Building educational bridges to leadership with Melissa Johnson

Join us as we talk to Executive Director of the Bellevue College Foundation Melissa Johnson about her unconventional higher education journey and how that led to success and leadership opportunities. Melissa shares her passion for helping others along their own educational journeys and will inspire you to continue moving forward despite fear and doubt. 

Show Notes:

(0:35) Melissa talks about her educational journey including getting expelled from high school and enrolling at Bellevue College at 37 years old and how that now has transformed into her role at the Bellevue College Foundation.

(6:06) We discuss personal leadership style and how Melissa developed her leadership experience before holding a formal leadership role. 

(8:17) Melissa shares her biggest “ah ha” moment...when she learned it was really ok to be wrong and to say you don’t know but will figure it out. We discuss how confidence and leadership excellence are linked and how being an effective leader is about continuing to move forward.

(13:00) We talk about building your network and the importance of “getting out of people’s way” so they can succeed. Melissa shares the inspiring idea that “even if I can’t do what you want me to do, I still might be able to help with what you need.”

(18:21) We dive into fear and talk openly and honestly about being scared to take the next step in your leadership journey. Melissa affirms this as part of her journey and how she now helps encourage others to take that next step through her leadership. 

(22:35) Finally we leave you with actionable advice to stop competing and to build bridges instead. 

About Melissa: Melissa Johnson is the Executive Director of the Bellevue College Foundation. A late in life learner, Melissa attended BC for the first time at 37 years old. After achieving her AA, she attended the University of Washington where she triple-majored in Communications, Humanities and Social Sciences, receiving the President’s Medal in 2014. Next, Melissa attended Seattle University, graduating with a master’s in nonprofit leadership. In late 2022, Melissa joined the Foundation as their Executive Director. Returning to where her educational journey started is a privilege in Melissa’s eyes. Her passion is removing barriers and allowing people to flourish in ways that are meaningful to them. To do that in a place that meant so much to her journey is something she refuses to take for granted.

Resources:

Website: https://www.bellevuecollege.edu/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome everybody to the Seasons Leadership Podcast, where we are committed to leaders everywhere, at all levels, who want to make progress on their leadership journey. We will bring you actionable advice to improve your leadership and life today.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Thank you for joining us At Seasons Leadership. We share a vision to make excellent leadership the world-wide standard. Learn more at seasonsleadershipcom. Well welcome, melissa Johnson. It's so great to have you here.

Speaker 3: 0:32

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here to talk with both of you.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Well, tell us a bit about yourself. How did you get here?

Speaker 3: 0:40

So it is my great privilege to have the title Executive Director of the Bellevue College Foundation. This is a role that really, if I had dreamed up the perfect job for me, I probably wouldn't even have found it this cool. So I was kind of a late in life learner. I did not go to college right out of high school. I came from a family that really felt strongly about entrepreneurship, didn't have a lot of history of college attendance, didn't have people that had graduated from college, and so it wasn't really on the track. I was a tennis player and had some nice scholarship offers. Didn't really know how college worked for me.

Speaker 3: 1:22

And then I relocated across the country in my senior year of high school and just didn't fit in well. I had good grades, I was bright, but I was miserable, not knowing people. I moved into the Bellevue community and found it tough to acclimate, so I started skipping a bunch of classes and, despite being invited to attend, I did not. I declined their generous offer of an education in my senior year and ended up expelled just a week or two before graduation of my senior year, which was a real shock for someone who'd been a good student, though kind of not all that interested in being a student, so I ended up in classes after my senior year to get my high school diploma, which I did but never really pursued college. I ended up a single mom at 20 and had the privilege of working for my parents' company for a bit and you know sort of bringing in income.

Speaker 3: 2:22

I married young to a wonderful guy. Thank goodness I married the right guy. But college was not either of our paths. So we continued to work hard and do everything we had to do to raise our family but really didn't ever have the job security or anything like that. I got deeply engaged into PTA, started doing things in the schools, met some of the school leaders who said you really should go get your degree, and at this time my oldest was 17, looking at college, and I really wanted to understand the process and set an example.

Speaker 3: 3:00

So I enrolled at Bellevue College at 37 years old with the intention of just getting my AA and got to the end of the program and this friend that had encouraged me to do this. And then the great people at Bellevue College said you know, now you go to the University of Washington. And I sort of went what? I'm 39 now I've got three kids, I've got a full time job. That's not for me.

Speaker 3: 3:23

And I found out that it really was for me and that college was really accessible, no matter what age or what stage I went. I thoroughly loved it. I ended up triple majoring and was really grateful to receive the President's Medal at graduation, and with that came a financial gift that I put towards my graduate program. So I went to Seattle University and did a graduate degree in nonprofit leadership, which led to a development role at another nonprofit, and at that point it became clear I needed to move on and this position came open and it really exceeded all expectations. It is such a joy to be here. I just got back after two and a half weeks gone and was really genuinely happy to be back. So yeah, a little bit long, but that's how I ended up at the Bellevue College Foundation.

Speaker 1: 4:21

Well, that's wonderful. Tell us a little bit about what you do there, melissa. I mean, what is it what's involved in being executive director of the?

Speaker 3: 4:29

it's. It's. It's really fantastic. So the bellevue college foundation is similar to a lot of foundations in the ctc system, which is our community and technical college system. University foundations are a little more expansive, but in a ctc our primary goal here at bellevue College and across a lot of the region is student support in many different ways. It's scholarships. We raise the money for scholarships and then we invest in the scholarships. We run the processes. We're just finishing up our scholarship read week. We do a lot of student safety net support. We provide resources for faculty and staff on campus. We provide grants to the campus. We go out and create corporate partnerships, people who want to invest in the campus so that we can further the goals of the campus and the community.

Speaker 3: 5:22

It really is about engaging the larger community to support all of the different pieces of a college campus. As an executive director, I oversee a phenomenal team. My number one job is to get out of their way. So we have development professionals, we have a director of development, two associate development directors, development coordinator, director of development to associate development directors, development coordinator. We have scholarship manager, we have an events manager, we have finance director. So it really is a. It's pretty wide ranging, but it all comes back to community building and community engagement in order to support our campus.

Speaker 2: 6:01

I'm curious, melissa. You know about your. You called yourself a late learner. I would imagine you were learning a lot along the way before you decided to go to Bellevue College. But how does that? How did you weave in your personal leadership style? You know, I have a feeling you maybe always had leadership positions.

Speaker 3: 6:35

I have Some of them. You know PTSA was a lot of people might make fun of it, you know PTSA moms and that but it really was a great foray into putting work where my heart really was, which was supporting students Growing up in Bellevue. You know there's probably a wide ranging variety of people on here, but Bellevue is in a privileged area but didn't have similar privilege, so I really had the opportunity to. I didn't enjoy.

Speaker 3: 7:02

I really think, though, that it took a long time to step into confidence. I think being a successful leader has a lot to do with believing that you're able to affect the change that you want to make, and that took a little bit longer, and that took really some college experiences. For me that alleviated a lot of the insecurities I had around. Did I know enough? It turns out nobody ever feels really like they know enough, with the exception of a few, but so I really think that working in the community and being around people really helped me step into leadership roles, and it was nobody else was doing it sort of thing is how I got started Not where I would suggest for everyone, but it really worked well for me.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Well, sticking with that same theme, what would you say has maybe been your biggest aha moment since stepping into a leadership role, something you've learned from?

Speaker 3: 8:26

I would say that my first aha moment really came early and that was that when you can admit your mistakes, people are really forgiving. You know, I spent a lot of time pretending that I had an answer to every question in early, early leadership roles that I had before this. I felt like I was unable to say I don't know or give me a minute to figure that out. I felt like perhaps it would indicate that I wasn't qualified. My big aha moment and I'm lucky that it came I'm into my 50s now, but I'm lucky that it came in my early 30s was it's really okay to be wrong? It's really okay to say I don't know?

Speaker 3: 9:12

What people really want is to know how you're going to figure it out and to know where they can be helpful or where you might need support in getting to that next step. So I really think it's that. I think it's realizing that nobody knows what they're doing. The first day on a job, you might have ideas and you know what is expected, but it's okay to not know. It's okay to think that you're not qualified, but you've got to figure out how to get there to be an effective leader. And that's one of my biggest learning moments. Was it's okay.

Speaker 1: 9:47

It will work out.

Speaker 2: 9:48

It will. It really strikes me. What you're saying is that, when you're talking about confidence, there was some point in your journey where your confidence grew enough to know that you might not know the answer, but you're confident enough in yourself to know you're going to figure it out.

Speaker 3: 10:11

Absolutely, and I think that comes from one of the things I've been thinking about, because the podcast is focused on leadership, excellence and that and it's you know it is what are the ways that I participate in that, what are the ways that I feel comfortable in that? And for me, it's about not believing that I'm excellent, but knowing that I can move in that direction right. I don't ever want to settle and go. Knowing that I can move in that direction right. I don't ever want to settle and go. I have achieved what I need to achieve, but it is about knowing that I can continue to move forward. If excellence is a 10, I may still only be a two, but, darn it, I'm working towards that three. And that confidence comes from always wanting to learn, always be curious. I love to be curious to the point of maddening. At times. I've been told that my questioning gets a little intense. Sometimes I come on strong because I ask so many questions. People will feel interrogated, but it's this genuine curiosity that I have for knowing more and learning more. I love to seek knowledge.

Speaker 3: 11:17

I work on a college campus and I've never worked in higher education before, and so I sit through meetings that maybe an executive director of a college foundation wouldn't normally sit through. But I want to learn. I want to know what is the role of the provost, our chief academic officer? How does it interact with a foundation? What does it mean to get tenure? You know these are all things that get thrown around and you know the words, but it's this genuine curiosity and what that has led to is a lot of learning in ways that we can partner in interest of other programs that might not be obvious, where we can shape, and that improves my leadership every day because it is growing a network and a community that if I hadn't stepped into, I don't know what can I learn. We wouldn't know all of these great things.

Speaker 3: 12:08

And, susan, you know you and I. I ended up here because you and I had a meeting where I wasn't really sure what that connection would be, but it certainly turned out to be one of those great moments that you realize how much you can expand into other areas. And you know, confidence also comes from noting people who do leadership really well and trying to share some of those traits and invite them in and really welcome other people's success. It's important to me that I'm not competing with other leaders, that I'm learning from them, that I'm participating in their growth and they're participating in mine, and I really think it's a beautiful system when you can find a group of people that can support and uplift you in your journey.

Speaker 2: 12:57

You know I love this, melissa, because this is something that Debbie and I talk about a lot, and that's about creating your network and supporting and collaborating, and you know that kind of thing, and we talk about doing this deliberately. You know, it's not just happenstance. Do you have a system or how do you?

Speaker 3: 13:30

how do you do this? Working collaboratively? There are different ways. Right, the role of an executive director. My number one responsibility, in my view, is my team team and I try to take actionable steps to empower them to grow our network in our community. They are the subject experts. The best thing I can do for this team is to get out of their way. So I really want them to explore the community Meetings they take that may not make sense to me could end up being some of the most meaningful activities for our foundation, for their development, for the growth of our work and our impact. So getting out of people's way is one of those really important ways that I try to collaborate and give people space to grow their networks, because it impacts and helps all of us as a group.

Speaker 3: 14:22

Steps that I take on campus. I try to say yes to every invitation. I really don't ever believe that, because I hold a place on an org chart, that meetings are below or above my station. Right, that's just not a mindset that we have at the college. It's not a mindset that I have anywhere in my life. I think that the most impactful meetings that people can have are the ones with the people whose jobs don't look like theirs. So I try to say yes to everything.

Speaker 3: 14:53

If there's a faculty luncheon, I'm not faculty but, boy, I want to go to that. If I'm invited, I try to say yes. If they're doing a conference on campus on AI, wow, am I not qualified for that? But let's go and see where we might support or intersect. So really important step for me is saying yes as much as possible, and also in creating community. It's not just yes to invitations, but when people come to us with ideas, I really want to get to yes. I don't ever want someone to feel that they brought an idea that was important to them and were shut out or shut down. I can't always say yes, but I can always help us work to a yes that works for everyone. So that's a big one for me. I want people to feel that this office door is always open to our campus and to our community and that if we can't do what you want, maybe we can still help with what you need.

Speaker 1: 15:52

Wow, I love that. Another thing that Susan and I that you're very aligned with, that we talk about all the time is owning your own leadership journey right, taking responsibility for yourself so that you're not dependent on other people telling you you can do something or when, when you can do something, you know at what age you can start doing something, and we like to talk about wherever you are. You can start your journey today. So I know you mentioned that you had people who whispered in your ear and said, hey, you're smart, you would be good at this. Why don't you go get your degree? What other things do you think contributed to your leadership journey? Because it sounds like once you got started, things just took off.

Speaker 3: 16:41

Sure, took a long time to get started, but I think that that benefits me.

Speaker 3: 16:46

So I think that, in the back of my head, being a parent for me was part of that journey and that's, you know, not the way everybody gets there, chooses to get there. For me it was important because I was a single mom. I was very young, I knew the mistakes I was making and I knew how friends of mine who were older and wiser and more ahead of me in this journey really contributed to my learning, really contributed to me maybe getting outside of repeating different habits and patterns that I had grown up with and that's not to, you know, disparage anything. I love improving. I'm very much a systems thinker and I think that I've always done that in smaller ways and then built to a confidence where I could do it in larger ways.

Speaker 3: 17:35

But really, at the end of the day, I'm just a real extrovert that loves to participate in a solution. And being able to do that for work never really occurred to me. I always just did it as a volunteer and did it in the neighborhood and did it for Little League and soccer and those things. But I think that my entire journey has been really wanting to. I just like to do things well and learning how to do them well, and also knowing that that perfectionism and that desire can get in the way and with sometimes, nothing but experience and a little bit of age can help you get there any faster or better.

Speaker 1: 18:20

And it sounds like also not being afraid, even though you felt lot and didn't go in and register for a class.

Speaker 3: 18:45

So I don't want to give any impression that anxiety wasn't a huge part of my journey, and part of my journey was learning to overcome that. And it was hard and it took therapy and at one point took some medication because I just wasn't in a place that I needed to be. That was healthy and I was able to get there. But I don't know that I would consider it brave, I think, looking back maybe, but I think it was support. I think I found the right people that could help me and I was able to lean on that and then the college took over for them and it wasn't that they didn't still do that.

Speaker 3: 19:23

But I really want people to know that sometimes taking that first step and that soft landing and that's what I really try to provide to anyone on this campus. You know I love going to our open houses on our discovery days because there are always people there that don't know how to take that next step and I want to give them that warm handoff and know the right person and again, that's just part of building your network is. I know someone in our AI program who will hold your hand and walk you through and everyone on this campus wants so badly for our students to succeed and a huge part of that is just helping them take that first step and to move past that fear. So I appreciate the assumption that it was not being scared, but it was scared out of my mind.

Speaker 1: 20:09

And doing it anyway.

Speaker 3: 20:10

That's bravery, still in this job right, I mean coming to work. I was scared to death to take this position. It was a huge step for me, but I did it and I love it and found a team that was incredibly supportive while I learned it.

Speaker 2: 20:28

Yeah, you know, talking to you, melissa, is so inspiring and I just know people who hear you talk will be inspired because all these doubts and and um, you know these doubts and and you know trepidations that you have described, you know so many people have, but seeing that you know you can work through it, become a leader and make a huge difference, and and you are. I mean, if you think about a definition of excellent leadership, allowing space and support for other people to be the best that they can be, I can't think of a better definition.

Speaker 3: 21:15

Well, it's very generous and, you know, I really I hope that people who hear this, the thing that really stuck with me for a long time. I am too old to do this, right At 37, I am too old to do this. I just couldn't. And boy, let me tell you I have never been happier, I've never felt more in control, I've never felt healthier in my life than making these steps when I did. And I wouldn't have been as successful if I had done it any sooner. And I mean, we have scholarship recipients who are 84 years old at the college and it makes me happy every day.

Speaker 3: 21:57

And I had, you know, I had friends who weren't afraid to put on Facebook hey, mid thirties, going to grad school, here I go. And so it is important for us to go out and say, oh my God, I was scared. Oh my God, I thought I was too loud or too old. Oh my God, I thought I was too much in the room. Oh my God, and do it anyway, because that's how others will see themselves. We can't achieve what we don't know seed themselves.

Speaker 2: 22:29

We can't achieve what we don't know Right. That is wonderful. I think it's a great point to end on. But, Debbie, do you have a?

Speaker 1: 22:35

question. I can see you, I do have a question. I do have one, so we can't end yet. So I would like to know. You've got a bunch of listeners out there listening to this podcast and listening for actionable advice. What's something that I can go do today? What step would you recommend that our listeners take on their leadership journey based on what you've experienced?

Speaker 3: 23:00

I would say, circling back to what I was talking about in the beginning stop competing. Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop feeling like, if you don't do something better or if you don't admit that you're not doing it as well, that you can't be successful. Stop competing. Build bridges.

Speaker 3: 23:22

I am one of 34 community and technical colleges in this state. I root for the success of every single one of them, even those where our students may go back and forth, because my goal at the end of the day is to move my organization forward and if I have metrics that are only based on what I do, it's going to be very siloed. I think there are solutions out there. If I really am intent on moving people through their educational journey, then sometimes that's going to be me saying to one of our students you know what? Renton Tech has an amazing program on your passion and we don't Let me connect you with my friend over there.

Speaker 3: 24:03

So actionable items say I don't know. Just say it once. Say it once every day and feel good about it. Feel like you have opened yourself up to learning. Stop competing, don't be afraid to break out of those silos If somebody says they don't want to participate. It's never about you, it's never about you. It is about where they are in their journey and it's okay to build those bridges. Look to build those connections, because the growth you get in that will far outweigh anything you can do by simply looking at your own siloed area.

Speaker 1: 24:54

Fantastic, fantastic advice and everyone can follow that, starting today. Thank you so much for being with us today, melissa.

Speaker 3: 25:02

We've really enjoyed the conversation with you, thank you so much for being with us today, melissa. We've really enjoyed the conversation with you. It has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much. If any of your listeners have students interested in the community and technical college system, please reach out if we're not the right one. I've got a great network of people, but I really just want to put in a plug for the importance of these colleges in our community and in our system and in our state, and we really do have a lot of opportunities depending on where people want to be.

Speaker 2: 25:30

You motivated me. I kind of want to go back to school.

Speaker 3: 25:33

We have. You know, the beautiful thing about our community and technical colleges is that we have everything. You know Bellevue College has 15 bachelor's degrees, but we have 160 programs. We have hundreds of certification programs, we have continuing ed, we have senior education, we have GED completion, we have international students, we have ESL. There is a place for everyone. Come take a ceramics class right. There's something for everyone. So I hope that people walk away with an understanding that a community and technical college really is a place for everyone to find their own path and their own leadership journey.

Speaker 2: 26:10

Well, how do people find you, Melissa?

Speaker 3: 26:13

You know, we've got a website bellevuecollegeedu and then the foundation of course is on our homepage, but bellevuecollegeedu slash foundation and you can get right to us. But I'm on the web page, you can Google us. We are really here to help people find their way.

Speaker 2: 26:30

Great. Thank you very much. It was great to have you.

Speaker 3: 26:33

Thank you, so nice to see you both.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Thank you, listeners, for joining us today. We hope that you were inspired by this conversation.

Speaker 2: 26:41

And we invite you to join our community on Patreon See the link below. There you will find more resources to help you on your leadership journey.

Speaker 1: 26:50

Make sure to join us next time for more conversation about leadership excellence.