SPEAKER_04: 0:01

Hi, I'm Becky. Welcome to Short Story Long. In this podcast, we discuss ways you can integrate who you are into how you lead. This year, I had the privilege of sitting across from leaders who reminded me that leadership isn't about status or control. It's about being fully human while navigating change. Every conversation this season offered another facet of what it means to lead with humanity, courage, honesty, grace, empathy, and discernment woven into real decisions and real inflection points. Today we're pausing to revisit some of those moments. The lessons, the laughter, the heartbreak, the surprises that shifted someone's path, and the quiet truths that reshaped how they lead. This is a look back at the stories that stayed with me, the ones that show what human leadership looks like in practice. First, I want to start with Holden Galusha. Holden's story began where many of ours do, at the intersection of safety and purpose. He had built a path that made sense on paper, a path that promised stability, and then life shifted, you know, as it does. After losing his father, he realized something many leaders feel but rarely say out loud. Success without fulfillment isn't success at all.

SPEAKER_00: 1:36

Um, halfway through my degree, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and he passed away after about six months. And after he passed away, I thought to myself, you know, none of us knows how much time we all have left. I'd like to at least try pursuing my dream job of writing and journalism. And so I uh I transitioned into doing that as a freelancer, and uh here we are today.

SPEAKER_04: 2:04

Holden's choice wasn't about abandoning stability. It was about honoring his life by living it fully. Leading with humanity often shows up in these quiet pivots. The moments when we choose authenticity over fear, purpose over pressure, and the possibility of meaning over the illusion, yes, the illusion, of certainty. Maybe this prompts you to think about your level of fulfillment right now. Maybe your cup is overflowing, and I want to celebrate that for you. Most people I talk to are feeling the weight of the world these days and giving me the stock answer of, I'm okay, I guess. I'm fine. Holden reminds us that courage isn't always out loud. Sometimes it's a small voice that says, try, even when the safer option is to stay. And when we follow that voice, we don't just change our work. We change who we become as leaders. My question to you how do you shift from I'm okay, I guess, I'm I'm fine, into a vision. Even if that's all you have right now. A vision of greater fulfillment. What's one thing that would give you more of that? That same kind of courage to stop performing and start telling the truth shows up again in my conversation with Aaron Wilkerson. Aaron began his career as the go-to expert, the person with all the answers. But what makes him a remarkable leader now is that he learned to trade control for connection. He started out seeing leadership as mastery, as being the one who could solve every problem. And then he realized leadership wasn't about being the hero. It was about building others' capabilities.

SPEAKER_05: 4:05

So when I joined the company where I met you at, I gotten kind of back into leadership. At that point, my version of leadership was kind of, I was the like the guy who knows things. Like if people have questions, they go to me, I can answer every question. Um I worked in the technical, I worked on the technical side, so I was the one kind of leading a team and writing code. So to me, I felt that like I didn't know that there was a different skill set. I think realizing that I needed to build out the team itself, not just me. Like I need to also build up like who are the next leaders in the company under me, like who can I build up as leaders and technical leaders and working with different stakeholders? I think that's something I didn't think about.

SPEAKER_04: 4:48

Aaron's humanity shows up in how he leads. He's learned that empathy isn't softness, it's structure. It's the backbone of teams that last. When a leader chooses to understand their people, to lift them, to develop that next generation instead of centering themselves, everyone around them grows stronger. And that shift from being the expert to being the one who empowers others is one of the most powerful expressions of human leadership. I invite you to pay attention to the places where you might be leading the way he once did. By carrying more than you need to. Ask yourself where you are relying on expertise instead of empowerment. Who on your team hasn't had the room to stretch because you step in too quickly? You might even ask yourself what would shift if you focused less on having the answer and more on asking the right question. And then we can shift from Aaron's humility in leadership to Shannon King's grace in transition. Humanity takes on a different shape, one that reveals strength in letting go. Shannon's story reminds us that leadership isn't just about how you begin, but how you finish. When her company restructured, she found herself at a crossroads. Stay in bitterness or move forward in peace. After seven years of building a role she'd shaped from the ground up, she had every reason to cling to frustration. Instead, she chose to leave with dignity.

SPEAKER_02: 6:33

You know, I'll have faith that it will work out the way that it's gonna work out, but I just felt like I needed to stand on my word and I and not be taken advantage of for another, you know, seven years. We're gonna promise you things that you're not giving me. I left with grace. I didn't I didn't, you know, blow up the whole place with curses or all that stuff. I left like I would want to have been treated during that whole entire interviewing process. I left, I gave all the flowers to all the people that helped me throughout the time. So my ref references are great.

SPEAKER_04: 7:05

Grace and endings is its own form of courage. Shannon modeled what it looks like to close a chapter without closing your heart. Leading with humanity means holding space for both gratitude and grief, allowing the disappointment to be real without letting it define who you become next. Here's where you can consider where you're carrying a circumstance or an ending that still feels heavy. Imagine what it would look like to release the resentment, but keep the lessons. How much real estate is that other person holding for free inside your mind? Is it really worth it to you? Grace doesn't erase the hurt. It simply frees you to step into the next chapter without dragging the last one behind you. And as we think about Shannon's grace, we have an opportunity to shift in a different direction into Chris Blunt's resilience. Here, humanity becomes something quieter. The strength to heal and to keep showing up. When Chris hit his breaking point, his wife asked him one simple question. What would make you happy? That question became his compass. A reminder that joy isn't a luxury, it's a leadership strategy. In the middle of burnout, fear, and the pressure to hold everything together, he suddenly had permission to choose himself.

SPEAKER_01: 8:40

It's no good to be here if you can't be happy. It's no good to keep that job if you can't be happy. And I appreciate her so much for letting me know, even though I was still uncomfortable, but letting me know it's okay to try something. But just try, try doing something that you want to do. I would do that, and I was like, hey, I kind of want to, I would do this for a living. And she was like, you should try to start a business. I was like, I want to, but I couldn't believe like me. And so I decided to take the plunge and quit my job because I wasn't happy there. But it never, it never occurred to me to quit a job because I wasn't happy. Like I felt the old men of the past judging me.

SPEAKER_04: 9:22

Chris's story is about the bravery it takes to rebuild. It reminds us that leading with humanity begins when we stop performing resilience and start living it. Real strength isn't the armor we wear. It's the honesty that frees us to make choices aligned with health, joy, and a life that feels like our own. Maybe you still find yourself pushing through instead of healing through. Possibly there's a bold choice you've been avoiding because it feels inconvenient, risky, or out of character for the role you play at work. Ask yourself the same question Chris was asked What would make you happy? Your answer may be the first step toward the kind of strength that sustains you, not the kind you force. And then last but not least, let's talk about Tammy Daniels, whose story ties all of these threads together in a way. Her leadership shows what happens when confidence and compassion actually meet. Tammy's inflection point began with one decision to stop waiting for opportunity and start creating it. She recognized that she could follow the familiar path, working for someone else, or she could build something that reflected her own values and her own vision. And she chose to bet on herself.

SPEAKER_03: 10:56

Well, for me, I think the most pivotal, most important thing I realized is that I had the control to make that decision. Like I didn't have to let other people make decisions for me, that this was my life, my career, my choice. And it was very empowering at the time, but it as I reflect back, I think it was even more as I've grown older and as I've gotten, you know, further along in my career, I realized how critically important that that decision was for me personally and professionally. And I and all those questions that I try to tell people to ask of themselves when they are presented with an opportunity, I ask them of myself with all the opportunities that I've taken. How does this benefit me? Does this fit into the story that I'm writing about myself and my career? Is this a good chapter or is this a chapter? This might not be a chapter.

SPEAKER_04: 11:52

So now Tammy leads with both heart and accountability. She tries not to hand people answers. She hands them agency. Her story is a reminder that leading with humanity isn't about directing others. It's about trusting people enough to let them lead to. She models what happens when you claim your own choices and encourage others to claim theirs. Maybe you find yourself waiting for permission that will never come. We often wait for someone to notice our gifts, and sometimes we forget we always have a choice. Even when those options feel limited. Agency grows when we make the smallest decisive move. Maybe Tammy's example is your nudge. What do you choose today instead of waiting for someone else to choose it for you? I often talk about this as ordering an off-menu option when what's on the menu doesn't feel exactly right. I hope you notice something simple and powerful over the course of this episode. Every leader you heard today made a human choice before they made a strategic one. Holden chose fulfillment. Aaron chose empowerment. Shannon chose grace. Chris chose healing, and Tammy chose agency. Different stories, different paths, but each one is a reminder that leadership isn't built in the moments when everything is clear. It's built in the moments when we pause, when we tell the truth, and when we consciously choose that next right step. Leading with humanity isn't about being perfect. It's about being present. It's about being willing to shift, to listen, to let go, maybe even to rebuild, and importantly, to trust yourself enough to lead in a way that feels aligned with who you are and who you are becoming. As you look forward toward 2026, I invite you to consider how your humanity will show up in your leadership this coming year. What you feed grows, so choose what serves you and yours best. Thanks for choosing to lead in a world that desperately needs more humanity. I'm grateful you're here, and I'm grateful you're leading. I'm eager to connect next year for our third season. We'll be dropping episodes starting on the 13th of January. In the interim, enjoy the holidays, and I'll see you in the new year. Thanks for listening. If you found this episode helpful, share it with someone who could benefit from it. Until next time, I'm Becky Fraser, reminding you to integrate who you are with how you lead. Okay, bye.