Beck’s Leadership Journey
What makes a leader truly effective? In this episode of ThinkingCAAP, Heather Holloway takes the host seat to interview Beck Moore about his leadership journey and the experiences that shaped his approach to creating a positive workplace culture. He opens up about why vulnerability is a leader’s greatest strength, how gratitude-driven mentorship can empower teams, and the importance of fostering a supportive, growth-focused workplace culture.
Tune in to hear Beck's take on balancing priorities as a leader, his inspiring stories from community action work, and his passionate call to advocate for the transformative impact of community action agencies. Whether you're an established leader or just stepping into management, this episode is packed with lessons to help you lead with purpose and heart.
Thinking CAAP Talking Points
[00:00] Introduction and Guest Introduction
Beck Moore introduces the episode and guest, Heather Holloway, due to Amanda Hopperich's absence.
Heather expresses gratitude for the invite and discusses her positive relationship with the hosts.
[1:40] Qualities of an Effective Leader
Beck and Heather discuss the essential qualities of an effective leader, highlighting thoughtfulness, humbleness, authenticity, vulnerability, and empathy as crucial attributes for creating a positive workplace culture.
[6:30] Personal Growth and Leadership
Heather delves into Beck's personal journey of growth as a leader, emphasizing the impact of Fran, an early mentor, and various training opportunities and books that have shaped Beck's leadership style.
[10:45] Belief in Team Members
Heather and Beck discuss the importance of showing belief in team members. Beck shares the approach of providing executive coaching-style training and strength finders exercises for new employees to support their growth and development.
[12:28] Showing Belief in Others
Beck elaborates on the ways he demonstrates belief in his team, highlighting the onboarding process, personalized coaching, and strength-based approaches to empower employees and foster a culture of belief and support.
[13:21] Understanding Strengths
Beck discusses the importance of understanding individual and team strengths, inspired by a strength assessment process.
Embracing and developing strengths is emphasized to create a supportive and productive work environment.
[15:43] Valuing Team Members
Beck highlights the significance of recognizing and investing in the strengths of team members.
Creating opportunities for individuals to explore and develop their strengths leads to a sense of value and appreciation within the organization.
[17:48] Balancing Priorities
Beck addresses the challenge of balancing time and priorities as a leader. Ensuring that team members feel seen, heard, and valued while managing multiple responsibilities is a constant struggle that requires intentional and thoughtful leadership.
[19:34] Inspiring Agency Work
Beck shares a deeply inspiring experience from a self-sufficiency graduation at Bucks County Opportunity Council, where clients achieved economic mobility and realized their dreams.
The impactful work of community action agencies in helping individuals dream and achieve their goals is highlighted.
[22:32] Advocating for Community Action
Beck urges listeners to advocate for community action by spreading awareness, connecting with local agencies, and sharing their impact.
The need for support and recognition of community action's vital role in human services is emphasized as a call to action.
Transcript of Episode 6
00:00:00
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Thinking CAAP. Thanks again for tuning in. We appreciate our listeners so much. Today's episode is going to be a little bit of a pivot for us.
00:00:08
Amanda Hoprich is still sick, sadly, my co host, so she'll be back on a future episode. So today we invited Heather Holloway back again from Holloway Media Services. Thank you, Heather, for being here.
Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much again for the invite. I'm starting to think you guys might like me.
00:00:24
It's true. We do. We do very much. Just such a great approach to things.
00:00:30
We'd love having you as a part of our work. So as a reminder, I'm Beck Moore. I'm our CEO here at Community Action Association of Pennsylvania, one of our co hosts. We decided to ask Heather to pivot a little bit. And so because Amanda couldn't be here, we've asked Heather to actually interview me for this podcast.
00:00:46
And I know I'm usually a part of the conversation, but I don't really have a lot of insight in the questions Heather's going to ask. And so we're just going to jump in. I'm going to turn the floor over to you, friend. Yeah. I love this so much.
00:00:57
It's USDA organic. We have no idea what's about to come out of your mouth. But the topic, we did talk about this, and the topic is leadership. And so you're here, CEO of CAAP. You are the leader.
00:01:15
So I'm just curious. True. Yeah. I don't know how that happened, but here I am. But here you are, three years in the making.
00:01:22
Yes. Yeah, three years. December 21st, officially, I believe. Wow. Congratulations.
00:01:28
That's phenomenal. Great run. So. So there's some things that you do here as a leader of CAAP and not only within your agency, but the agencies that you're helping around this amazing state of Pennsylvania. So let's kick it off.
00:01:40
We're going to give you a softball question to start. So. Right. Tell me, what do you think it takes? What qualities does one need to possess to be an effective leader today?
00:01:55
Oh, yeah, that's a good question. Good question. And we touched base on this a little bit on our very first episode of the ThinkingCAAP, which was about workplace culture. It's a topic that I feel really passionate about.
00:02:06
I think I've not always been the most thoughtful leader that ever has been, and I recognize that. And so if you're listening and you're a former employee of mine, I apologize if I did you dirty at any point. I think it's important to just recognize, right, that we're, we all grow in our careers in our ability to understand people. But I think ultimately, to get to your question, I think thoughtfulness, right, is, is really important. Humbleness, authenticity, and recognizing that in order to create that kind of space, you have to be willing to be vulnerable.
00:02:43
So I think vulnerability is the other word I would use here. And by speaking really truly about your own experiences, it creates a safe space for your teams to do that. And if you don't, you can't inspire trust. And one of the things I talk about all the time is you can have workplace culture and values up on a wall somewhere. And trust can be one of those words that you try to create and embody and whatever.
00:03:08
But by putting just trust up on a wall, on a board, a lot of times it creates the opposite effect because you're trying to create and establish values and you're doing that by recognizing the word. But if you don't have trust to begin with, if you don't have that vulnerability, you don't have that authenticity, you don't have that empathy for your team, recognizing that you are working with humans. Right. Regardless of if you're creating widgets, if you're supporting members of an organization or you're helping clients, at the end of the day, in the community action work that we do, you, you have to, you have to start with, right. That vulnerability and empathy and recognizing that we have to have today a human based approach.
00:03:47
That's why people are continuing to stay in organizations. And so I think that's sort of the cornerstone in which I always think about leadership first and go from there. Yeah. You mentioned trust, you mentioned vulnerability. I will also say awareness.
00:04:01
The fact that you were like, hey, if I did you dirty in the past, you're aware. Yeah. That you went from, you know, baby leader to mature leader. Well, here's the thing. I say this all the time.
00:04:13
You know, we as, as leaders, as managers, we don't become managers because we're good managers. We become managers because we're really good at our jobs. We have no idea how to manage people. And so there's a, there's a growth opportunity here that we need to recognize.
00:04:31
And I think it's really hypercritical that we recognize at times that, look, I don't know what I'm doing right. My team, they know better. They're in the thick of it all the time. And so we have to recognize that when we're in particular positions as new leadership, as new managers, you have to really invest in yourself in order to invest in your people. The further you are away from the work that your teams are doing, the further away that you really understand.
00:05:02
And so you have to make sure you're trying to foster a space that you can be able to see what they're doing. Because if I'm just swooping in, right. And I'm seeing like this one moment, I'm not necessarily seeing the day-to-day. So. Yeah, I just think it's such an important underscoring.
00:05:18
Right. Like you don't really know how to manage. Most people don't step into these roles really knowing how to manage. We know what we don't like and we know examples of the crappy things that we've seen. But very few of us have had really amazing leaders that have been good role models for us to then be effective leaders.
00:05:36
Yeah, so what if you want to become a leader? And this is so true. I just want to. Just want to acknowledge what you just said. We kiss a lot of frogs before we get to the ultimate leader.
00:05:47
Right. I mean, truth. Hashtag truth. I've been cursed at same. In a former job, I've been told that I didn't look, that I had to wear makeup. It was requirement. I was told many, many, many things. So.
00:06:06
And we talked about, you know, becoming a great leader really does start with going inside and internal and working on our own personal growth. So what are some of those things that made you this awesome leader that you are today? Have you read, have you been coached? What are some of the things that you do? Yeah, I mean, I've been fortunate to have some really amazing people in my life that have believed in me.
00:06:30
And so that's been one of the things that I've tried to always. I've always had that as a cornerstone of being a professional and trying to help people who really just need the help and need somebody to believe in them. I'm somebody who. I say this sort of laughingly. I didn't think I was ever going to amount to anything.
00:06:48
I thought I'd be dead by the time I was 30. You know, I never thought I was going to amount to anything. And there was one person in particular that I've. I just said this to somebody this morning, ironically enough. And so I feel like it's the universe telling me I need to call her.
00:07:05
Her name's Fran. And early on in my career, she was an executive director of an organization I was working for. And it was a brand new professional, right? Like first year on a job in nonprofit work. And I didn't know anything.
00:07:17
I'd never worked in an office before. I didn't know how to make a budget, right? Like really brand, brand, brand spank and new. And she, I was just always so appreciative of her taking time to explain things. And she's the executive director of a 150-person organization, multimillion-dollar organization.
00:07:36
But she would, she would always be very thoughtful about all of her interactions with the team. She knew my name, she asked me how I was doing in instances where she could see that I was uncomfortable. She asked me if I needed help. She allowed me to fail in safe ways, right? So she created a place for me to maybe practice something before I got in front of a larger audience.
00:08:02
And so she just was somebody that made me believe in myself at a time that I had no belief in myself. And so I've really tried to keep her in mind in my entire career at points that gratitude's really important to me. And so I've also made sure that when I've had opportunities that I know that that first year and second year of that role, she's had a part to play in my ability to get to that next spot, even if I hadn't seen her in years. And so I always make sure to take a moment and just say, hey, thank you, you were a part of my journey. But she's one of the one person overwhelmingly that has been part of such a core of what I wanted to embody as a leader.
00:08:45
I also think that there's been a number of training opportunities that I've had and books that I've read that have been such a pivotal part of how I look at leadership and organizational change. So Chip and Dan Heath, who I absolutely love, I show their videos all the time. One of the books that I just can't say enough good about is switch about how to change when change is hard. Allison Levine, who led the first women's climbing expedition up Everest, her book called on the Edge, her TED Talk, and I think just really trying to spend time with organizational leaders also that you know, I look up to and asking questions of. I was at an event once with my, at the time a CEO that I reported to as a.
00:09:34
I was a CEO and there was this woman that walked up to my CEO and I'll never forget this because I was just like, whoa, to have the chutzpah to do this. She walked up to her and she's like, hey, I've heard so much good about you. You've not met me, but I would love to just pick your brain and talk. And, you know, the CEO at the time was sort of very like, well, sure, I don't know you, but sure, why not? I'm happy to do that.
00:09:58
And I was just like, I was just so in awe of this person's ability to just walk up to this person they had never met and ask, can I spend time with you? But I think that's really important, right? Because chances are the person's gonna probably spend time with you, particularly if it's somebody that you, you know, you want to really embody. And I think being brave in those spaces to just recognize, right? Like, who has the knowledge that I need.
00:10:20
I think those. Those are all really important parts of how I've seen my own evolution. I love that. I love that. And if after this episode, you get bombarded with emails requesting invites to talk to you.
00:10:33
Sorry about that. No, please, I welcome it. I mean, I think it's. It's so. It hard to be a new executive director. You don't. You've never done this before. And so I'm always happy to. I'm always happy to help people.
00:10:45
That's fantastic. And I also want to give a shout-out to Fran, thank her so much for helping you become the leader you are today, because you're doing phenomenal things, and I see the way that you interact with your people, and it's really a breath of fresh air. We can't do what we used to in the past where we just expect and demand. I mean, the world is changing. So I love that you've adopted that.
00:11:13
I love that. You know, you brought up Fran. You went back, you envisioned her, you remembered her qualities, right? And so if you're an emerging leader and if you don't have a Beck that you're working with and for find somebody in your past. Find if you can find a past leader and write down their qualities, right.
00:11:36
And try to embody them as you're growing up in your leadership. The other thing that you. Good. No, no. I also want to just shout out to, you know, if you're a member agency, listening, listening, and you are somebody who is looking to really grow in your leadership or you are a new leader.
00:11:48
We do have an emerging leaders cohort also that we have, right? A group of professionals who are sort of like, at this point in their career that either maybe they are a new manager or they want to become a new manager. Anybody can join those calls. You can find them on Info hu can email infotheCAAP.org and we can happily connect you with that. But that's a great space to just learn and grow with other people who are at the same sort of place in your career.
00:12:12
And whether you want to be at the top someday or not, learning leadership skills will carry you and help you and just help with everything, everything in your life. Okay. 1,000%. That's amazing that you have that resource. Thank you for sharing.
00:12:28
Um, something that you just said about Fran is she helped you believe when you may not have had that in yourself. So what are some ways that you show you believe in your. In your folks and the people that you work with? Yeah, thanks for that question. Um, so one of the things that we do for our team is every single new employee that joins our team, we go through a little bit of an executive coaching kind of style training, onboarding process that every team member goes through, strength finders and that Clifton strength finders exercise of understanding what your top strengths are.
00:13:06
And then we have a coach who Deborah Vereen. And she, if you want to get connected, Deborah, she does a great job of this. Also another cup, a couple other consultants who go through this process as well with, with people. So if you're interested, let us know. We're happy to connect you.
00:13:21
And what she does is she walks you through your strengths so that you understand yourself. And so what I love about this is it also helps me as a leader understand what the strengths of my team are. I love, I've always loved working with people and trying to find the thing that people do really, really well. And I said this on episode one of Thinking CAAP. You know, we have a tendency as leaders to really try to embrace and lean into what don't we do well, what do we need to improve upon?
00:13:48
And the same, it's the same metaphor I use all the time. We don't make electricians and plumbers do this, right? Because if we try to make electricians, plumbers and plumbers electricians, we end up with really weird houses and we don't want that. So how do we make electricians the best electricians? How do we make plumbers the best plumbers?
00:14:04
I think that's true of helping our team members. So we do that. We have that, that staff member go through that process with Deborah to understand where they really can identify how do they see themselves and go through this sort of process of self-discovery. And through that, everybody always ends up saying, right, like this Feels a little bit like therapy, which it kind of is to a degree, but it helps them really embrace who they are and understand. Right.
00:14:31
That they're valued at CAAP. And here's part of what then we want to lean into, want to continue to develop you as you may not be managing people, but you're still a leader in some capacity. And so we want to. Want to continue to invest in people to help them find whatever's next. And I really love when I can see something in somebody and I know that this is influenced by Fran.
00:14:59
When I can see a strength in somebody that they don't necessarily connect with yet, but I can see that they do something so well and how do I get them to be able to do more of it so that they can. Can continue to really hone that skill set. It's a beautiful thing to help somebody realize, wow, I am so good at data analytics. Right. Which is really sexy topic.
00:15:20
But. Or I'm never really been given the opportunity to shine in facilitating a conversation or I've never really been able to write content for something. Or I really love social media and I would love to be a part of that. Like you can give people the opportunity to try new things and help them feel really valued along the way. Yeah.
00:15:43
Fantastic. So many great things blossoming, blossoming within your organization and all the organizations that you touch. Okay. So probably getting to. Closer to the end of this.
00:15:57
So I just want to ask two things. Sure. One, what's the greatest challenge that you face with being in leadership? And then two, on the opposite side, what's the greatest inspiration? Yeah, that's a great question.
00:16:14
Also. Oh, you didn't know we were going to come with with these today? You know, it's okay. Amanda does this to me all the time too. She always throws a, throws a crazy question in there.
00:16:24
So it's, you know, it's on brand. Okay, good. Totally on brand. I think the biggest challenge is this constant push pull of. Right.
00:16:37
You're, you're managing people and also as the CEO, you're, you're managing all of these different priorities. And, and this is where if my own team were to answer this question honestly, I know that they have felt, felt this at times. You're always constantly trying to make the choice of where do I invest my time and where do I lean in. And I think for me, trying to make sure that people know that I value them and I want to lean into them and I want to give them the time that they deserve. You know, everybody deserves a regular check-in with their supervisor, even if it's just 15 minutes.
00:17:14
And so how do I make sure that somebody feels seen, heard, valued, and appreciated always and still try to balance my own priorities and get work done and provide the follow up that my team needs? And that's. I mean, as a. As a leader of a now small team, it's one of the hardest parts about trying to strike that balance because we've got more opportunities like the groundswell of opportunity for community action and for Community Action Association of Pennsylvania is huge right now because of the projects we're involved in. And it's a constant reprioritization.
00:17:48
Reprioritization, I think that's the word of time. And making sure that the team has what they need. It's. It's just this constant push. Pull.
00:17:57
Yeah. Constant duplicate. You then. Then maybe that, that would suffice. But.
00:18:03
But yeah, I understand that. The time. Right. Prioritizing budgeting the time. Um, and so I, I do, I.
00:18:10
Do try to be. I think this is the other thing I want you to say. I do try to be intentional about it, even if it's just a quick, like, hey, just want to check in, make sure you're good. Yeah. You know, sometimes that just quick, you know, check in helps somebody feel seen.
00:18:27
And so I think that's the one thing that I try to be really thoughtful about and intentional about always. Even if I don't have the 20 minutes, you know, But I try to say this, you know, I always want to try to make time for the things that are important. But it is, it is, it is hard. Right. And then recognize, like when you don't have CAAPacity at the same time and not if you don't have CAAPacity, don't take the meeting.
00:18:51
Right. That's. I also think, an important thing to just recognize and make sure that your team understands that when you say that it's not about them. Right. It's about you.
00:18:58
And you have to recognize that and making sure to create that safe space that you can share. That is another, I think, challenge, but an important one. Yeah. Yeah. Phenomenal thing to always consider.
00:19:10
Yeah. If the tank is empty. Right. There's not much more you can go on. So pause.
00:19:17
Find another time to meet. Yeah. All right, so let's leave it on a really high note. What's inspiring you today in your leadership? I mean, the thing that continues to inspire me in this job is the agency work that our agencies do.
00:19:34
On another episode, we interview Erin Lukoss, who's the executive director of Bucks County Opportunity Council and In a couple upcoming episodes. We're also interviewing a couple other of our agency executive directors, Jennifer Wintermyer, Megan Shreve, who run TriCounty Community Action and South Central Community Action programs. So shout out to them, thank you for being a part of those episodes. But early on when I first started here, I had the opportunity to go to Bucks County Opportunity Council and listen to their self sufficiency graduation. So it's the graduation of clients who have become self sufficient.
00:20:09
Like they're, they're no longer reliant on welfare systems. They've recognized something that they wanted to achieve. They've achieved it. They have economic mobility. Right.
00:20:20
And that journey looks very different for each of those clients. But the one thing that I just will never forget is. And I'm going to get emotional. I'm going to try not to cry. No, that I remember this one particular client saying that I will never forget is that she went to her very first appointment at Bucks County Opportunity Council with her coach.
00:20:39
And the first, one of the very first questions was, what are your dreams? And this woman shared. You know, nobody had really ever asked me that. I hadn't really ever taken a moment to be able to think about my dream. That it was not, there was no reality for dreaming.
00:21:01
That's what inspires me to want to help our agencies so that they can provide the best experiences for their clients. You know, community action gives people the opportunity to dream and recognize those dreams. And we all have dreams for ourselves. Right? We all have things that we should want to have dreams.
00:21:18
Right. We should be able to be so lucky to recognize those dreams. And when you work for a group of, with, alongside a group of organizational leaders who create that experience, I just feel, I feel blessed to be a part of that. That inspires me. That's beautiful.
00:21:35
Thank you for sharing. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Well, if that isn't a rally cry to get out there and do more and help, I don't know what is. You're right.
00:21:45
Oh, thank you. So here's what, here's the other thing that I'll close with. If you're listening today, you're not familiar with who your local community action agency, you can go to our website, theCAAP.org, remember the C-A- A-P dot org. You can go to the about us section and see our membership listing. Figure out who your local community action agency is.
00:22:04
Volunteer. Right. If you don't know, if you're not certain, email us at info the CAAP.org we'll connect you. I just can't say enough good about our local agencies. So please connect with them.
00:22:15
Get involved. They can use the help. They're phenomenal, great people to work alongside of. So please get connected. Heather, I know you're interviewing me.
00:22:25
Wait, wait, wait, wait. This is the thing. I'm the host here. I'm interviewing you. But you got to help me tee up the huggy.
00:22:32
I feel like we had the huggy moment. The huggy heart moment. Huggy heart of. The huggy heart of the matter. Yeah.
00:22:37
What's the huggy heart of the matter? Yeah, that's how we. That's how we land the plane here, right? Yes, it's true. Yeah.
00:22:43
The huggy heart of the matter is that I think we're at a point where we know that community action is so needed in our local communities. Not just from a volunteer perspective, not just from an awareness perspective, but from a funding perspective. We need people's help talking about the work that we do. And so I think, you know, if you're, if you're curious, go to our impact report on our website. Read up on the over 500,000 people that our agencies touched this last year.
00:23:17
Understand the things that they are doing. Help us to spread the message. Connect with us on social media. Connect on your local agency's social media. Right.
00:23:26
Help spread the word about one of the, you know, best kept secrets, frankly, in human services. I mean, we're one of the only 15 nationally networked human service providers in this country. In community action, we need people to know us about, know about us. We need them to talk about us. And so, you know, just do what you can to help spread the message.
00:23:45
We appreciate it. It's important work like and share, baby. Like and share. That's right. Beck, this is phenomenal.
00:23:53
Thank you so much. Thanks for letting me host and stand in for Amanda. Thank you. I appreciate you. It was a great time.
00:23:58
Thank you for being a part of this episode of the ThinkingCAAP. Check the show notes for resources and links to other episodes and don't forget to subscribe and follow to be notified when new episodes are released. If you have any community action questions you'd like Beck, Amanda or one of our local experts to answer in a future episode. Please email your questions about community action to info@thecaap.org.