The Value of a Good Mentor: Celebrating Morgan Price

Recently, I found out that co-workers were talking about me behind my back. When this happened, there was one person I rushed to for advice: Morgan Price. I want to take a moment to recognize, thank him, and discuss what makes him a great leader. 

Morgan stepped in as the interim Executive Director of Circus Center after our previous leader stepped down. He immediately got to work addressing both the financial and social issues that led to Circus Center’s almost bankruptcy and distrust among employees. Right before he stepped into this role, I became the Head of the Flying Trapeze Department. This was my first managerial role and I was younger than most of my team. I felt nervous in my abilities to lead the big personalities of the Flying Department. 

At first, there was friction between my team and me, especially with the older, more experienced coaches. As a manager, I needed to make sure my team came on time and worked their shifts regularly but people continuously came late or called out. While I wanted to be wary of their personal needs, I also needed to think about the students and the business overall. Since the team had always been lax about arrival times and leaving classes midway through, we butted heads. My team, who were and still are some of my closest friends, said some unkind things about my work and my personality. 

Immediately, I was hurt. I couldn’t understand how my team didn’t understand the need for timeliness. Personally, I was hurt because I truly saw these people as my friends and didn’t expect their first response to be so aggressive. I shut down and left those situations. Then, I went to Morgan.

I came to Morgan angry and appalled that my team, when I’m thinking of their and their students’ best interest, would come at me with so much contention. I told him how much it hurt that my so-called friends were treating me like this. Morgan listened to me and asked questions. Through his questioning, I came to the realization that none of this was about me. He explained the Skill/Will Matrix and how to manage people based on where they fell in this chart. Because of the environment at Circus Center, high-level coaches often felt overlooked and underappreciated. This meant that their motivation was low. So, they fit into a space in the Matrix that needed a lot of listening and reassurance. I was asking for compliance without letting my team feel heard. 

From there, I had one-on-ones with everyone on my team to ask them about their goals, their concerns and their thoughts on improving the flying department. I assured them that I was their representative and had their best interests in mind with everything I was doing. Slowly I gained trust within my team and now feel much more confident broaching difficult topics with them. 

I appreciated that Morgan took the time to listen to me and guided me into understanding. He never took sides or belittled me for not doing a good job. And he let me show my team that I was capable. 

Recently, I was promoted to a new role at Circus Center: Projects Manager. This is a role I created and asked to be hired for. Since it is a new role, my boss, my co-workers and I are still figuring out the breadth of my responsibilities. This lack of clarity has led to miscommunication that has led to mistrust among leadership. When trying to complete the duties of my new job, I have overstepped or made mistakes largely because I am still figuring out what all my job encapsulates. Multiple times, I have been reprimanded in emails that go out to the entire company. In a new role, being younger than most of my co-workers, I am already coming in with the prejudice that I am less capable. Also, being hired for a job that didn’t have a traditional hiring process might’ve led to some negative feelings or thoughts that I didn’t deserve my job. Being publicly reprimanded furthered those ideas and created an environment where leadership was reaffirming my co-workers’ thoughts that I am incapable and undeserving. This meant that every mistake I made was fodder for gossip.

I was sitting down between teaching classes to get some work done in my office when I started hearing people, not quietly, talking about a project I had been working on. I then heard my name mentioned so I listened in. In hindsight, I should’ve just left my office but I, like many people, want to know what people think of me. My co-workers were talking about my lack of experience and saying things like “who is she to make those decisions.” Then they said something like “well this is just the type of person she is. She just gets rid of things and does what she wants.” 

I let them know I could hear them and let them know it sucked to be talked about behind my back and then I left. I was so sad that these people, who, again, I considered friends, would say those things about me without coming to me first for clarity. I sat with this. I then went to Morgan. 

We talked like we had when I first entered my Department Head role. I said my feelings and then I said, straight up, “I don’t know what to do”. He validated me, asked me questions and then asked if I would like some advice. I said yes please. And then he told me to do what I did last time. 

I scheduled coffee dates with all the people who I knew or suspected were talking about me. In our chats, I started by saying that I know there are some words being spread about me and I want to address them. I then asked two questions: Do you have any questions for me?, Do you have any feedback for me in my new role?. It became clear that their talking about me actually had nothing to do with me. They didn’t trust me in my new role and they felt blind-sided by the decisions that were being made. So we talked about next steps. They asked that I communicate more about what I was doing in my new role. So I said I would share that information in our weekly meetings. I assured them that if they were ever confused about anything I was doing, they could always just come to me and ask.

I am still trying to navigate this new role but I am so thankful that I have a great mentor outside of work to support me. Morgan has given me so much of his time and expertise in and outside of work and I am so thankful. There were countless other issues I’ve talked to Morgan about and he has always made me feel heard and given great advice. He leads with empathy and compassion, even when it is not convenient. I was so lucky to have him as a boss, even briefly. While I was so sad to see him leave Circus Center, I am so grateful that he continues to be someone I trust and can go to for help when I truly don’t know what to do. Thank you, Morgan!