Diana Alt [00:00:04]:
Hey, Diana Alt here. And this is Work Should Feel Good, the podcast where your career growth meets your real life. Each week I share stories, strategies, and mindset shifts to help you build a work life that works for you on your terms. Hey, hey, hey there, everybody. Good morning and welcome to Work Should Feel Good, the show where your career growth meets your real life. I'm your host, Diana Alt, and today my guest Alanna. Gregg and I are going to talk about how leveraging your strengths for personal and team development can create a highly engaged organization and just generally be more fun. Alana is a longtime leadership junkie who currently serves as fleet supervisor for Entertainment Enterprise Fleet management in the St.

Diana Alt [00:00:55]:
Louis area. She's got a broad range of interests, including serving as a certified yoga instructor, Gilmore Girls, Taylor Swift, and a longtime passion for making music, which is actually how I met her back in the day. We were trying to figure this out recently, and it was probably like sixth grade when they started pulling the elementary school bands together. They like, take all three or four elementary schools. You're like, place play together, and it's a disaster. But we.

Alanna Gregg [00:01:28]:
Every time.

Diana Alt [00:01:29]:
Yeah, every single time. So she and I grew up together and started school together in junior high, but had, like, some elementary band stuff before that, which is wild because, my God, we got old.

Alanna Gregg [00:01:45]:
Yeah. When you said on your. On the bio thing that we've known each other 40 years, it's like, no, no.

Diana Alt [00:01:51]:
Then you counted.

Alanna Gregg [00:01:52]:
Oh, God.

Diana Alt [00:01:53]:
Yeah. Yeah, it's real close to that.

Alanna Gregg [00:01:57]:
So I don't like it.

Diana Alt [00:01:58]:
Round it up a little bit. So it might be more like 38 and a half or something insane like that. But we have known each other a really long time. And I love how in the age of Facebook, like, a bunch of us sort of disconnected for, like 15 years, and then we found each other slowly and gradually. And you figured out who you still had feelings about because, like, oh, I did not like that person. But we all grew up and some of us are decent human beings, you being one of them. So I want to talk. I want to go maybe not as far back as.

Diana Alt [00:02:34]:
As a junior high band, but I wanted you to tell people a little bit about your very first job that you had, because I'm pretty sure it was working for your mom, right?

Alanna Gregg [00:02:46]:
It was, yes. My mom owned a hair salon when I was growing up. She actually owned two at one point. So I started, gosh, like 9, 10 years old, you know, sweeping up hair. That's how I would. She wouldn't pay me in money. I would get Paid in lip gloss. So I would, yeah, sweep up hair, start doing that, and then, you know, eventually got to be able to answer the phones and make appointments and, you know, get to know people and do that on the weekends.

Alanna Gregg [00:03:18]:
And then, you know, started working actually as a paid employee when I was, I don't know, 16 or 17, a couple evenings a weekend on Saturday. And. Yeah, so.

Diana Alt [00:03:31]:
So how did that experience working, doing all the things, especially, like, the reception and appointment setting? Like, what did that? What kind of. What are the roots of that? And how does it relate to what you're doing today, if at all?

Alanna Gregg [00:03:49]:
I mean, very much. You know, being in that business, it is so much about relationship and building relationships and building trust and getting to know people and know what they like, what they don't like, and, you know, kind of their personalities. So I think being around that from such an early age just really set me up to be where I want to work in customer service in some capacity. And that is, you know, essentially all that I have done in my career, you know, since 10 years old, is work with people and be a relationship person. And I, you know, was also that person that always had Alana talks too much on her report card. And so now I get paid to do that. So.

Diana Alt [00:04:28]:
Get paid to talk too much. That is. That's a real good one.

Alanna Gregg [00:04:33]:
All those teachers who always said that.

Diana Alt [00:04:35]:
To me, I got it, too. And I mean, part of me is like, we got our. We got our done. Why are you giving me trouble for this? Like, I had all of the A's in all. Almost all the A's, not all of them, but I had, like, lots of the A's in almost all the classes, excluding, like, gym and biology. I didn't like either of those very much. Yeah, I got that a lot. Um, so I love that you own that what you do today is customer service.

Diana Alt [00:05:11]:
Because I feel like customer service somewhere along the line became, like, a dirty word. Like, people think it is low level. So when you think about customer service kind of like at the elevated level that you and your team work at, what is it? What does it mean to you and what is. We know there's a lot that's the same. What is different from what you started early in your career doing customer service?

Alanna Gregg [00:05:40]:
I don't know that I would say it's a whole lot different. I mean, obviously different industry, but, you know, you think of anything that you do where you are helping a customer of some sort, there's a transaction that's involved in it. And I Think a lot of people just stop at that transaction part and pleasant. I say hello, the transaction is complete, you leave, it's done. You know, so working my mom's hair salon, they come in, I say hello, they get their haircut, pay for it, they leave. And that would be fine. And the experience could be pleasant. I am never just a transactional person.

Alanna Gregg [00:06:18]:
I like to, I want to know what you want, you know, at that time, like, what did you want for your hair? What did you, I mean, everybody came in, wanted hair like mine. Natural girl. Sorry, can't. Can't get it just like this. But you know, what, what do you want? Why do you want that? Tell me about your family. You know, and got to know people as I, you know, was in that business and then, you know, changed careers, that it was always, I want to be friends with you. And I love one of our. It's not a founding value, but you know, one of the things that we live by here at Enterprise is be a friend, not a vendor.

Alanna Gregg [00:06:54]:
So we don't want to just take care of our clients, at least vehicles from us. We want to actually have a friendship and, you know, go. Go beyond just that transaction. So I am just very much like that. I have clients that I, they, they're. I'm not even their account person anymore, but I still keep in touch with them because I built a solid friendship with them.

Diana Alt [00:07:16]:
Yeah, I think that's so underrated. And also like one of the things when I talk to people about networking, I work with a lot of people who are introverts, which isn't. I don't think that's an uncommon for people that are doing one on one coaching because introverts tend to like one on one connection. And they'll just feel like, I don't know how to do this. How do you keep up? And it's like, just think about them like you would any other friend and they don't have to be your best friend. But if you just try to remember something meaningful about them, even the tiniest thing, or just say, hi, I appreciate you. Just that those little sprinkles here and there makes such a big difference.

Alanna Gregg [00:07:59]:
And I, you know, just Talking with like CliftonStrengths if, when we go into that, you know, there's a, there's a piece in, you know, one of my strengths where it says like making connections and bringing people into connection. And that's something with the network and part of it that I really like to do is, oh, Diana, I know that, you know, your mom, your parents were teachers. This person, her parents were also teachers. So like trying to also connect other people that maybe that I know are introverted and connect them together with that, you know, common piece that okay, this will ease this person into this conversation that they may be uncomfortable because they're an introvert, but now they have a common topic to discuss here and that can open up for them to be able to.

Diana Alt [00:08:41]:
Yeah, I like. One of the things I like about CliftonStrengths which we will get to very quickly is the fact that like somewhere along the line, like people decided that there was this. Society decided that there was this default that extrovert is good and introvert is bad. Somehow like where that came from, I. I don't really necessarily understand but. And also there's this broad brush of like introverts are awkward or hate people. They're like, no, it's not. It's about energy management.

Diana Alt [00:09:18]:
It's a whole different thing. But when I look at things like relationship building or networking, I often have people tell me, well, I suck at networking. Honestly, some of the people I know that suck the most at networking are the most extra veteran because they only have surface relationships. The ability to call on some of those, especially if you don't hone the skill of connecting more deeply. Making people really feel seen even for a moment. Their. Their relationships are more fragile than an interview. Introverts with smaller networks where they really pay attention.

Alanna Gregg [00:09:56]:
Totally agree with that. I feel that.

Diana Alt [00:09:59]:
Yeah. When you and I chatted a few weeks ago about like kind of the name of my show being Work should feel good and why it's important and one of the things that came up is our friend Philip that recently passed away. So I did do you know? Very. I know that he had his business for a really. So Philip Manalis is a gentleman that like Lana you. Did you go to school with him from kindergarten?

Alanna Gregg [00:10:31]:
No, he moved into our district. I want to say we were maybe second grade. Okay, second grade.

Diana Alt [00:10:38]:
It'll bitty. And I met him in sixth or seventh around the same time. We were doing like that elementary band school stuff. Always been a brilliant musician since we knew each other. And he literally lived his life making music, which is one of those things we tell people that they can't do. Does he always struck me as a person that found joy in his work?

Alanna Gregg [00:11:01]:
Very much, yes. And you could tell just him sitting at the piano, just smiling. And every time you play and everything he posts about it and talk about it. It's like he's just truly Doing what he loves to do.

Diana Alt [00:11:12]:
Yeah, I think that that's so important. And I've had a conversation with a couple of people since then. I know a lot of people that are in jobs that make them very unhappy right now. And the question I've been asking people is, is your job good enough to be your last job ever? And I have people either say, what? Why are you asking me that question? Or they are, like, morbid much? And I'm like, tomorrow's not promised. He just turned 50, right. Found out he had pancreatic cancer in the same month and died within.

Alanna Gregg [00:11:46]:
What was it, three weeks?

Diana Alt [00:11:47]:
I think four weeks, Something like that. So if you. If anybody listening to this ever hears me talking about work should feel good, or you're working your life working together, being an existential matter. That is why. So I don't want to. We could turn this into, like, a whole memorial. I'm not going to do that. But I did want you to just share a little bit of.

Diana Alt [00:12:12]:
You had an experience going to Europe with him when we were in high school, and so I wondered if you would just tell a little bit about that.

Alanna Gregg [00:12:23]:
Yeah, we were. It was our junior year of high school. And I'm not sure, again, because it's been a very long time ago if it was through, like, the band camp we were in or regional band. I don't even remember how we got connected, but it was Missouri Ambassadors of Music. We had to audition, and so they had a band, a jazz band and a choir that went. And they organized this group of people. And so we had rehearsals. So Phil and I were in it.

Alanna Gregg [00:12:54]:
There was one other kid from our school, Todd Pund was also in the.

Diana Alt [00:13:00]:
Yeah. Did he play trombone?

Alanna Gregg [00:13:02]:
I was just gonna say I think he played trombone. So the three of us, you know, from Pacific. And so, you know, Phil and I. His dad drove us because we would have rehearsals. I think. Think there was one in a couple times in Cape Girardeau. I think most things started around Semo at the school. I think that's where rehearsals are.

Alanna Gregg [00:13:21]:
The auditions were. And then rehearsals. We would go there. So, you know, Phil's dad would drive us there and back. So, you know, several months of rehearsals, and then we went. Right after our junior year, I actually spent my 17th birthday in Paris. So we were there about three and a half weeks and went to seven countries. We played concerts, you know, so the band played.

Alanna Gregg [00:13:44]:
I think Phil was in band and choir. So the band would play, choir would sing, you know, at the concert. Then we just, you Know, got to do all the touristy things while we were there too. So really neat experience and getting to, you know, somebody that I'd known for so long with Phil, just getting to experience that with him was really.

Diana Alt [00:14:01]:
Yeah. I have a couple of things that I really appreciate that he was a person that was nice to everybody no matter what.

Alanna Gregg [00:14:10]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:14:10]:
And a lot of people that are so, so talented at whatever they're doing are not able to do that. But I think that when you are in a position where you're doing something that you truly find joy in, it is a lot easier to be open minded with people. So the last time I saw him in person was actually at our reunion, our 20th reunion that he played. He. They played in the caves.

Alanna Gregg [00:14:35]:
I remember that.

Diana Alt [00:14:35]:
Yeah, that was. That was quite a night.

Alanna Gregg [00:14:38]:
So just another cool moment with Phil. We went. So he had a club for a while in Maplewood. The Driving Whale.

Diana Alt [00:14:48]:
Yeah.

Alanna Gregg [00:14:50]:
And my in laws came to visit in St. Louis and we took them there one night and Phil's mom and dad were there, which, you know, I've known his parents for so long. So I got to see his mom and dad, which was very school, got to see Phil play. But that was the night that I told my in laws that I was pregnant with my son. So I actually got to tell Phil's mom and dad before I told them because they're like, oh, do you have any, you know, do you have any kids? I'm like actually telling them like, I'm pregnant right now.

Diana Alt [00:15:20]:
I have like 0.25 of the kid right now, so.

Alanna Gregg [00:15:23]:
Right, exactly. We eight weeks into this.

Diana Alt [00:15:26]:
Yeah. And so the other thing about this that I think is really important for people, if you. I know a lot of people right now that are in the mode of the job market feels weird. Especially my people that are working in tech, anything corporate like and anything like federal. It all feels very unsteady right now. So they're trying to figure out why is it actually important to think about finding purpose, Joy, work should feel good, whatever that means to you. And it's because when you do it, no matter whether you are a cybersecurity analyst, a dueling piano guy, the enterprise fleet manager person, the career coach, like you actually impact other people's lives. So not everybody's into that, but I know an awful lot of people are.

Diana Alt [00:16:12]:
So you. Whenever I first got my strengths certification, you were like all over that. Have you always been also like a personal and leadership development nerd? Because this is not something I think we notice about People when we're in high school. Right?

Alanna Gregg [00:16:32]:
Yeah, I. I think I've always been someone who, like you said earlier, I. I try to see people beyond what, you know, they may want to be showing the world and, you know, talk to people and ask deeper questions. You know, I was always first chair and band, and I've always. I'm not a, like, immediately go in and take charge type of leader, but I am a. Okay, no one else is doing this, so I'm gonna just. And so I have always been that kind of leader. And so then I think that kind of just made people gravitate towards.

Alanna Gregg [00:17:08]:
Alana's just going to take care of it, Alana's going to lead it. Lana will get it done. So I think I've always been that kind of person.

Diana Alt [00:17:15]:
I think that's a really great observation because a lot of times we get so tied up in positional authority. And I don't care if that means you were the 10th grade student council rep or the first chair in the flute. Almost said department. The flute section. The flute department. I think that's better. We should call it the flute department.

Alanna Gregg [00:17:35]:
I like it.

Diana Alt [00:17:37]:
Sounds very fancy. If you're in a big band, it is practically a whole department or doing what you're doing. That whole notion of different leadership styles is such a big deal because we get addicted to positional authority. Like you're the person in the top of the honor roll or the student council president or whatever. And sometimes the person that's just like, I'm gonna help you. I don't necessarily have, you know, a position that somebody else understands as being one of the top leaders. I mean, in band you definitely were, but we just. There's so many different ways to lead.

Diana Alt [00:18:17]:
And I think it's really important to understand you can develop in all these different ways. I talk to a lot of people about it because they'll say, well, do you only work with executives? I'm like, I love working with executives because if I make their life better, they go make, you know, hundreds or dozens or however many people's lives better. But I feel like the influence leaders, which is a lot of what you did, you know, early in your career until you got your current fleet supervisor job. I did that a lot too. I've done people management, but I've done way more influence management.

Alanna Gregg [00:18:49]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:18:50]:
So let's talk Cliftonstrengths. So for anybody that's listening to this that's not familiar with Cliftonstrengths, I'm going to give you a Tiny bit of a rundown. CliftonStrengths is a personality test, but it's not one of those that just drops you in four buckets. It was developed by a guy named Don Clifton back in, like, the 50s and 6. 50s and 60s. And it's now owned by Gallup. So Gallup is a big organization that surveys, like, the future of work and does all kinds of employee engagement things, which Alana will tell us about, because they do more than CliftonStrengths at Enterprise, if I remember right. But the whole idea was, let's study what's right with people.

Diana Alt [00:19:32]:
And he came up with an assessment and a model that literally has millions of combinations that showcase what people's top strengths and talents are. And so that's kind of the background. If you guys go look at episode two on YouTube, there's one where I unpack it a little bit more with my friend, career coach Shelley Piedmont. But yesterday we were kind of geeking out, and you were like, I'm so excited. I feel like it's Christmas Eve. We get to go about this. And you said, oh, my God, we have completely opposite top fives. And my response was like, kind of not, though.

Alanna Gregg [00:20:09]:
Not. Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:20:10]:
So tell us a little bit about your top five and what they mean for the people that are not familiar with all the different strengths.

Alanna Gregg [00:20:19]:
So my top five are positivity.

Diana Alt [00:20:23]:
Woo.

Alanna Gregg [00:20:24]:
Which is winning others over communication, adaptability, and relator. So three of those five are within the relationship, building, leadership, and then the other two are in the influencing. So when I looked at and was comparing mine and yours, you know, all of my top up till number 21 are all within the relationship, influencing and executing. And then all of the strategic is all at the very bottom. So yours are all strategic or at the top.

Diana Alt [00:21:01]:
Yeah.

Alanna Gregg [00:21:02]:
So that.

Diana Alt [00:21:03]:
Yeah, always. That is wild. I did a. I did a CliftonStrengths workshop that Alana was part of a couple of years ago, and so we all had access to everybody's reports. I still go back and look at them sometimes. But, yeah, I had all the strategic thinking at the top, and it was really interesting because I had not really stared at that until a client of mine challenged me because I was working with her using Cliftons drinks, but I hadn't looked at my own enough. And she. She kind of was like, and I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

Alanna Gregg [00:21:37]:
Right.

Diana Alt [00:21:38]:
And I pulled it back out and realized, like, oh, my gosh, this is why I was miserable. And also this is why some stuff stays on my to do list forever. And it was because I am not as strong. Like I'm a fully functional human. But if I have to choose between going and learning something or figuring out a problem and building out my damn website, I'm going to go like figure out something with people. The relator is my number seven. And so that whole. That's probably why we sit on Facebook messenger talking about this because relator is a lot about building strong one to one relationships.

Diana Alt [00:22:20]:
And virtually every introvert and leader that comes across my, my world has relator in their top 10.

Alanna Gregg [00:22:31]:
Yeah, our I, I did a grid with our leadership in my, in my branch and I think all but one person has relator in their top 10. So it's like yep, that's, that's, yeah.

Diana Alt [00:22:44]:
It'S a great, it's a great strength for people that are working with clients and it can be highly applicable a lot of places. So in your top five, what are some of like one of the things that people get really confused on? Especially if you get the full, if you take the CliftonStrengths test there's an option to pay 25 and get just your top five which you can entertain yourself developing for decades. But I got the top. I always get the full report with all 34 and a lot of times when I do that with my clients people say oh, the stuff at the bottom, it's a weakness. But actually Gallup defines a weakness as something that gets in the way of what you want. And my observation and the way I was trained by Gallup is that awful oftentimes is actually your top five. So can you talk a little bit about what you have to actually watch out for in your top five because it could impede meeting your goals or serving your team or whatnot.

Alanna Gregg [00:23:51]:
Absolutely. This, I, I learned this when we, I, I took your course class.

Diana Alt [00:23:59]:
We did like three, we did three sessions. I don't know what I called it.

Alanna Gregg [00:24:03]:
Yeah, whatever that was, I, I learned through that, you know, my real blind spot because I've got positivity. I'm an extremely positive person. Glasses all the time. I see all of the good in everything at all times and then winning others over. I want everyone to like me just like I talked about earlier. I want everybody to be my friend and have that, that I can have a. And relator that I have a very hard time as a leader getting constructive feedback to my team. So I've had to be very aware of, of not putting so much fluff and positive words in it that the, you know, whatever the harsh message or, you know, negative message or feedback is gets lost.

Alanna Gregg [00:24:49]:
So I have worked very hard over the last couple years to change my communication style when I'm giving some type of feedback that is, you know, not always. You're great, you're awesome.

Diana Alt [00:25:03]:
Okay, I'm going to throw an example. I'm going to throw like a quick little scenario at you, and then I'd love for you to tell us a little bit about what your. How you might have delivered that feedback a couple of years ago before you learned this and how you try to deliver it now. So your group is fundamentally a customer service group. You are paid to solve problems for people, but solve them completely so they're not calling back a bunch of times. Right. So if you have someone on your team that has a history of only kind of solving enough to get off the phone instead of really addressing the issue, how would you have talked about that two years ago and how would you talk about it now?

Alanna Gregg [00:25:49]:
Two years ago, I probably would have said, you know, I appreciate that you took the, you know, took the call that you worked with the client, that you found out the. The issue. You answer the question for them and then say all the good things, you know, the compliment sandwich kind of thing. Say all the good things that they did. And then just, you know, maybe next time, you know, kind of check and see if they have everything else, you know, ask that question, like, is there anything else I can help you with? Or, you know, do that before you get off the phone and then just kind of leave it there and not dig in further. Whereas now when I have the conversation, it is more like it's, you answer these questions, you, you found this part of it, and that's really good. But look, what else. Think about, from their perspective, what else could they ask? What could be the next part of that? We talk.

Alanna Gregg [00:26:39]:
There's. We have a whole training here on implied tasks. So thinking.

Diana Alt [00:26:43]:
Did you say, did you say implied tasks?

Alanna Gregg [00:26:47]:
Yes. So, you know, thinking about, okay, you answered this part of their question. What could that potentially lead to? Now they know this part about going to the dealership to pick up their vehicle. Do you think they're probably going to ask about plates? Are they going to ask about, you know, aftermarket on their vehicle? Are they going to ask about their vehicle that they have to turn in? You know, what about changing a driver? How do they get, you know, information on this? So think about all of those things that surround the delivery of that vehicle and give that to the Client as well.

Diana Alt [00:27:19]:
Oh, that is so good. Because that kind of stuff, number one, it serves the client. But number two, when you think about different roles, that maturity of understanding, those implied questions, that's what takes you from like Fleet Specialist 1 to 2 to 3 to supervisor to manager, is actually learning to kind of see around corners. So another question I have is, let's take that same scenario and let's say you've got a person on your team that is maybe much higher on strategic stuff. Like maybe they're an input and a learner, like I am. I want all of the information. How might you talk differently to that person than someone with another set of strengths? And it's hard. Like I want to say, like, tell me about your people, but I also don't want to compromise their privacy.

Diana Alt [00:28:19]:
So I would just love to talk kind of generally if you had someone that was. Had a lot of strategic strengths at the top versus maybe somebody that had execution strengths at the top.

Alanna Gregg [00:28:31]:
I think with the strategic, especially with the learner and the input, like trying to get all of the information. So if you need to ask the client more questions before you provide an answer, and you want to get the full understanding of why they're asking this, what they could potentially mean, because most of the times in any customer service, if they ask a question, it is not that. That's not the question they want. There's, it's so layered and there's so much more to it that they genuinely want to know and maybe just don't know how to ask, or maybe they're being passive aggressive. I mean, who knows, Maybe it could be a little off. So with those strategic ones, you know, encouraging them to find out the why, why are they asking this? You know, don't go back and forth in an email, just questions back and forth, pick up the phone, call them and say, okay, you asked me this question. Can you explain to me a little bit more of why you're asking this? What, what is it specifically that you want to know with this? And then they can find out as they talk through, through it and explain and maybe dig and ask a few more questions what the client is really wanting with that maybe simple question that they ask.

Diana Alt [00:29:43]:
I really love how you frame that too, because a lot of the people that have, in my, at least in my coaching practice, I don't know what your experience has been, but in my coaching practice, a lot of the people that are heavily loaded with the same kind of strengths that are all these strategic strengths at the top, like I have are also introverts. And they might like people, but they might not gravitate immediately towards getting on the phone because they're trying to manage their energy. When you turn it around and say, oh well, we're trying to gather information. We are trying to go through the process of learning what they need so we can nail it. That is directly scratching all the itches. And I'm like, I have a miss over thinker sash on my board that I love calling out to people for a reason. And it's because I have all of these think really hard strict at the top of my thing. Now let's flip it to yeah, I said execution, but I actually want to go somewhere different.

Diana Alt [00:30:35]:
Influence. I think that the people that lead with influence are often the least understood out of anyone because they'll be like, but especially you, like with influence plus relator like the Chatty Cathy, the detentions or the like notes home from school. How does, how do you talk to that person about, hey, we want to make sure that we're getting the complete information from our client.

Alanna Gregg [00:31:02]:
And that can be difficult because sometimes especially if they're so much like me, my, my boss. We have very similar top five. So I try to think that that's where I, I kind of pull those strategic things up and, and ask the, the, the why find out the why find out those deeper questions. But approach it more from a, like a relational standpoint. Like I'm, I'm trying to get to know you, Diana. Like, tell me about this part of your life. So with them and leading with the influence and maybe the relationship part is getting to know the person a little bit more and you know, scratching those itches of that, that relationship piece. And then you dig into the question that fits the business need of what they.

Diana Alt [00:31:52]:
So you could be encouraging them to do the exact. Almost exactly the same thing. You might have to get one like convince someone. The strategic person might be a little harder to get on the phone. But you're explaining it the same, the same thing. We need to talk to these people in more detail. But you're suggesting that a person that cares about influence and especially about relationships look at it as you're going to bond with the person and you're suggesting that the strategic person, specifically an input learner, is you're going to come out of this smarter. But we are having the same exact result.

Diana Alt [00:32:32]:
That is incredibly powerful, guys. Because one of the top misuses of really all the personality tests but definitely strengths is everybody wants to look at it and say, well, what should I be when I grow up? Like we can't tell you that. You have, you guys have Gallup and strengths like pretty fully embedded at enterprise, right?

Alanna Gregg [00:32:53]:
Absolutely, yes.

Diana Alt [00:32:54]:
So you know like you have how many people reporting to you?

Alanna Gregg [00:32:58]:
6.

Diana Alt [00:32:59]:
You have six people reporting to you. They all have all the different things except you know, there's some commonalities but you have to talk to them all different ways. It's like having kids. You can't treat your kids exactly the same. So how do you guys use the oh, I'm going to get to team stuff but we've been talking about being on the phone with a client. Clients don't take the CliftonStrengths and send you their top five. So you have to kind of detect things. How do you think about trying to sniff out the way that a client is going to respond? So you can adjust because there's going to be people that are like people with like high command for example and be like I just want to get off the phone, like we need to do this and I want to be done but also I want it to be right.

Diana Alt [00:33:51]:
And so they could almost be like can we get this over with already? Whereas other people might be perfectly happy. How do you sniff that kind of stuff out and adjust your approach according to what may be your clients tendencies that you don't have a report that costs $60.

Alanna Gregg [00:34:09]:
Right. So we used to utilize and still do utilize the disc well. So you know, it's dominance I think influence. It's been a long time, I want to say strategic, something like that and then conscientious. So they kind of fall very similar into the, you know, executing is D influencing is the same. Conscientious I would say probably the strategic side of it. So it's very similar. And so it's a lot easier to kind of put somebody in those buckets than it would be with this.

Alanna Gregg [00:34:47]:
So if we have somebody in your example that's like I just need this information. We know they're a high D, they, they're going to focus on just the business. They don't want the fluff, they don't want the relationship. And so you know, in either starting a new partnership with a new client, a new contact or something like that, or somebody new on my team that's going into it is like hey, they are a high D so they're not going to want to sit on the phone and talk to you for 20 minutes about what you did over the weekend. They want the business. And what I have found in working with clients like that and with my team that works with clients like that is if they start out essentially catering to that kind of. I don't want to say personality, but just, okay, here's the facts, here's what you. Here's what you asked for.

Alanna Gregg [00:35:33]:
I might have a few more questions on that. And do that. Get them what they need. Get them a little bit beyond what they need as well. That implied portion of what they're asking. The more you do that, the more the trust builds in that relationship. And then they'll start to open up and give you a little bit more of the relationship part of it. But they have to know that they can trust you to get what they want.

Alanna Gregg [00:35:55]:
And once they see that, then they're like, okay, this person is. Yeah, like they're okay. I can.

Diana Alt [00:36:01]:
Because a lot of people that are in. There's a lot of people that have certain tendencies where they just don't. They're not cuddly.

Alanna Gregg [00:36:11]:
Right.

Diana Alt [00:36:12]:
I just need to get this done. Just getting it done. So there was a. I remember what. When I first moved to Kansas City, I worked at Cerner up in north Kansas City, like right by the riverfront. And there was a Wendy's that was really close to our office. And it was the fastest freaking Wendy's drive thru I've ever seen in my life. And if we were going out to lunch, we went there a lot because even if the line was long and we didn't have much time, we knew we were going to get our freaking cheeseburger and be able to get back to work.

Diana Alt [00:36:47]:
Get back to work. Yeah. And we all were like crazy overworked. We were in our 20s, like just. No, we were lucky. We left our cubes. We were kind of. That was a little bit of the chain to my desk era of my career.

Diana Alt [00:37:05]:
So. Okay, so talking about team, One of the things I've always loved in working with teams is trying to figure out how to draw out the strengths of the team. So. And I, I naturally did this before I really got into CliftonStrengths. And then I started using tools like the team grid, where you can kind of map that out. So can you share an example of how you have used the knowledge or had your whole team work together using the knowledge of everyone's top strengths to accomplish a goal?

Alanna Gregg [00:37:45]:
That's a little tricky because we all have a little bit different goals with different clients and stuff. But you know, if we're just looking at. Let me think of something that we have to have.

Diana Alt [00:37:54]:
You had to, like, plan a meeting or anything like that, or presentation or something like that.

Alanna Gregg [00:37:58]:
Yeah, somewhat. I mean, we kind of manage that, but just thinking, you know, like, our. Our metrics, so, you know, we've got this. This one thing that we have to be managed on or that, you know, we're graded on within our metric. Everybody has an individual score. There's like, my team score, my partner, her team score, and then both of our teams together score for our branch that we have then that's graded against all of the other groups and branches in the country. So, you know, our number was pretty low a few months ago. And so, you know, my.

Alanna Gregg [00:38:35]:
My co supervisor and I, you know, we got together. Okay, what can we do? How can we kind of get the team to do this? We set some captains up for it. We. We set some power hours and, you know, kind of people that like to encourage people and, you know, get people, like, riled up to be excited about it. We have somebody who, you know, who's very good with the. The numbers portion of things to, like, here's the data that you need. Here's where we are on it. Here's what we need to do this.

Alanna Gregg [00:39:04]:
So, you know, we kind of get those people in place to send out those updates for those things that, you know, somebody else who is like, I can help. Let me. I'll make a call to your client to try to get this. If you can't reach them to get this information, how about I try? Because then it's somebody else different, you know, and then that's been successful. So I think just trying to kind of everybody sort of volunteers for when you do.

Diana Alt [00:39:27]:
When you have done that in the past, have you actually. Was it you and your co supervisor kind of assigning, or was it more like, here's the objective team. These are the things we need to fix.

Alanna Gregg [00:39:38]:
Initially it was us really assigning things out, but now people are starting to come, hey, can I try this? Can I. Can I do this? I would like to, you know, step up. I have one, you know, one person on my team, you know, who, like, asked for more. She's like, okay, I feel really good in my job and what I'm doing now. I want more responsibility. And it's like, okay, that fits right in with, you know, your strengths. So I'm not surprised that you're asking me that now. So now I think they're getting to a point because we've got a pretty tenured team for the most part, for both of.

Alanna Gregg [00:40:09]:
Both of our teams that now they're starting to ask and kind of fall into line with where their strengths are, which is really cool to see.

Diana Alt [00:40:15]:
That is. That is really awesome. I worked with a very small team. So it was basically a financial advisor that was a business consulting client of mine and he had a team of five and basically very, very big plans for the future of the company that the wealth advisor and I had been talking about. We had to get the team on board. And so we used strengths to create a process where every quarter Noel would issue like, here are some goals that we need to do because when you work in anything operational, it is hard to find the time to do. And we need to update this process or we need to train everybody on this or we need to like rip out this thing and put in Salesforce or whatever. So he would.

Diana Alt [00:41:05]:
We develop these quarterly goals and then the team had to execute them. And when we first started he would assign it out and then eventually we got to the point where wasn't doing that the team was self organizing. There was literally a team grid on the top. They had their expertise and I facilitated that process for almost two years on a quarterly basis. I would come in and do like a little workshop to put it together and sign it out and what's the definition of done for the goals and all this stuff. We didn't even let him be in the room by like a year or so in. We did not let that advisor be in the room because we didn't want anybody to feel like, oh, if Noel suggested something, we have to do it. Because it's not Noel's goal to complete, it's their goal to complete.

Diana Alt [00:41:56]:
It was really cool stuff. Thank you for sharing all of that. How. Oh, another thing I was going to ask is one of the biggest problems that companies have with tools like Disc or cliftonstrengths is how to keep people updated on it. So especially when new people join. Can you talk to. Because you guys have been doing this for years, can you talk a little bit about what the experience is to have a new employee come into your organization and then them get up to speed so they can speak this language.

Alanna Gregg [00:42:31]:
Yeah. So we have. I think they do the disc immediately when they start and then cliftonstrengths comes maybe month, like four to six. Typically when they're in there and then they do, I think quarterly they do a. Like someone from Gallup actually comes in and does a training for anybody who has not had it yet. You know, new employees and that kind of thing. And so they level one Employees have a call and then level two, you know, the boss to coach and that kind of thing. And so they, the one that I did was I think three sessions over three different months.

Alanna Gregg [00:43:10]:
And so they do that to train. And then, you know, as supervisors, managers, we just make it in the forefront of our conversation. So we do monthly check ins or monthly, you know, development meetings with our team and then, you know, weekly check in. So it's, it's at the very top of their. We use OneNote like it's a very top of their OneNote as their top five. So you know, okay, let's talk about your learner strength that you have. Here's a little bit of information. How would you like to utilize that a little bit more? You know, when we write reviews, we tie it in there.

Alanna Gregg [00:43:43]:
You know, I just had somebody go for another position that she was able to get, you know, in HR and like she had empathy and I forget what her top five were, but it was like when I'm writing her letter of recommendation, you know, because of her strength and empathy, you know, here is why she would be a good fit for what you're looking for in HR and so trying to tie it into, you know, those letters of recommendation, the reviews in their development. And I also have so me. And then I've got six people on my team. Six of the seven of us. No, five of the seven of us have responsibility within our top as well. So, you know, yesterday I sent an email out to everybody. I was like, hey, we all have this. Here's some more information about responsibility.

Alanna Gregg [00:44:24]:
Like here's some things that, you know, Clifton says about it. Here's my points on it. You know, one of the things with responsibility of being, you know, you can take on too much because you, you want to help people. It's, it's, it's your nature. So being sure that you look at everything that you have before you say yes. And you know, I have a couple other people that have woo in there, you know, so you don't want people mad at you. It's okay to say no, nobody's going to be mad at you if you say, I've got 47 quotes I have to build today. So you know, the other model.

Diana Alt [00:44:57]:
So there's two other models in my world that literally we could kick out all day. I know we both have other things to do, but I'm very interested in the Enneagram. Like I really want to find someone that's good at the Enneagram to come on the show and Talk about it because I know enough to be dangerous. But that is another personality typing system and my favorite thing about that is it actually gets into motivations. Most of these systems are around only behavior. They're not around why you did that thing. So I really love that. And then I'm also kind of a nerd for stoicism.

Diana Alt [00:45:33]:
And so for me, like I will pull out even without people knowing that's what I'm talking about. I do this all the time. I'll have somebody with high responsibility that's worried about, oh, someone's going to be upset with me or whatnot. And so really? Yeah, number one, they probably won't. But number two, like that's a them problem, not a you problem. If you are acting in earnest, you know, then not trying to be cruel, not trying to be, you know, dodging or whatever, then that's not something you can control. All you can do is do your best to try to work in an appropriate way. So love that.

Diana Alt [00:46:15]:
Thank you so much for.

Alanna Gregg [00:46:17]:
Yeah, I, I like tradings. You know, they'll, they'll have something that just sent something out recently. You know, it's like a company wide thing where they talk more about it and you know, the powerful partnerships is something that they recently kind of rolled out to everybody here. So, you know, share. Here's my top five. Here's your top five. Let's look at this grid and see, you know, my, my partner that I work closely with. You know, I.

Alanna Gregg [00:46:39]:
What is it? I think connectedness. It's number 19 for me and it's number three for her. So, you know, seeing where we're far apart with people that you work closely with and you know, I'm on it, the admin side of things. So the ad, I have an admin person that's paired with a salesperson. So like look at your partnership because most likely you're going to be very different. And look at these. This is what I bring. Here's what I need.

Alanna Gregg [00:47:01]:
And that has helped so much with communication.

Diana Alt [00:47:06]:
Within those, those favorite tools that Gallup has is one that's called the best of us.

Alanna Gregg [00:47:11]:
Yes.

Diana Alt [00:47:11]:
Yeah.

Alanna Gregg [00:47:12]:
That's another thing we do.

Diana Alt [00:47:13]:
Yeah. Um, that is one that I give to many people. Anybody that I'm doing executive coaching with, leadership coaching with, I give that to them because you don't have to have actually taken strengths to make use of it. So that's. It just asks for questions and you can write stuff down and have a real conversation like real people instead of like nerds who enjoy Psychometric tests. Like, you and I, we're getting close to the end, so I want to do what I've come to call the lightning round. That's not really a lightning round. I've got a few questions I want to throw at you, and we'll see if it gets some more conversation.

Diana Alt [00:47:54]:
Great. But the first one is, what is the worst piece of career advice you've ever received?

Alanna Gregg [00:48:05]:
I knew you were going to ask this. Like, I even wrote it down because you've asked everybody and it's. I thought about it. I don't know. I mean, I've never been a big, like, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life. I think that's dumb. I mean, if I. If I did what I love, it would be like, you know, sitting and listening to Gilmore Girls or watching Gilmore Girls or, like, listening Taylor Swift or reading books.

Alanna Gregg [00:48:29]:
Like, I don't get paid to do, like, Yeah. I mean, my job. And it's what I make of it. And so, I mean, when I was a kid, I didn't dream of leasing cars, but, like, I dreamt of working with people. So that's what I get to do. And I have an amazing team of people that I get to work with. So I. I think that advice of, like, the way I look at that.

Diana Alt [00:48:50]:
Advice is people get it wrong because they think too narrowly about it. They think, do what you love means the exact task in the exact context. And so, like, you were saying, well, the motivating thing for some of this would be that I enjoy people, like, why do people like the Gilmore Girls? Witty repartee. Like, you get to do witty repartee all day with your team and with your clients. So what is a red flag in a job interviews that people ignore too often?

Alanna Gregg [00:49:24]:
It is one that I actually used to use and then got called out and interviewed, like, talking about multitasking and, oh, I'm great at multitasking. And the person I was talking to was like, if you're great at multitasking, then you're terrible at everything because you're not doing. You're not getting anything done. Because you do this one a little bit, and you do this a little bit and you do this a little bit, but nothing is getting done. 100. And that just blew my mind. And so when I hear people say that in an interview, I. I will typically dig into that.

Alanna Gregg [00:49:54]:
Okay, what do you mean by that?

Diana Alt [00:49:55]:
Because, yeah, whenever I have a manager, and I swear, if I ever went back into a corporate environment and I had someone say this to me. I am salty enough now that I would say it out loud. But when I would hear somebody in management say, well, we just have to figure out how to multitask, I would say, well, like, why don't you figure out how to prioritize? Because you've given us umpteen projects and you're saying do it all by this date because you have to be able to multitask. It's like, give us an order or I'm gonna make it up and you're not. Right.

Alanna Gregg [00:50:30]:
And I think, you know, and then asking that question with looking a little bit more and in our job, you know, we can have. Here's our to do list today. But you know, then all of a sudden we have a driver who has a vehicle on fire on the side of the road. So a literal fire drill that stops what we're doing. We have to stop this and get back. So it's more. I'll get it more like that. Can you stop what you're doing and go back to where you were?

Diana Alt [00:50:54]:
It's going to. Yeah, it's going to. That's going to hit different. Yeah. Tell me about like a new personal habit or a new mindset shift you've had that has made a big difference to you.

Alanna Gregg [00:51:11]:
Let's see. Well, I mean, through Clifton, I try to source opinions from people that are more on the, you know, strategic side of things. The more, you know, one of my close friends, she's, you know, got harmony and so like the practical and pragmatic. I am not practical or pragmatic in anything. When I'm like trying to make decisions or like figure something out because I, I can tend to be very emotional and so sometimes I have to ask her, you know, how do I handle this? How do I say this? How. How can I word this where I'm looking at the facts and I'm not thinking of this person and their feelings or my feelings or, you know, anything like that. So that, that's been something that, you know, in the last probably year I have tried really hard to.

Diana Alt [00:52:03]:
Trying to go find somebody with complementary strengths and get ideas for how.

Alanna Gregg [00:52:08]:
Yes, how can I say this without it being too emotional?

Diana Alt [00:52:12]:
Mine and this really started a few years ago. It was like when I, when I took that fresh look at my strengths, it was that I started delegating things. Like I was raised by very hard working parents that both of them probably, I would say would have been high in strategy, strategic thinking and execution. They both got shit done. Probably because they were raised on farms and began to. But for me, it was acknowledging that I don't have to do it all. I still have trouble delegating, but now it's less about releasing it and more about. You have to put things together.

Diana Alt [00:52:55]:
When you're in a small business like mine, you have to put things together and make a process for someone to follow. And that takes time. So I have to figure out when I'm doing that. What is something you've changed your mind about recently? Like personal, professional, anything.

Alanna Gregg [00:53:12]:
Let's see that rest is okay. I mean, like. Like you just said about your parents. You know, my. My parents, my grandparents, like, got done and it was like, everybody's always working. And so I would feel guilty sitting. You know, if I just like, I'm just gonna sit and read a book or sit and watch a show or, you know, there's dishes in the sink. It is okay.

Alanna Gregg [00:53:37]:
Those dishes will be fine. The house is not going to blow up if I leave dishes in the sink. Because I just need to take a minute to breathe and rest.

Diana Alt [00:53:45]:
Yeah. I think that is so underrated. And I'm glad. I'm glad I'm hearing more people talking about that because I agree with you. And then what is a misconception people have about your work?

Alanna Gregg [00:53:57]:
Me. My personal work or me personally?

Diana Alt [00:54:00]:
Yeah. Or what your company does? What's something people don't get?

Alanna Gregg [00:54:08]:
It's really funny when I tell people that I work for Enterprise, I get. There's two things that come up, especially here in St. Louis. I work for Enterprise. Oh, do you know so and so. And like there's like 90, 000 employees, so probably not. There's been one time that I actually knew who they were talking about somebody that worked in my office, which I.

Diana Alt [00:54:24]:
Got about when I worked at Cerner.

Alanna Gregg [00:54:26]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:54:27]:
Yeah.

Alanna Gregg [00:54:28]:
But second, I typically then will hear a complaint about a rental, and it's like, I don't work on the rental side of the business. So I'm sorry that you had a bad experience when you rented a car in Chicago four years ago, but nothing to do with what I do. So I think people hear Enterprise and they immediately think Enterprise rent a car. And there's like, there's this whole other side of the business that I do that's.

Diana Alt [00:54:52]:
I honestly didn't know that there was like a whole separate brand of Enterprise fleet management. No lie. Until I was writing your bio.

Alanna Gregg [00:55:00]:
Yeah. And so, I mean.

Diana Alt [00:55:02]:
Huh.

Alanna Gregg [00:55:04]:
Enterprise. Enterprise. It started as Enterprise Leasing. Jack Taylor started it and he leased vehicles. So I mean, our business line is really where we started.

Diana Alt [00:55:12]:
You're the OG business line. Cool.

Alanna Gregg [00:55:16]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:55:17]:
What else. What else are you working on? Or would you want people to know about any thoughts about, like, dealing with leading a team or about strengths before we go?

Alanna Gregg [00:55:32]:
I really love leading people. I love relating to people. I love. I love it when somebody says they feel seen by me. You know, that is something that's very important to me. When I first became a yoga teacher a couple years ago, somebody wrote that in a note to me, you know, that there's like, congratulations on, you know, teaching or whatever. Like, you always make me feel seen as a student, and I hope that I can continue to always be that person that can see you and who you are and what you want and bring out all of the best things.

Diana Alt [00:56:09]:
It's super in your top five, too. Like, that's very much you. Well, I'm so glad that we were able to do this today. I'm gonna pop up a lot. Alana's LinkedIn. So if anybody would like to connect with her, she has the kind of LinkedIn that has, like, a bunch of at the end. But I didn't find too many Alana Greg's when I searched for her on LinkedIn.

Alanna Gregg [00:56:34]:
Yes.

Diana Alt [00:56:34]:
So she. You should be able to get a hold of her, especially if you want to. Like, if you're in an organization that is starting to use strengths, even if it's just your team has decided that you want to do it. Like, she will geek out about that all day. So about sending her a message asking.

Alanna Gregg [00:56:56]:
Her, I asked my boss all the time, like, can we find something here? Like, can we create a role where I can just, like, talk about CliftonStrengths.

Diana Alt [00:57:02]:
All day and become a coach? I would like to have a whole. You have a whole learning and development department that's partnering with Gallup on this. Like, I bet you could actually. So.

Alanna Gregg [00:57:14]:
Yes. Well, if you want to talk about yoga or, you know, music or other things that I love too, and how they all actually work together.

Diana Alt [00:57:25]:
All of it works together. I think that that's one of the hard, hardest things. I can be a workaholic being raised by farmers and teachers. The only other one that is, like, as workaholic is that I think is pastors because it's such an identity, focused career thing. But, yeah, these things do all work together. So thank you very much for being on work. Should feel good. I'm sure we'll probably nerd out and do this again sometime.

Diana Alt [00:57:54]:
And I hope that your company and your team appreciate how much effort you put into using this tool to make everything flow better at work.

Alanna Gregg [00:58:07]:
So.

Diana Alt [00:58:08]:
All right, have a great day, guys.

Alanna Gregg [00:58:10]:
Bye.

Diana Alt [00:58:12]:
Want some more career goodness between episodes? Head on over to DianaAlt.com and smash the Big green Let's Connect button to sign up for my newsletter. Let's make work feel good together. And that's it for this episode of Work Should Feel Good. If something made you laugh, think, cry, or just want to yell yes at your phone, send it to a friend, hit follow, hit subscribe, do all the things. And even better, leave a review if you've got a sec. I'm not going to tell you to give it five stars. You get to decide if I earned them. Work should feel good.

Diana Alt [00:58:48]:
Let's make that your reality.