Season 02 Episode 02: How to Hire, Empower, and Engage your Team with Kelly Lancaster Artwork

Becoming Unassailable

Have you ever wondered why some organizations thrive in volatile times while others don’t? Today’s organizations are facing a magnitude of overwhelming challenges, including employee retention and workforce shortages, lack of engagement, supply chain, burnout, and even generational differences. For any leader hoping to build a legacy of lasting success, knowing how to tackle any of these problems can feel like an exercise in futility.Organizations that achieve lasting success embrace forward change together – instead of their people, teams, and departments constantly moving in separate directions. By building cultures of genuine teamwork and collaboration, leaders transform their company or agency into an unassailable organization equipped to thrive regardless of today’s challenges.Each episode of the Becoming Unassailable podcast will tackle a challenge that is keeping your organization and leadership team from moving forward together to be Unassailable.

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Becoming Unassailable

Season 02 Episode 02: How to Hire, Empower, and Engage your Team with Kelly Lancaster

May 02, 2023 • Season 2 • Episode 2

Welcome to the Becoming Unassailable podcast! This podcast is all about helping leaders build functional, collaborative, and aligned teams. Season 2 is dedicated to "Lessons from Leading Teams" from a variety of senior leaders.

In this episode, my guest is Kelly Lancaster. I asked Kelly to join me because he has a plethora of experience leading teams in a variety of settings: state government, hospitals, security, etc. He is loaded with practical insights and experience to offer.

What you will learn in this episode:

Kelly’s key strategy to building a successful, cohesive team.
How to actually empower your team.
The simple secret to successfully leading a team remotely.
How to change your interview process in order to hire people that stay and not leave your team after 6 months.

Key Quotes

"The first step is to look in the mirror yourself.’"

"When looking at skillsets, I'm looking at what I want this role to be doing in the next five years. It's like skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now."

"It's not 'my team' it's 'our team' - we work together."

"Embrace change as an opportunity to become better tomorrow than we are today ."

"It can be really disruptive if you hire someone that doesn’t fit in with the values ."

"It's not how many projects you had in your tenure, but how many leaders have I left behind."

Links from the Show

Quiet the book by Susan Cain

Get your free gift from Mark (free chapters from his book)

Book a complimentary strategy call with Mark to discuss the best strategies for your team

About Kelly

Kelly Lancaster has spent the bulk of his human resources career convincing executives that their people are indeed their greatest assets and will drive tremendous growth and revenue if they are developed in a culture that fosters pride and accountability. He believes engaging employees in the right way will create a purposeful and meaningful culture that can truly define a company throughout its lifecycle. Committing himself to this philosophy has helped Kelly to attain the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP), and IPMA-HR Senior Certified Professional (IPMA-SCP), the highest levels of certification in the Human Resources arena.

Prior to coming to the State of Tennessee, Kelly led all the HR initiatives for Maury Regional Medical Center, a Baldrige-recognized hospital system, as the Director of Human Resources. Before that experience, he spent three years developing a sustainable and scalable culture at Smith & Wesson Security Solutions, a perimeter security company in Franklin, Tennessee, as they navigated through multiple ownership changes. Kelly also worked five years at Healthways, Inc. managing all the employee relations, EEOC claims, and lawsuits as well as being a change agent for large projects and initiatives. His experience in creating the HR infrastructure for two startup companies using Six Sigma and Lean techniques has reinforced his philosophy of embracing change by improving an organization through its people.

Kelly earned his Bachelor of Science in Communication at Freed-Hardeman University where he developed his own morning radio show personality, Ken Coffee, and served as the Sports Information Director for the school. He earned his Master of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee which allowed him to understand global business during visits to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Hong Kong, China. Kelly earned his Doctor of Business Administration degree with Apollos University. He also serves on the leadership team and as a faculty member for the unive