that I would figure out the next steps. I had taken on the belief in my childhood that I needed to have all the answers and less than perfect work wasn’t good enough.

The irony is, I already had plenty of evidence that I didn’t need the “how” to start. Being clear on where I was going resulted in me taking appropriate action and having the path show up to meet me and the necessary doors open at just the right moment.

In fact, this was what happened when I decided to work with animals. I initially wanted to work with marine mammals, and I learned that I needed to be SCUBA certified. I shared that with people I knew, and someone connected me with a dive instructor on the Big Island of Hawaii (SCUBA certification in beautiful tropical waters appealed far more than cold, murky waters in the Monterey Bay in California). Then I found out there was a swim-with-dolphin program on the island, so I asked for an informational interview – and they said yes. They told me about the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at America’s Teaching Zoo in Moorpark, CA. I applied, interviewed with the panel of 4 instructors, and was accepted; one of 50 out of about 300 applicants.

It happened again when I graduated from the teaching zoo. I had changed my mind about the animals I wanted to work with – I wanted to work in an animal nursery. And I was a huge Disney fan and wanted to work for the not-yet-open Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I shared my desire with my instructors. Our veterinarian had me design an animal nursery as part of a class assignment and connected me with someone who would help me figure out what I needed to include to design a good one. Our animal training instructor had contacts in the animal department at Disney’s Animal Kingdom – she introduced me. I called and spoke to someone who was hiring for her team there and sent my resume, but interviews were only conducted in person in Orlando, FL. I got accepted to an internship at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, so I called back and requested an interview (after all, I was going to be in Florida) – they said yes. I flew in, had my interview, asked what they would be offering for pay if they offered me the job (they told me), I looked at apartments that fit that budget then drove to Tampa for my internship. On the last day of my internship, Disney offered me a job! It wasn’t in the nursery, but it was a foot in the door. I accepted the job, drove back to Orlando, found an apartment and put down the deposit, turned in my rental car and flew back to school. Two weeks later I graduated, packed up and moved to Orlando. And just 3 months into the job, and there was an opening for an animal nursery keeper. I applied, shared my nursery design, and got the job I really wanted.

In business I delayed doing things because I wanted to get it “right.” I realized that I needed a business coach for many of the same reasons people need a communication coach (or any other type of coach for that matter) – it’s always harder to see your own blocks and gaps in knowledge, skill or perspective. My coach helped remind me that I didn’t need all the answers to get started, there often isn’t just one “right” way, and that “done” is often better than perfect. Once I unlearned a deep-seated need to be perfect and a fear of making mistakes, I was able to take the actions necessary to move my business forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LionessCommunication.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LionessCommunicationCoaching
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonkeeley1/

Image Credits
Photos by Rachel Hadiashar of Zing Studio (https://zingsherwood.com/)