The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

Leading with Trust: Building a Culture of Autonomy with Melissa Severance

• Jennifer Ann Johnson • Season 3 • Episode 15

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The workplace is evolving, with six generations soon sharing space and bringing vastly different expectations around leadership and autonomy. Today’s workers—especially younger ones—want more than a paycheck. They crave purpose, impact, and the freedom to make meaningful decisions.

Melissa Severance, executive leadership coach and HR consultant, unpacks what real autonomy looks like and how it transforms culture. She challenges outdated leadership models that stifle innovation and explains why fear often holds leaders back from embracing trust and flexibility.

Through practical strategies and real-life examples, Melissa explores how autonomy starts with small steps and builds through experience. One key insight: finding the right “souls for the right roles” is just as important as giving people freedom. When strengths align with responsibilities, everyone wins.

This episode offers a roadmap to building a culture where autonomy drives engagement, innovation, and retention—starting with one clear, empowered step.

Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!

Jennifer Johnson:

In today's fast-paced business world, the old command and control leadership style is absolutely obsolete. More and more successful companies are discovering the power of employee autonomy. But what does autonomy really mean in the workplace, and how can we foster it without losing sight of our business goals? Well, today we're diving deep into the world of team autonomy with our special guest, melissa Severance. She's an executive leadership coach and an HR consultant and training specialist. We'll explore how giving your team more freedom can lead to increased creativity, productivity and job satisfaction.

Jennifer Johnson:

Whether you're a startup founder or leading an established company, this episode is going to give you practical insights on how to build a culture of autonomy. We'll discuss everything from trust-building strategies to performance evaluation in an autonomous environment. Get ready to transform your leadership approach and unleash your team's full potential. Your journey to creating a more empowered and engaged workforce starts now. Let's dive in. Welcome, Melissa.

Jennifer Johnson:

Hi Jen, how are you? I'm good. We've had you on the last two seasons. We've talked a lot about HR and empowering teams and just all around teams, because that's what you do, yeah.

Melissa Severance:

I enjoy really bringing team success to the next level and really excited about this topic today because I do think every leader needs to really think about how they're empowering and giving their employees decision-making capabilities.

Jennifer Johnson:

So I was reading somewhere it's about the new. I don't know. Is it Generation Z, is that?

Melissa Severance:

Z, and there's also another.

Jennifer Johnson:

There's going to be six in the workforce soon, which is crazy, unprecedented no, never happened before, but that you know what they're really looking for right now isn't necessarily always the money you know that's nice, but they're looking for what impact am I going to make and how can I be the one to do that impacting? And that goes along with this autonomy, because you have to give them that or they're like peace out.

Melissa Severance:

Yeah, they want growth, they want to get to the next level, they want to show they're having purpose and making an impact.

Jennifer Johnson:

So we need to help them do that. So what does, at the core, providing that autonomy look like? What does it look like if a leader says you know what? I'm an autonomous leader, I'm going to let you here you go. What does that?

Melissa Severance:

look like. I think there's clear goals. Everybody knows what they can do, what they should do, and there might be thresholds, but there is a lot of openness for them to try things, think outside the box, make decisions and take things to another level. Do things a little differently, and they're not going to get scolded for it. They're not going to say, no, you have to do it this way, the way we've always done it. They could be creative. They can be innovative. They're going to transform.

Melissa Severance:

And that's what we really need our people to feel when they're at work. They can have open communication, raise their hand, say, hey, I have an idea, let's give it a shot, be okay to fail. And if they do fail, let's learn from it and do better the next time.

Jennifer Johnson:

What do you think are some barriers and why leaders may not want to step into? You know, leading their teams with autonomy. Why, what would that be?

Melissa Severance:

Great leaders develop great team members. So it really starts at the top, with the leader and how they have been trained and developed as a leader. Unfortunately, a lot of them are just doing the same that has been done to them, which is insanity, right, but we continue to do that and we think we need to micromanage. We don't know how to lead, so they do activities or try to be part of things too much and not give people that string to let them go and be them and take control and do great things their way, and you know I can see from being a leader myself how I'm telling everybody that I have been in my own way right and I've been in my leader's way.

Jennifer Johnson:

And when you step into somebody's way then they're going to take a step back because they see you as the leader and then if you're not leading by allowing them to lead I know this sounds like an old John Madden oh, absolutely. You know, if you don't have good leaders, then leaders aren't going to hear. But once I stepped away and allowed them to do their job, things changed. Yeah, but people I think leaders are scared. They are scared to do that.

Melissa Severance:

They've only known one way and it's scary. There's fear, yeah, the unknown, but you know, being an entrepreneur and being a leader, we have to embrace it and know that great things can come from it.

Jennifer Johnson:

So what's a first step to overcoming that mentality of okay? I mean, I know, for me it was just one day the light bulb went off and I went. What am I doing? I need to back away and let them do their job. Yeah.

Melissa Severance:

I think it comes from developing you know, developing trust on a team, and I think sometimes leaders don't trust their people and they have to figure out how to and know the different strengths of their people, what they bring to the table, what their knowledge is, what they could excel in, and do it in baby steps. I think everybody, you can't do all or nothing, can't be 100%. So give them a project, give them, you know, certain parts of their job that they can make decisions, or a threshold of a certain amount of money that you can make decisions with, to see where they go with it, and maybe you can keep bringing it higher and higher and then at one point they're totally empowered.

Jennifer Johnson:

So is that how you would suggest starting it, going in gradually, by just dipping?

Melissa Severance:

their toe in. Definitely, you know you got to make sure you're the right person doing the right things. So sometimes it's looking at the whole team, evaluating their strengths, making sure people are doing the right thing. Everybody needs different empowerment or accountability. Everybody's different, so what you might do for one employee will be totally different for another employee, Sometimes the whole team. Everything works.

Jennifer Johnson:

but usually it doesn't. I'm sure you know that as well.

Melissa Severance:

It would be that it would be so easy right.

Melissa Severance:

They want it to be easy, but it's really not. We have to really like dig deep on each person and, yeah, I do think it's like giving them a project, giving them something to show what they can do, and then continue and give them opportunities, make sure they see you in action doing certain things that you're going to want them to do before. It doesn't really cost any money to have them in a meeting or to try something. You know. Hey, try this project, let me know. You know, try to get it 60% for me, or you know, the 80-20 rule Try to get to there.

Melissa Severance:

If they can do the 80%, there's no harm and you're getting them motivated. They're excited to do something new and different. You're showing trust.

Jennifer Johnson:

Right, yeah, and I think that you know the trust component of it is pretty huge, because you know, whether you're a business owner or you're a team lead or whatever you are in leadership, that has to come first. You have to build up that level of trust with your team to know that, okay, if I give them this and back away, yeah, maybe they're not going to do it to my level, which is 90%, but am I okay with 70%? It doesn't always have to be 100% if it can get close.

Melissa Severance:

Yeah, we have to let go of process and just know the outcomes are there. Because our process, we think it's the best.

Jennifer Johnson:

It might not be.

Melissa Severance:

I learned so much from all these millennials, people younger than me that can do all these amazing things on apps with technology that I do not know about. I want to learn from them, like the reverse mentorship we can learn from our employees. We have to let it happen and we don't need to know everything. We can say I don't know to our team. Showing that really will start building that trust.

Jennifer Johnson:

I agree, because if we're a know-it-all, where is there to go from there? Nowhere, right. And I want to touch on something that you said about roles. Yeah, and finding I have a saying that somebody it was handed down to me, it's not my idea, but the right souls for the right roles, oh, I love it. And you find through this, probably through this process of maybe that's not the right soul for that role, yeah, I think you really have to evaluate your team.

Melissa Severance:

You know I think I told you this in another podcast that they used to put me in process and creating process process and my assessment said I was horrible at it, but I mastered it from so many years of doing it and got thrown into it and I was the only one that could do it. So, yeah, I'm great with process, I'm great with implementing things, but that probably wasn't my strength. I had other strengths. So we maybe push people in other directions because we need them there and then they become a master at it, but is that really where they should be, where they're really loving their job and giving the most impact to the firm? So we need to, you know. That's why I love assessments seeing where people lie. Are they in the right seats for success?

Jennifer Johnson:

You know. And then you have the other end of the continuum, where you throw somebody into the role and maybe they don't master it and they're miserable, they hate their job and then, you wonder why they quit or why you can't keep somebody in that role and you're pushing them the square peg into the round hole, kind of analogy.

Melissa Severance:

I had this one person who reported to me. She never wanted people to report into her. She was an individual contributor.

Melissa Severance:

She knew what she wanted, but she was a rock star did amazing work and when she did coach and guide, it was amazing as well too. But she just didn't want that. And so many years I actually, you know my leadership was in question because I didn't keep pushing her. But she did it naturally and she was happy with the way she did it. You know and I laughed that she had more and more people report to her and she wound up leaving because she felt so like pushed into something that she knew wasn't naturally what she wanted to do or what she enjoyed doing, even though she's really good at it. It doesn't mean you need to do it, so on that note.

Jennifer Johnson:

What advice would you give to somebody who is in that position, who's being pushed and they're like no wait a second. This is not where I see myself, or not where I feel like I excel. What would you suggest?

Melissa Severance:

I've had a lot of coaching clients where we had to discuss this.

Melissa Severance:

And it's really open communication and going to your leader and saying, hey, I know you need me for this, but this is not really where I want to be. How can we get somebody else to backfill me eventually? It doesn't have to be today, tomorrow, the next month, but like. It doesn't have to be today, tomorrow, the next month, but like how do we figure out some other solutions or parts of this job to go to somebody else that's more in tune with it? And I like to do more of this and seeing how we can change roles within the team or to bring a new, fresh perspective in from somebody else that has that exposure and experience. It's really all about the discussions and having them come to you and feel like they can See.

Jennifer Johnson:

That's the thing right, because a lot of people may be scared and go. You know what I could get fired over this. What if I say you know I don't want this role. You know that's always a scary part.

Melissa Severance:

Hey, is it more scary to go to work every day and hate it and not know that you're not contributing? I think bad work comes from that. Not on purpose, it just does. You have no passion. You don't love what you're doing. It gives you anxiety. Are you really performing to your top of your ability?

Jennifer Johnson:

Probably not Right Exactly, you know. Another idea that I have here is I'm actually working on something that marries innovation with core values and that whole topic, but how do you feel that providing your team with autonomy, what does that do for innovation within your company?

Melissa Severance:

I think it just allows it to thrive. I do love group things and group brainstorming. All of that together, I think, helps as well too for creativity and innovation. But sometimes on your own you can figure things out in another way because, you're not, like, brought into another form of thinking.

Melissa Severance:

When you're right here, you can go where you need to go to try to figure things out and you're trying things by yourself. Hey, you need to ask for coaching and guidance. Or go to a peer and say what do you think? Of course you need to ask for coaching and guidance. Or go to appear and say what do you think? Right, of course you need to do that. I'm not saying be so siloed, because sometimes when we talk about this subject, people think you're not working with people. You still need to collaborate. You still need to work with everyone. You still have some oversight from your manager, check-ins and making sure you don't have any questions, but you got to come in with solutions, right? Um, that's what the leader should really have their people do. Hey, you have this, but come to me and if you have any questions, come with a couple solutions. Let's talk through them together and figure out about the path.

Jennifer Johnson:

But do you think it's a good idea to maybe bring Sally from accounting and Jimmy from marketing and everyone kind of together as?

Melissa Severance:

well, I think it's a combination. So I think you need to have some group collaboration, brainstorming, you know, determining next steps, implementation together, and there will be different perspectives that will come out and I think it makes it even stronger when you do figure out the path forward. So I think you need a little bit of each, but at the same time, know that your employees can do a certain path forward by themselves.

Jennifer Johnson:

Do you have for our listeners a great example of a company perhaps that has done something like? This and have given great autonomy to their employees, and maybe what that result was versus what it was before they did that it's.

Melissa Severance:

it's funny, it's different times.

Melissa Severance:

There's companies that are really great at it, and there's other times that they aren't, and it can change over time, because as you grow from a 50 to 100 person, there's times where I've seen it thrive and then it go backwards Because one other leader comes in from somewhere else and they have a different course of action. Sometimes it's great when you have somebody there for a while that's leading that team, because then everybody feels so comfortable. But it's also good to switch it up as well too, and have different people. In my last firm I was at I was there 16 years. I've seen it. I saw it go up and down so many different times Because it's a leader yeah, I do think it's a leader. And then the other top. You know as well, too, how they want to change things up and do things differently.

Melissa Severance:

So my advice is that, even if you think you have it figured out, it won't always be figured out, it's always changing there's ups and downs with it. Just like your success with your business, there's ups and downs. Well, it's living and breathing yeah. Oh, absolutely.

Jennifer Johnson:

So you move one chess piece and then you're like, oh, this chess piece, yeah, now I have to move that one because it's not working.

Melissa Severance:

Exactly, and there's nothing wrong with it. We have these growing pains as we continue to grow as companies and we need to address it and do different things.

Melissa Severance:

You know there's. You know I, I love going into companies that have strong coaching cultures because you see a lot of empowerment there and some of them you would be surprised. I was doing a conference or speaking at a conference national SHRM conference in Vegas and a government institution from one of the states said we have a coaching culture, everybody's coached in the whole firm and one day a set aside for just coaching for our leaders to our employees every week. Wow, and I was in shock.

Jennifer Johnson:

One day.

Melissa Severance:

Yes, and it's governmental.

Jennifer Johnson:

And you said, wow, governmental organization.

Melissa Severance:

I know I was like unbelievable because I was like giving all the different characteristics of a coaching culture and she's like unbelievable Because I was like giving all the different characteristics of a coaching culture and she's like we do all of these and that was the only person in the room out of 250 that raised her hand.

Melissa Severance:

And it was shocking that it was a governmental. You know just depends on she goes. It's our leader, Of course. You know he brought it in and we instituted it. We're doing so much amazing, more work than we've ever done before. I've seen a total change in my company and I know when you do coaching, you're having them come with their own solutions, they're figuring it out. There's two people in the conversation and I'm sure they're going asking for help and doing other things as well too, because they're getting coached and guided to do that. So it's not a vacuum, it's not one person. That's true. Coaching encourages conversations.

Jennifer Johnson:

And the coaching component goes deeper than even providing autonomy, because it's providing development for your team members, because there's value in that too, especially for our new workforce, the six generations we talked about, and for those that are younger. I mean older as well, everyone really, but you know, like my generation and older, we weren't accustomed to having that in any business. Yeah, you know, nobody provided that?

Melissa Severance:

Yeah, you know, sometimes we just worry about our leaders getting trained, and sometimes leaders aren't trained at all, so we're at a point where they've been leading for a while, then we know we have to correct their leadership. You know skills, ability to try to get them to be the leader they should be at this point which they never got training for, because I come in for that a lot.

Melissa Severance:

But we have to also train our employees too. Sure, we can't just do one, not the other, because sometimes that leader will never be able to change and we need to make sure we have succession planning and it's just in the culture of this learning and this empowerment and if they know they should be empowered, these new professionals in the workforce will say, hey, I know I can do this.

Jennifer Johnson:

Right Exactly Now on the topic and I know we're talking about autonomy, but it just kind of opened up a question talking about training and development for leaders and employees. You know what are a few different kinds of things that companies should look at to train their leaders and to train their employees on. Are they the same thing? Are they different?

Melissa Severance:

I think they can be the same thing. So I do trainings with a lot of managers but we also put some other, we sprinkle in some other people so they can learn and have their perspective and you know, probably people that go to the next level. But I also have done for my trainings where everybody is in there learning the components.

Melissa Severance:

I do still think it's effective to everyone in the room, but just in a different way. You know, you might have to change up some of the conversation, you might have to do something a little different, but they all are hungry for learning in these areas and they all want to do their best work and they all have passion for their jobs. They're coming in every day and they need this, so all of them need to be together on this and really learn together. It'll be even better.

Jennifer Johnson:

Right. Well, if you don't know, you don't know. And to have somebody guide you and say, hey, we've got this training in this area, is that something you're interested in?

Melissa Severance:

And there are some topics like critical thinking, problem solving. I can do that for anybody in the firm. And sometimes the problem solving. We bring in true things that are going on in the firm and try to figure it out together. That I think is priceless. When you were doing that Real world?

Jennifer Johnson:

Yeah, because that I think is priceless when you were doing that Real world. Yeah, because there's one thing you're doing a case study and it doesn't even pertain to your industry. It would be like coming into my retail store and doing something that happens at a law firm. We would all be like and this affects us, how Like. How are we supposed to take that and apply it to what we're doing here?

Melissa Severance:

Yeah, and sometimes the leader is so high up they can't figure out solutions so you need to have your employees have these skill sets because other ones coming with the outside the box ideas, the new, fresh ideas that we, you know what we did before. It doesn't always work anymore.

Jennifer Johnson:

So you know how? Okay. So we, we all agree autonomy is is really what we should be having with our company. We should allow our employees to be able to make decisions, whether they're big, they're small, whatever it is that they're defined as. But how do you actually measure that this stuff is working? You know, it's just like the developmental training. You know, going from that to the autonomy, how do you even measure that any of it's working?

Melissa Severance:

Yeah, you know some things that I always point out is are people happy at work? You?

Melissa Severance:

know, how is your culture, is it, you know, increased? Do you see people raising their hands for things that are even not something like a promotion? Are you promoting more people in-house, you know? Are they ready for the next step? That is definitely something. Retention rate, of course, is an. Engagement rate is the highest. You'll see it in engagement surveys. You'll see different kind of responses than you ever had before. All of that is important to do and I think during your one-on-one conversations with your employees, they'll be totally different. They're not check-ins like tell me about this, tell me about that. It'll be about hey, I really need to advance in this. How can I do this?

Jennifer Johnson:

How can you help me with this, or you?

Melissa Severance:

know this is a. This is something we never looked into. Let's can we talk about this. It'll be different conversations will be happening with your team.

Jennifer Johnson:

Yeah, then you would normally have at a normal.

Melissa Severance:

You mentioned surveys.

Jennifer Johnson:

Yeah.

Melissa Severance:

You know, yeah, there's engagement surveys. That I do think is great to pulse your employees. Now you have to have the right culture and the right trust and the right open communication for it to really work. So I do think you should do it to get a baseline always Anonymous, anonymous is actually better, but a lot of companies and you know, even if you do an anonymous, everybody feels it's really not anonymous.

Jennifer Johnson:

There's a way you can find out.

Melissa Severance:

So I do say, try to go third parties or different things along those lines. But if you do get results, the big thing is doing something about it. And a lot of times they do and they're like why am I even going to write this and put myself in jeopardy of anything if no change is going to happen? So we got to make sure we're making changes from what we hear from our employees, really listening to them, what they really want and need, and doing as best we can for what works for the firm. It's not always we can't do everything the employees want, of course, but if there's small changes that we can do, that's going to be so impactful to everyone why not do it Right.

Jennifer Johnson:

And you know, that's the funny thing that you say it's like somebody makes a change, it's like can you move the bathroom closer to my cubicle?

Melissa Severance:

You know that's like no, sorry, I can't do that.

Jennifer Johnson:

But there are some things, whether they may be really small or or minute to one person, to somebody else it's a huge deal breaker, yeah.

Melissa Severance:

And the surveys are good because people want to be heard. So there's a lot of people that want to be heard. I like more of a smaller group and individual, because people open up more. Of course, in a big group, as you know, not many people raise their hands. When you're in a big conference, you're trying to get people to speak up and you might have to call on somebody and just go walk over. They're not going to be saying possibly exactly what they want to say in front of a huge room or in a survey. They think that all the leadership's going to see.

Jennifer Johnson:

Right, it's scary. Again, it goes back to if I stand up and make it known what I think, am I in jeopardy? Are they going to think something less of me, or are? They going to look over me for the next promotion, because the squeaky wheel gets the oil kind of thing?

Melissa Severance:

Absolutely. The squeaky wheels are tough, but they make change and they make you better, so I would like more squeaky wheels.

Jennifer Johnson:

It's funny, I was just talking to my daughter about this, about something with her sorority, and I'm like, well, it's in your control, right? You could say, hey, I want to be on this committee or I want to make this change. And then I said, you know what about your friend? And she's like, oh, I doubt that you know that person will want to do that. And I'm like, well, then, it's up to you. But so many people back down, I think, fear of rejection, fear of just voicing it and getting it out there. But imagine what it's going to feel like on the other end if you actually were the person that made the catalyst, that were the catalyst to make that change.

Melissa Severance:

Yeah, and one question I ask in coaching all the time is what's the harm? What do you think is going to happen when you do this? And usually, when you think through it and you say them out loud, they're not as scary anymore, right, and they're like you know what I can do, that that's not going to be something that I'm really nervous about or it's going to be really hurting my career. It might just open communication and things might get better.

Jennifer Johnson:

Yeah, Most of the time, if we say it, we verbalize it, you look at it and you go oh well, that's. You know what is the worst thing that can happen? Oh well, this, well, that's it. But in our heads it's this mountain.

Melissa Severance:

But when we say it, it's a molehill and sometimes people need other people to feel it and think it too, before they say it. They can't be the only one, but usually people have a lot of the same thoughts and feelings about a firm or a process or something like that. They're just too scared to say it. You need to be you know, have the confidence to really bring it up.

Jennifer Johnson:

Right, yeah, absolutely. Well, I feel like we were kind of all over the place today. That's okay, but it all related back to creating autonomy with your team and really what it does. Is there anything else you'd like to share with our audience that we really didn't touch on today with regard to autonomy?

Melissa Severance:

Ooh, let's see so much fun stuff. You know, I think it's. You know, start small, pilot different empowerment to your team, it all will help you. Gradually let it go, and you know it's funny. Joe, yes, joe the home, pro Joe the home pro.

Jennifer Johnson:

We're giving you a shout out. Just shout out, joe. Maybe you want to sponsor the confident entrepreneur.

Melissa Severance:

Just throwing that out, there, he'd be a great sponsor, but he, you know, if you look back at his podcast with you such great information and you know, I remember when he you know we went to Hawaii two plus years ago now and his company worked without him for the time we were there and that story always is great for me to highlight because until we're out of the picture, we don't know that it could work without us. We can make money, revenue. We don't have to be in every decision, we don't have to be at the table. We can empower people to get it done for us.

Jennifer Johnson:

You're right, it can break while you're gone. Yeah, they can figure out how to fix it. If they can't figure out how to fix it, you fix it when you get back Exactly, but you know, it's been nice seeing his journey and his ups and downs, and he'll be on again. Oh great, he'll be on again this season.

Melissa Severance:

You're going to learn a lot of great stuff from him. You know, coming up, he's in his own and trying all these different things, you know, exciting. He's really empowering people around him Because he has to Right.

Jennifer Johnson:

That's our job as leaders. Yeah Well, wonderful. Well, if our listeners would like to get in touch with you, Melissa, how do they do so?

Melissa Severance:

So you can go to inspirebigdreamscom, melissa Severance, and Inspire Big Dreams on all the social channels LinkedIn, facebook, instagram, all the other so DM me, reach out, melissa at inspirebigdreamscom. Love to chat with you about teams, leadership, hr, anything that you might need Wonderful. Thank you so much, melissa. Thanks, jen, always great being here.

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