Unlocking the Gifts in Those We Lead with Stacey Ferguson

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of our roles as leaders is to identify and unlock people’s gifts. Today’s guest tells us how.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unlocking people’s gifts presupposes that we believe everyone has gifts to unlock. Stacey Ferguson, Digital Director at</span> <a href= "https://timesupnow.org/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Time’s Up</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, believes they do, and host Jeff Mask wholeheartedly agrees. In today’s energizing episode, the two of them sit down for a fun and enlightening chat about bringing out the very best in the people you’re leading.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Know What You Want and Go After It</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Stacey’s story begins with her thinking she knew what she wanted in life, getting it, then realizing it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. She dreamed of being a big entertainment lawyer and landed an “amazing” job with a big firm that represented artists. Turns out, at the end of the day, it was just a lot of contracts/paperwork and long days and weekends. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One night she was working late; she was 8 months pregnant and hungry; and she took a brief to this guy in his office. He looked up at her, like he was seeing her for the first time, even though she’d been in and out of his office all day, busting her butt for 12 hours straight. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Have you eaten today?” he asked, almost as an afterthought, and she thought to herself,</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">“What am I doing here?”</span></em></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She immediately started looking for another job. She says she could have been more courageous and quit on the spot, but started quietly applying at other places. She also asked the managing director of the firm if she could switch to a department with more reasonable hours. He said sure.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span s