Megan Kelly’s Take on Leadership: Foster Growth, Not Anxiety

Megan Kelly is the executive producer and founder of bicoastal production company Honor Society. She brings nearly two decades of experience on both the agency and commercial production sides of the business and was an early adopter to the digital content space.

While honing her skills for every facet of production with a hands-on approach, she has also earned a reputation for curating and developing creative talent. Prior to founding Honor Society, she led production teams for such top industry shops as Savage, Shilo, The Sweet Shop, Public Domain and Cza, as well as launching the live action division at Click 3X.

Kelly’s work has garnered some of the industry’s most prestigious awards, including One Show, AICP and Cannes Lions accolades.

Megan sat down with LBB to discuss what effective leadership looks like to her, fostering talent and selective transparency…

LBB> What was your first experience of leadership?

Megan> My parents were teachers, and there is something to that natural leadership that they brought home to our family. They encouraged me to seek change rather than to complain. As a result, I was always trying to be part of a mechanism that would impact the status quo.

As a child and teenager, I was an overinvolved overachiever and was in tons of clubs and activities where I had leadership roles. In one of those capacities, I was president of my high school National Honor Society, which was the genesis of the company name.

Professionally, it was becoming a production coordinator and manager that led me to realise that the crew was dependent on me having the right knowledge – and sometimes instincts – to get through a shoot.

LBB> How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be – or what kind of leader you didn’t want to be?

Megan> Throughout our careers, we internalise the things that made us feel like we were on the right path. Overall, I feel leadership needs vision and meaning in order to be effective.

Good leaders need to chart the course, but also be aware of how to get the team to see and want to follow that vision. I have worked at places where there is no vision and everyone just feels untethered. Everyone wants to feel like they are on the team and part of the solution.

Leaders should also foster talent and be able to recognise strengths in the team and learn to help people to see their strengths and steer their jobs toward that.

You also want to challenge people in the right ways to make sure that they are always growing and feeling like they are moving to the next stage of their career.

LBB> What experience or moment gave you your biggest lesson in leadership?

Megan> I was working at a company where the people and their opinions were not valued. When mistakes were made, there was only finger pointing and no accountability from leadership. The team was an incredibly talented group and everyone was just quashed with this oppressive leadership.

Every single person who was on that team eventually left and went on to do truly exceptional things in this business. I often think about what that company could have achieved with that group of people had the leadership fostered their talent and encouraged their voices to be heard. Looking at that leadership failure has been my North Star on how to create the right balance.

LBB> When it comes to 'leadership' as a skill, how much do you think is a natural part of personality, how much can be taught and learned?

Megan> It’s both. There are some personalities who gravitate toward leadership or are more natural leaders, but thoughtful and effective leadership is very much learned.

You can learn to be a better listener, you can learn to see strengths in people that they do not see, you can learn to communicate more effectively. Plenty of skills that even ‘natural’ leaders need to learn, as well.

LBB> Have you ever felt like you've failed whilst in charge? How did you address the issue and what did you learn from it?

Megan> I fail all the time. I don’t like it, but if you aren’t failing you aren’t trying. You have to learn to dust yourself off, accept responsibility, analyse what you did wrong or what went wrong beyond your control, apply your learnings and move on to try again.

I think this needs to be a part of everyone’s leadership process. We all have to keep trying new things! You won’t be successful on your tries if you don’t mess up every now and then and figure out how to learn from it.

LBB> In terms of leadership and openness, what’s your approach there? Do you think it’s important to be as transparent as possible in the service of being authentic? Or is there a value in being careful and considered?

Megan> I’m a big fan of selective transparency. I have learned that being too transparent can sometimes make the team feel anxious. Even at your best attempt to be transparent your team is still never going to have all of the information or small details and subtleties that you will have access to. That information is often pivotal to having an accurate understanding of the situation.

When big decisions are being made now I tend to address things with broader strokes until I can give a complete picture.

LBB> As you developed your leadership skills, did you have a mentor, if so who were/are they and what have you learned? And on the flip side, do you mentor any aspiring leaders and how do you approach that relationship?

Megan> I have been really fortunate to have been led by effective leaders who led with strength but kindness. I have also worked for folks who were ineffective leaders who led with fear.

Knowing who to model yourself on is important, but knowing what kind of leader that you don’t want to be is invaluable.

Nobody wants to come to work to be pitted against a colleague or to constantly be worried about their job status. A leader’s job is to create the circumstances to bring out the best in people, not to send them to therapy.

I have never been a traditional mentor to anyone, but I hope that I have provided some folks with an environment where they felt like they were supported.

LBB> In continually changing market circumstances, how do you cope with the responsibility of leading a team through difficult waters?

Megan> I look at change as evolution. While that can lead to a lot of uncertainty, it is important to not lead with fear. We evaluate the issues and then brainstorm ways that we can be effective. Fear will paralyse you and make everyone operate through constant anxiety. During uncertain times, teams need to see leaders taking action and they need to be communicated with consistently.

I also like hearing opinions, voices, etc. I find that listening to what folks are anxious about or hearing their thoughts on a situation are invaluable. First, it makes people feel included, but also it helps to change my perspective.

I want to be sure I am looking at the issue through lots of different angles before I make a big decision, especially since the team will be impacted as well.

LBB> As a leader, what are some of the ways in which you’ve prioritised diversity and inclusion within your workforce?

Megan> As a woman-owned company, diversity has been in Honor Society’s DNA and has been reflected in our roster and crews. One of the reasons I founded Honor Society was that I never again wanted to walk on set and be one of only a handful of women in a sea of white faces. We have never made diversity a mandate because it was just where we gravitated.

When you work with like minded people and have a common goal, diversity becomes a priority naturally.

LBB> How important is your company culture to the success of your business? And how have you managed to keep it alive with increases in remote and hybrid working patterns?

Megan> Company culture is everything. The past year has been a challenge because we combined Honor Society with the MacGuffin staff and had to bring everyone together, kind of like ‘The Brady Bunch’.

We had to learn to understand the idiosyncrasies of each other’s cultures. We looked at it as an opportunity to be stronger and to build mutual trust and to try entirely new ways of working.

I am wildly impressed at how this team embraced this huge change and has really come together.

Most of our team is in NY and in the office four to five days a week, but we do have a few folks in LA and a few others remote. One way to connect us all and build camaraderie is that we do twice weekly zoom meetings where we do a status check in so that everyone has a gross understanding of what is happening in the company. It’s a platform to discuss issues, help each other to solve problems and offer support.

We also spend time sharing personal things, discussing current events and pop culture. One of our favorite activities this year was an office pool on who was going to be the shooter and the dead body on White Lotus. It gave us something fun to talk about on Monday mornings and gave the group something simple to have in common as they continued to get to know each other.

It was a simple way to build relationships, communicate and have some fun.

LBB> What are the most useful resources you’ve found to help you along your leadership journey?

Megan> Friends. Having a few trusted friends in the business who I can speak with freely is invaluable. Whether it is to ask advice, bounce ideas off of or just complain or have a laugh, it’s great to have a supportive network outside of your four walls who may be going through similar things.

Additionally, a few years ago, I co-founded OWNED which is an international group of women owners in the business. These relationships now run deep and we mentor each other and offer support.

The group is filled with women at various stages of their careers and everyone is able to offer unique perspectives on pretty much any situation. I am also eternally grateful for the AICP. The weekly Town Halls and the Labor and Business Affairs roundtables are very helpful and a wonderful way to stay connected to the community.