The Fabulous Learning Nerds

Scott (00:01.36)
Hey everybody, welcome to a very festive episode of your Fabulous Learning Nerds. I'm Scott Schuette, your host, and with us, you love him, Dan Coonrod, everybody.

Scott (00:18.714)
Dan.

Daniel (00:20.185)
True story. Scott! What's up man? How you doing?

Scott (00:23.386)
doing okay. We had a little blast of winter down here in Florida.

Daniel (00:27.481)
We are having a blast of winter in South Carolina right now. It's gonna be 19 degrees tonight. Yeah.

Scott (00:31.586)
Really? that's healthy. That's healthy cold.

Daniel (00:36.447)
I grew up, I think I've mentioned it before, grew up in Pennsylvania, I've served my time, so any day where it's cold and there's a threat of snow, I am nonplussed.

Scott (00:47.47)
Right. Well, it was only 40 here, but for us down here, that's wicked cold. People go crazy. But I do have a theory on the cold because I lived in Minnesota for many, many, many, many years of my life. that is, you know, once the temperature gets to 20 below, it doesn't matter. You want to know why?

Daniel (00:55.993)
40 is cold.

Okay.

Daniel (01:11.149)
Yeah. Why?

Scott (01:14.564)
Because your face numbs up and you can't feel any colder.

Daniel (01:19.449)
So I, years ago, years and years ago, I had a job. I was living in Pennsylvania and I had a job that required me to come in at like five in the morning. And so I would get on my bike and I would bicycle to work. And during summer, this was fine. During fall, it was cold, but I was like, I'll make it.

Scott (01:32.866)
that's not a good job.

Daniel (01:49.881)
I distinctly remember the day it was negative 19 and I hopped on my bicycle and I put on my coat, my jacket and I tried bicycling and my eyes kept sticking because it was so cold. So I reached into my pockets and found that I still had a pair of sunglasses. And so here I am, you know, 430 in the morning, bicycling into work, sunglasses, big coat.

Scott (02:05.806)
Right. Yep. Yep.

Daniel (02:17.975)
Like a crazy person. So of course I got pulled over by the police.

Scott (02:23.044)
What? Okay, you have to explain more. The cops pulled you over and did they put you in your car and drive you where you needed to go? Because that would have been very kind of them.

Daniel (02:29.035)
No, God, no, no, no, of course not. That would have been, that would have, well, it would have been amazing. No, no, he got pulled over, I got pulled over, I got stopped and he's like, so where are going? And I'm like, I'm freezing. That's where I'm going. We had a longer than I'd like conversation about why I was bicycling around town, a small little central Pennsylvania town at a 4.30 in the morning. And me trying to explain to him, I was just trying to get to work.

Scott (02:39.91)
Where are going?

Scott (03:00.774)
Okay, all right, well, that's interesting. I wouldn't recommend that to anybody to go bicycling at minus 19. You know who I am? Go ahead.

Daniel (03:01.987)
Ha! Ha! Ha! It's alright.

Daniel (03:07.801)
No, it was, I was gonna say, no, it was alright. It worked out.

Scott (03:13.189)
Yeah, right, whatever. You know who isn't foolish enough to bicycle at minus 19?

Daniel (03:18.733)
I got a rough idea.

Scott (03:20.397)
Say it everybody.

Scott (03:30.704)
Zeta.

Zeta (03:32.032)
Howdy ho, Scott. Keeping warm? I am warm. I have my blanket. I have my jacket. I'm doing good.

Scott (03:33.542)
How you doing?

Scott (03:42.406)
Alright great, so you're not foolish enough to ride your bike anywhere below 30. Sorry!

Zeta (03:48.232)
No, no, like if I'm riding a bike, it's a stationary bike inside the house. Just saying.

Scott (03:55.078)
Well, that's good. Stationary brakes are good. Do have a Peloton? But you have a stationary bike? Do you use?

Zeta (03:57.662)
yeah, no I do not. I do not. I do, I do. And if it gets too cold outside, it's good to be inside and sweat rather than be outside and and like being far away from the cocoa and blankets. So I do have a question for you Scott though. I do. Well, with with the temperatures hitting 40 in Florida, do you guys have enough milk and bread?

Scott (04:15.319)
no. We'll bring it. Okay, quick.

Scott (04:21.007)
Yes.

Scott (04:24.588)
No, there was a run on the milk and bread and toilet paper this morning. That's all gone. All gone. Yeah.

Zeta (04:30.42)
No, no, I don't know what it is. I don't know what people are making, but when it gets cold, something's happening.

Scott (04:37.926)
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I think, is what they make. Yeah, which is totally awesome. Great, cool. Well, listen, I'm super excited to talk about cold stuff, but I'd rather learn all about our special guest. And we're going to learn all about her in a very special segment that we call What's Your Deal?

Zeta (04:40.468)
Yeah, definitely.

Scott (05:04.281)
Jen!

Jennifer Brown (05:05.966)
Scott.

Scott (05:07.002)
What's your deal, my friend?

Jennifer Brown (05:09.836)
Man, if I had a dime every time somebody asked me that. Well, actually, I think my most recent deal is trying to figure out priorities and my boundaries. I recently went through kind of doing too much. Probably like trying to, you know, I don't know.

weird analogy, but bicycle in the snow just felt like, you know, way too much on a body. And so I'm trying to figure out and scale what's going to make the most sense and do the things that I know are helpful and good. And that has kind of wormed its way into all of the other things that I do, both personally and professionally. So my deal is with talent development, because I know that's kind of what we're all here for.

Scott (06:04.016)
Hmm?

Jennifer Brown (06:05.89)
figuring out those priorities and doing that so that you can get to more by doing less. That's my deal.

Scott (06:14.822)
Love it. Love it. Help our audience understand you just a little bit better. Talk to us a little bit about your journey. How'd you get started in talent development and up to where you are today?

Jennifer Brown (06:25.474)
Okay. well I am born and raised in a little town called Lynchburg, If anybody's heard of it, they make something that will keep you warm when it's cold. and I, I ended up going to Jackson, Tennessee for a psychology degree and MTSU for a industrial organizational psychology degree.

Scott (06:31.502)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Brown (06:55.598)
because I did not want to be a sit on the couch, tell me your problems kind of person. I wanted to kind of look at data and how that interacted with human behavior and put those two things together and see if I could make it in the corporate world. And so I set out in the booming years of 2007 and 2008 looking for a job after that. So I did not go.

in directly with what I was looking for. went into recruiting. Recruiting turned into HR, journalist work, that turned into employee relations, and that turned into learning and development. And that's very strange kind of, how do you do that? It was a lot of relationship building. Hey, I think you'd be good, come over here and do this. It was all up until I had...

a leader at the time when I was in employer relations, he's like, what do want to do besides employer relations? And I'm like, am I not doing a good job? Like, why are you asking what else would I want to do? And it was, it was truly him saying nobody does employer relations forever. You can't do this all the time, Jen. And so I thought back and with every single thing that I had done to that point, recruiting, journalism,

HRBP type work, whenever I could help somebody learn something, I could do that all day and not feel tired. I don't know if, you some people say, what's your passion? I'm like, nah, I don't know if that word resonated with me, but you give me an Excel spreadsheet and I'm dying. I've got a migraine after like 30 minutes, but you give me an eight hour orientation and I'm raring to go after that eight hours. Like what else we got? What else are we talking about? What else are we learning?

Scott (08:42.981)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Brown (08:46.926)
and that's what I told my leader after I kind of thought about it. And I did, kind of a try before you buy with the learning and development team, at my same company. And after about six months, a head count opened up, I applied for it. And that was, that was six years ago and learning and development has, it's, it's really grabbed hold of,

what I absolutely love to do. I also got to learn coaching and become a certified coach the past couple of years. And that is also something that just absolutely fills my cup up, fires me up. So yeah, after about 17 years kind of meandering through HR and HR-esque things, I finally figured it out, kids. So here we go. That's a little bit about me.

Scott (09:42.15)
Well, you are just a resounding reminder to me that learning people are good people, learning people are great people. And I'm so excited to dive into what we're going be talking about. So without further ado, everybody, let's go into our topic of the week.

Scott (10:05.97)
All right, this week we are talking about priorities and boundaries so you can get to more by doing less, which I totally love and great, great topic, especially around this time of year. But you know, I got one question for you, Jen.

Jennifer Brown (10:23.169)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (10:27.834)
yes or what what what what i do want to talk about this was this important

Jennifer Brown (10:33.23)
Well, because it's December, Scott, that's the easy answer. And if we want to be intentional about our 2005 or at least act like we are in January, we can do some planning and maybe, just maybe, get to more of the stuff that we want to get done rather than just, wow, where in the world did Q1 and Q2 go to? I don't know if y'all ever felt that in your job.

Daniel (10:37.275)
Hahaha!

Scott (11:02.438)
I usually feel that right at the end of Q4, like what happened last year? Yeah. Where did it go? And the other thing that I have unfortunately experienced is the, what was I supposed to accomplish? Right. I've, I've experienced that kind of a thing like, Hey, it's time to write your goals for the year. And how'd you do? I'm like, did we have some? That was interesting. I did something.

Daniel (11:03.403)
Yeah, all the time.

Jennifer Brown (11:05.454)
Mm hmm. Where did that go? Mm hmm. Yeah.

Zeta (11:08.812)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Brown (11:19.502)
Mm, yeah.

Jennifer Brown (11:29.282)
I did something. I know I did something.

Daniel (11:29.699)
Yeah.

Scott (11:31.566)
Right. And, and, or maybe we did, but never talked about them. Right. So I think what you have to talk about is super duper important. And I'm really glad to talk about it. Like, let's start at the beginning. Like, so why is it important that, you know, we start with a company talent calendar.

Jennifer Brown (11:35.575)
Mm-mm.

Jennifer Brown (11:50.968)
From my experience, y'all can keep me honest too, there's a lot of stuff that companies, departments, talent development peeps such as ourselves that we want to get to throughout the year. before I really got all of my leaders on the same page, it was, okay, we got to get this done and let's just use.

Calibrations as an example. Okay, we got to get calibrations done. We're not really really thinking about that in January. We're gonna do that later in the year and then kickoffs happen. Goal setting happens check-ins a couple of different check-ins happen. And then before you know it you're staring down AOP in September and you're like, shoot, we got to do calibrations. We got to talk about our talent. And then you're rushing to get all of these.

these calendar invites on all of these leaders calendars and trying to get them all in the same place. It's like, you know, some people have ducks in a row. I feel like getting leaders all together. It's, you know, wet kittens. They're just scattered all over the place. I just felt right. That analogy. And as the year continues to go further on, there could be summer vacations, could be fall vacations, there could be holidays and just gets harder and harder and harder.

Daniel (12:56.141)
Ha

Jennifer Brown (13:12.664)
So that wasn't working. So that you gotta have to be intentional or you're going to be reactive rather than proactive.

Scott (13:25.178)
Love being proactive. You mentioned calibration, the good old nine box. When's the best time to schedule it?

Jennifer Brown (13:31.298)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Brown (13:37.006)
So what I kind of looked at is I started with my big rocks. I don't know if you've seen that prioritization video where the guy's got these big rocks. He puts them in the jar first and he puts in the little rocks and then the sand and the water, right? you, thank you. Yep, you got it.

Scott (13:49.254)
Covey.

Scott (13:58.692)
Yep, Stephen Covey, Seven Habits, yep, Time Management,

Zeta (14:01.696)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Brown (14:06.124)
The big rocks are what the business has to get done. And sometimes that's talent development more often than not, it's budgets. So when I was looking at, what can't move? What are the big rocks that absolutely can't move? AOP, which is annual operating planning. It's budgets, it's money. That tends to start in August.

Okay, well if you need to know who's moving or where your talent's going, you can't be doing it in August. So you gotta bump that back a little ways. All right, as executives or your higher level team, if you wanna know who your top talent is, well you gotta have conversations about that. You gotta figure out who that is. And that, yeah, we use the Ninebox tool. That's a great tool for that.

But again, you kind of have to bump that back a little bit more. So if you want your executives to understand who their top talent is in July, then your leadership really needs to be having those calibrations in June, right? Or finishing up in June. And so then based on the size of the company, it can be, can you just do it in June? Okay, great. Wonderful. Then that's

That's the month for calibrations. If it's a bigger company, may take a couple more months. So again, that's kind of giving you, you're already starting to flesh out your calendar. So calibrations could be April, May, June. And then you just block out that entire, those entire three months. And it's like, okay, HRBPs, LDBPs, right? Your leadership development business partner peeps, our talent development peeps.

your leaders at your level. Here's our time frame. We're all aligned on it. And that's a good chunk of time so that if you do have people going either on vacations or just not available, that's still a pretty decent amount that you can kind of work through those. And it doesn't feel like you're having to squish things in.

Daniel (16:25.667)
So it's not, I've got a question. It's not 100 % on target, but I'm just kind of curious because we've got you here, you're an expert. In your mind, what does a good calibration look like super high level? Like what are you hitting, especially if you're only checking in like those big check-ins like, you know, twice a year, like what do you think is like numero uno, what is super important, what's gotta be hit in those calibration sessions?

Jennifer Brown (16:41.614)
Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Brown (16:52.226)
You got to figure out who your top talent is because those are the people that are feeding your pipeline. And those are the ones that are feeding the strategic conversations, right? If we've got our critical roles identified and we know Bob's going to retire in five years. Okay, well, who is taking Bob's place? And is that person ready now? Will they be ready in a couple of years? And if not,

then we need to figure out developing that person and making sure that they're aware of that. So for me, kind of that number one go get in calibrations is who are those individuals that we have identified, we company, Big C, we as HR and talent professionals and leadership have identified as these are the people that we're gonna invest in.

And this is why. Since you have all of those leaders in that calibration talking about those individuals, that's also kind of a good litmus test for does the holistic leadership also view what I, as this person's leader, see? And if not, that could also be a development point as well. So that was always kind of the first thing is who's the people we're gonna invest in?

And then I would say, ironically, it's those that are kind of in trouble or heading into trouble. There's a lot of good to be had in a room full of leaders. And sometimes I may not have a great answer to handle a situation, but I can bring that into my peers and even my skip level leadership and say, hey, here's my situation.

Here's where I've tried to work with these people. Are there any other ideas that I can do to maybe get them to where they need to go? And that collective brain share, I've witnessed it, I don't know how many times where leaders are like, yes, I got you. We're gonna take this conversation offline. I had a similar situation last year. This is what I did. Or maybe it's, hey, we love this person. They fit the culture. Maybe it's right bus, wrong seat. And...

Jennifer Brown (19:18.614)
They have huge strengths in this area. They struggle in this area. I may have some work on this other department. Let's see what they do over here and see if that's actually a better fit. So it's almost like you're wanting to talk about the highs and lows and getting that brain share on both of those populations.

Daniel (19:37.582)
Okay.

Jennifer Brown (19:39.726)
That's great question, Daniel.

Daniel (19:42.775)
I try.

Jennifer Brown (19:44.012)
Okay, well, I get like one good question. I got like one good answer per day, so maybe that was it.

Scott (19:47.32)
No.

Daniel (19:50.467)
Ha ha!

Scott (19:50.79)
Yeah, probably not. You know, one of the things that I always find interesting when we talk about, you know, performance reviews or, you know, setting up goals for the year is this idea of making sure that we have some personal development, right? Whatever form that's going to be. What's your take on that as far as, you know, having that be part of, you know, our annual discussion in something that we're actually going to come back to like a year later and check in on that.

Jennifer Brown (20:24.226)
This did not used to be really important. And it's really easy to say that it's important and kind of miss it. The companies that really emphasize some personal development goal have higher retention. They have a better culture. Employees actually feel like you care about me as a person and not just am I getting

my goals done for the company? I just moving the needle for the company? Are you actually investing in me? Now we talked about top talent and we talked about those that need to get their performance up to, you know, meets. The vast majority of everybody else is going to be in that they're trucking along, they're great, they're steady eddies or they're going over and above periodically.

And if those individuals don't feel seen, they're your backbone of your company. And yes, you may be spending a little bit extra on your top talent, but you really also need to pour into all of your employees with whatever it is that they are interested in and how that can not only bolster them, but it may pay dividends to the work that they're doing for your own department.

now what I have done, is put the development conversation after calibrations. And the way that that flows is as a people leader, I've gotten to talk about my team in front of leaders. They've gotten to give me whatever feedback that I'm interested in or looking for, or maybe a blind spot with my team members.

And then I can then take that back in the middle of the year, right? So, calibrations are done in June. So now, the middle of the year, we've got this performance check-in. So the focus is in that July. And I can say, hey, this is what I think. This is where I think you could grow and stretch, but I need your input as my team member. And then that conversation just naturally flows into...

Jennifer Brown (22:50.06)
Okay, well, what else are you thinking in terms of growth and development for you? So to me, it naturally flows and it becomes a great way to share the calibration information, get your team members insight as well. And then, okay, well now what else you want to do? They may not have even thought about something like that. And sometimes as leaders, as people leaders, we have to...

bring that up first, kind of like what my leader did, like what do want to do besides ER, and get them thinking about it. Otherwise, it could just continue to be, you know, what are you doing for me lately instead of what can I help you do for you?

Zeta (23:33.798)
I love that. If I could just jump in real quick. When it comes to that personal development, sometimes it's kind of difficult to kind of fit it in. Do you have any suggestions to help take those first steps when you're having those kinds of conversations? what are those? How can people then get to that point where they feel like they can be developing and growing?

Jennifer Brown (24:03.018)
Yeah, that's a struggle for me. And even though I'm love to see other people learn and grow out, I'll be the first one to say if I took my own advice, the majority of the time, I'd be way better off. And it can be tough, especially if your leader doesn't bring that up first and almost give you permission. But I have seen more often than not,

if I am bringing up something that I want to do, that is seen as I want to learn and grow here. And so that's still coming across as I'm in, right? I'm vetted with the work that I'm doing and I want to also do this as well. So sometimes having that good relationship with your leader can be helpful.

Daniel (24:39.319)
you

Jennifer Brown (25:00.682)
on the flip side, sometimes you just got to be selfish from that standpoint, right? Your career is your career. And if you're not really owning it and directing it, then you might be like me. I just kind of, somebody says I'd be good to do this. Well, then I started to do this and then I started to do this. And it took me a little of meandering. I kind of got there. But if I'd have been more thoughtful and intentional.

Zeta (25:05.868)
Right, yeah.

Jennifer Brown (25:29.388)
with what really gave me energy, might have arrived sooner at the things that really do perk me up.

Zeta (25:40.822)
That's good. That's really good advice. Thank you.

Jennifer Brown (25:44.684)
Okay, so I got two good answers.

Daniel (25:44.697)
So we've talked a... Let's go for the hat trick. So you've got, we've talked about like that, that calibration, we've talked about that development meeting. So what's the third meeting and when do you think it should happen?

Jennifer Brown (25:50.392)
Yeah.

Zeta (25:50.58)
yeah.

Jennifer Brown (26:01.998)
So when you say third meeting.

Scott (26:03.671)
It's not a pip, right? It's not a...

Daniel (26:05.675)
Yeah, like what in your mind, what comes next? What's that? What's the meeting that happens after that calibration, that development meeting? What in your mind, what is it? And when do you think it should happen? How long should it happen after that development?

Jennifer Brown (26:18.231)
Okay.

for the employee or for the company?

Daniel (26:24.217)
I think let's talk about the employee, but I'd love to follow up for like the company.

Jennifer Brown (26:28.748)
The company?

So what I find interesting is we can have like our quarterly check-ins. Or that seems to be the industry standard, hey, we do a check-in every quarter. I don't think that's helpful. And let me tell you why. If you have your first quarter check-in, what do you check in at?

You've had like two seconds to understand what we're doing for the next year and the goals for the company. what have you done anything on your goals? We just learned them yesterday Ted. So no, I haven't done anything other than thought about them for the five seconds after I heard them. So no. So the I would I would probably more focus energies on in that first quote unquote check-in you create your goals, right? Then your

Q2 check-in is that development check-in, right, the middle of the year. So then the third check-in, quote unquote, so towards that end of the year, combine the third and the fourth so that you are talking about what goals have you done, how's your personal goal coming along, how can I support, and these are the formal.

meetings as a leader whenever you have your one-on-ones whether they be weekly bi-weekly monthly whatever cadence feels right for you and your team that should be kind of that real quick hey how can I help or what's what's going on with these you're not gonna hit them every time but those are the major check-ins or that's the reason for those check-ins where you're kind of formal formally spending that time on at the end of the year goals and personal stuff so you're kind of

Jennifer Brown (28:26.796)
bringing it all together with a nice little bow. Because then, now you've got information as a leader at the end of the year when we're finalizing ratings and we're doing pay planning and getting our budget and our bonus info, if that's relevant for your company. So that was kind of a long-winded way of also like bringing the whole year together.

and actually giving some less things to do. So you're not really doing four check-ins. You're doing goal setting. You're doing a development conversation. And then you're bringing them all together at the end of the year. So it's really kind of three.

Daniel (29:12.537)
So personally I'll say I love that. Just when I was leading people, the company I was working for, we did our usual check-ins, we did a mid-year and then we did end of year. I always worked instead of every quarter, I worked every four months. So I worked three big ones. So the first one comes in, it's right after the quarter's finished up. So wheels are starting to hit the ground, things are starting to happen. You can have that, cool.

Jennifer Brown (29:34.349)
Mm-hmm.

Daniel (29:43.213)
How you feel, where you think you are, what do you want to work on, what's our goals this year, let's lay those out. You get to that second one, the business has already had their mid-year, so you've had the mid-year already and you're like, all right, cool, so you had your mid-year, we know what the business thinks, how are you feeling, we're coming into the last stretch, what are you trying to get done? So I love the idea of just wrapping up. I think we're thinking the same thing, working in threes, love it.

Jennifer Brown (30:10.83)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Scott (30:13.094)
And it really does make sense, especially if that first meeting is kind of, well, I don't know, right? It becomes a check the box activity, not meaningful. I'm not a fan of check the box activities and they are plentiful. They are all over the place. And we feel good because we checked the box and we said we did it, but did we actually do anything? And dare I say many times

Jennifer Brown (30:20.109)
Yeah.

Jennifer Brown (30:29.25)
Neither. They are.

Scott (30:41.732)
when there should have been a performance of conversation, especially after calibration in Ninebox, it never happened. I have no idea how I'm doing. But we had the conversation at the right time, so I'm going go ahead and check the box. So I love the fact that we're going to be more purposeful about, hey, what do we want to accomplish in these meetings? And give our leaders direction and support and guidance on how to be effective in that. think that's great.

Jennifer Brown (31:10.924)
Yeah, and I mean, we're talking about this is the first if you're doing something like this year one, it's just a foundational understanding. And then if you year over year, let's face it, if if we wanted to change our behavior, we're giving ourselves a year to do it. So middle of one year to the middle of next year, that's a that's a good amount of time to kind of figure out what those little steps need to be and make some real some real headway on those things.

Scott (31:42.278)
So we have less meetings, we're gonna have three, they're gonna be purposeful and we're gonna support them. What are some other things that we could do less of and get more throughout the year?

Jennifer Brown (31:56.142)
I think by nature of just saying these are the blocks that we're going to be doing these things in so that it's not these continual ad hoc and add ons. So calibrations will only happen April through June. You get your info in and that's it.

because then that fuels a one and done conversation that leaders then have about where people are in their nine box. And then they can make decisions come AOP time. So it's not this, I still have to have this conversation with all of my direct reports to get all this because it's organized.

You've got your blocks for when this information comes in and that's it. And then you move on with your day.

Zeta (32:53.194)
I love that because it's organized, you don't have that overlap that usually happens. And then if you have too much going, you're going to forget something. So I love having that organization to get you to do more in other areas.

Jennifer Brown (33:10.54)
Yeah, I love just funneling in information and then saying these are the decisions that we're going to make with the information that we have. What I have found is when that happens, those leaders that you would tend to have to track down, run down information for, if they're coming to a calibration and they don't have anything prepared, okay, well, I'm just going to need something.

because then the execs are gonna look at this and then make decisions about what they're doing for the next year and for budget and for headcount. Well, suddenly that leader becomes real interested in making sure their information is part of that conversation. I don't know if y'all ever had those leaders where you give them, I don't know how many different notices you're like, I need your info.

So when it becomes, when you can kind of also connect the dots for them, there's way less of that and way more of that partnership.

Scott (34:17.158)
Yeah, I love how you talk about that. One of the things I think is really important is, you know, there's got to be the buy-in, you got to have the with them. The other thing that's really important from a cultural perspective, and I think that we all play a part in this, is can we celebrate doing the right things from a leadership perspective? And what I mean by that is, listen, if I'm doing the right things by my people and they're getting promoted and they're growing professionally and all that good stuff, as an organization, we should find a way to recognize those leaders. Because if I do that, we'll have more of them.

Jennifer Brown (34:42.989)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (34:46.776)
Unfortunately, my experience is we tend to recognize the opposite of that, which is how much stuff did you get done? And did you drive it home? Yeah, I drove it home. Great. Did you step on a few people to drive it home? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that always happens, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. You drove it home. We're to put your name on a plaque and that'll be a great thing. Yeah, so that's cool. I love this conversation and you really got me thinking and I think it's important for

Jennifer Brown (34:53.1)
Mm-hmm.

Scott (35:16.576)
those of us that are in the HR realm with leadership development training, or even in L &D that we're thinking about how we support our leaders throughout a process within our organization that makes sense. As we begin to kind of wind things down, was there something that you really wanted to talk about that we didn't get to, or maybe there's an opportunity for us to kind of put a nice little red festive bow on our conversation before we say goodbye to everybody?

Jennifer Brown (35:47.586)
would say if this is something new as a concept for your company, so whoever's listening to say, yeah, I want to implement this, then start with just something, right? You don't have to implement the whole thing. You can just say, we're going to make sure that our leaders have what they need before AOP. So we're going to run around and get that information for that meeting. If that is kind of

the most important or kind of the biggest bang for your company's buck, then put that there. If it's more, if I could just get all of my calibrations done in that three month timeframe and I'm gonna say this is when we're doing it and that's it, and you put your emphasis on that, then go there. Because depending on the size of a company, that can seem kind of large just to get everybody on the same page. So I would say start with one thing and something that can be really

impactful thing and that you can connect to the so what like you said for that leaders for your leaders so that they they're bought in their partners they're helping that along and then come the following year maybe then you say hey we're adding this other part to it and it just feels like it's a natural addition and not something that's kind of shoehorned in.

Do what you can and that's enough.

Daniel (37:21.037)
Love that.

Scott (37:27.322)
Jen, thanks so much. Really great stuff. Helping us plan out for a successful 2025. I think it's great. Could you do us a favor? Could you let our audience know how they could connect with you?

Jennifer Brown (37:38.412)
Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. If you're interested in specifically what I do with coaching, my website is learn better, do better, be better. It's a little bit different direction than what we kind of talked with here, but I'm always a big fan of helping people learn and grow and figure out what's going to help them in all of their busy time and their busy world. Just be a little bit better every day.

And I think you're going to have all that in the show notes. So yeah, that's how you can find me.

Scott (38:12.538)
Well, super glad to have you on. Really great stuff. Thank you so much. I really fucked that up. So I'm going to go ahead and pick up three, two, one. God, I sounded terrible, right? It's almost like I get distracted by something. any rate, we'll pick it up. Great stuff. Thanks, Jennifer. Really appreciate you having on. Great stuff. Thanks, Jen. Really appreciated you being on our show today. Daniel-san!

Daniel (38:22.55)
Ha!

Daniel (38:42.4)
Yes, Scott.

Scott (38:43.782)
Could you do me a solid? Could you let our audience know how they could connect with us?

Daniel (38:48.905)
Absolutely. All right, party people, you guys know the drill. Email us at nerds at thelearningnerds.com. Join in on the conversation. Email us any questions you might have. I think for this week, what we'd love to know is as you're setting up for 2025, what does your development plan look like? If you're on Facebook, you can find us at Learning Nerds. For all of our Instagram peeps, Fab Learning Nerds. And lastly, for more information about us, what we do and updates.

www.thelearningnerds.com. Scott, back at you.

Scott (39:22.758)
Okay, we're gonna go ahead and close out the show. I'm gonna do a 40 second out and then we're gonna go around the horn. I'm Scott, Dan, Zeta, and you just say I'm Jen or Jennifer. What questions do you have?

Great. All right, let's close it out. Ready? Three. What are you laughing about, Dan?

Daniel (39:40.695)
Great!

Scott (39:42.234)
great. now I know exactly how I'm going to start this. All right. Three, two, thanks, Dan. You're great. Hey, everybody, do me a favor. Could you go ahead and hit that like button? Hit that great subscribe button so that we can go ahead and get more people on our show. It's awesome. Also do me a favor, share this episode with your friends and leave us a review, please. I've been begging you. Leave us a review. We're on iTunes, Stitcher. It's really great because what we can do is we can

Zeta (39:44.428)
you

Scott (40:10.734)
learn from our reviews and get better, but that's how the algorithm works, folks. The more reviews we get, the more people get to hear the screwy stuff that we had to talk about with our friend, Jennifer, tonight. And with that, I'm Scott.

Daniel (40:22.616)
I'm Dan.

Zeta (40:24.288)
Zeta.

Jennifer Brown (40:26.222)
I'm Jen.

Scott (40:27.706)
and we're your Fabulous Learning Nerds and we are out.