--- title: "Episode 33: Leading Transformational Change: Why Shaping the Path Works — with Melissa Pepper" description: Lead(h)er Founder Melissa Pepper explains how listening, shared ownership, and shaping the path turn transformational change into results that stick. --- [![Velocity Advisory Group](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Velocity-Logo-2023-Wide-1.png)](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/) ☰ Menu - About - [Meet Our Team](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/about/) - [Meet Our Coaches](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/coaches/) - [Careers](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/careers/) - [Speaking Engagements](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/velocity-speakers/) - Solutions - [Culture & Engagement](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/culture-engagement/) - [DISC Assessments & Training](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/disc-assessments-training/) - [Employee Experience](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/employee-experience/) - [Executive Coaching](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/executive-coaching/) - [Family Business](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/family-business/) - [Leadership Development](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-development/) - [Sales Training](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/5cs-of-selling/) - [Strategy & Implementation](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/strategy-implementation/) - Resources - [Activating Greatness Podcast](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/podcast/) - [Blog](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/blog/) - [Case Studies](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/case-studies/) - [News and Announcements](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/news-and-events/) - [OrderDisc](https://orderdisc.com/) - [Upcoming Events](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/upcoming-events/) - Industries - [Construction](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/construction/) - [Financial Services](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/financial-services/) - [Life Sciences](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/lifesciences/) - [Contact](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/contact/) Activating Greatness Podcast Episodes June 15, 2026 | Episode 33 # Leading Transformational Change: Why Shaping the Path Works — with Melissa Pepper ## Shape the Path: Melissa Pepper on Why Change Fails and How to Make It Stick **In this post:** *Lead(h)er founder Melissa Pepper shares her approach to leading transformational change, from listening sessions with a third of the workforce to a signing day that built employee buy-in. She explains why shaping the path keeps change alive long after launch.* Melissa Pepper knows exactly when her work is done. It is the moment everything starts running smoothly. Her last three roles all had the same starting point: nobody had held the job before her, and each one meant leading transformational change. She was the first director of marketing at a law firm, the first president of a small shared services company, and the first Chief Strategy Officer at Russell, a commercial construction and development company in Iowa. "Once things are really moving along and smoothly," she said, "I tend to be like, all right, my work here is done. Somebody else can keep it moving." On *Activating Greatness*, the leadership podcast from Velocity Advisory Group, host Alec McChesney recalled how Pepper put it during their prep call. If you need someone to keep the wheels on a wagon that is already built, painted, and doing its job, she is not your person. She wants to build the wagon. That self-knowledge is rare. So is her view of why change so often fails. Most organizations work hard on the argument for change. They forget to clear the road. ## Self-Awareness Starts With a Bad Day Pepper credits a longtime coach for helping her see the pattern. When she came home saying it was just a bad day, her coach pushed: What made it bad? Where were you losing energy? The answer kept coming back to agency. "I would be frustrated or disappointed or losing energy when I didn't feel like I had agency," she said. The same was true when she noticed her team lacked it, when she was not giving them room to "run far and fast and fail." Today she uses a mood-tracking app that prompts her a few times a day to name how she feels, a habit that helps her spot energy drains and energy givers. ## Listen Before You Tinker When Pepper joined Russell, she brought no construction background. "None, no industry background. None, nothing, knew nothing," she said. So she listened first. In her first 90 days and throughout her first year, she met with roughly a third of the workforce and took copious notes. Her questions were designed to surface resistance early. What is going well? What would you be mad about if we changed it? Her favorite: What do you think others in your department are worried about? People who will not voice their own concerns, she said, "will tell you what they're worried about" when the question is about a colleague. She sorted the themes into red, yellow, and green. Green meant "don't touch it." That discipline guarded against the urge to tweak everything, and against easy wins that only feel productive. "Is the low hanging fruit actually going to make an impact, or is it just going to feel good?" she asked. ## Leading Transformational Change With a Signing Day The feedback shaped a strategic plan called One Russell, built on five pillars during a season of acquisitions when new offices needed to feel connected. Instead of assigning people to committees, a word she dislikes, the company held a signing day. Anyone in the organization could sign up for an action team under one of the pillars. Each team had a leader and an "operations buddy," so subject matter experts and operations worked side by side on the KPIs. The result, she said, was that the company achieved every KPI in the plan. "People were bought in because it was their ideas from the start," she said. Some people will reject any change, and leaders should not chase them. "We can't spend all of our time on the 20% because that 80% needs us and is excited about the change," she said. FREE ONE-PAGE CHECKLIST ### The Change Buy-In Checklist Use the questions and steps from Pepper's approach to surface hidden worries, protect what already works, and give employees real ownership of the next change you launch. [Get the free checklist](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-library/change-buy-in-checklist) ## The Elephant, the Rider, and the Path Keeping change alive six and 12 months after launch is harder. Pepper's first rule is ownership. Change "can't be somebody's job that they do after they do their job," she said. Her second rule comes from *Switch: How to Change When Change Is Hard* by Chip and Dan Heath, a book she recommends nearly every month. Picture a rider on an elephant walking through a jungle. The rider is logic and data. The elephant is emotion, and it is much bigger. Most leaders appeal to both. What they forget, she said, is the third element: shape the path. Leave food along the trail and the elephant stays on it. Let the path get overgrown and it heads into the woods. > "You can have the best darn strategy known to man, but if you don't make it easy for your people to make those changes by changing the processes, eliminating the friction, whatever it is, they're not going to change." > > *Melissa Pepper, Founder, Lead(h)er* McChesney heard the same lesson at a roundtable he led. Change worked when people could see the end result. One participant corrected him when he asked how to sell change: Don't sell it, connect people to it. On other episodes, Jason Nickles of Modern Woodmen explained [how tradition meets transformation](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-16-tradition-meets-transformation-jason-nickles), and Jackie Fisher of Juneau Construction made [the business case for culture](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-30-hiring-for-culture-fit-jackie-fisher). ## Building What Didn't Exist Pepper's instinct to build started long before Russell. In 2015 she pivoted from a nonprofit blood banking role to director of marketing at a law firm. Years later, the managing partner told her she was not the most qualified candidate, but she was well connected. That lesson became Lead(h)er, which matches women with mentors to fuel their career and community engagement. At the time, most professional development for women was conference-based and one-to-many. A $10,000 Nation of Neighbors Award from Royal Neighbors of America provided seed money. Ten years later, Lead(h)er has matched 1,400 women with mentors. She stepped off the board in 2021, and the organization kept thriving. "It is OK to let go a little bit," she said. She still has mentors herself. "Just because I started a mentorship organization doesn't mean I graduated." ## Rapid-Fire Leadership Lessons - **Daily habit:** A people list alongside the to-do list, tracking "who needs connection, who needs appreciation, who needs a little extra love." - **Most underrated skill:** The ability to laugh at yourself. A mantra at Russell: take the work seriously, not yourself. - **Stop doing:** Meetings, or at least so many. Give people back time to refresh, do meaningful work, and connect. - **Best advice:** When things feel hard, connect with your team. A direct report once peeked into her office during a stressful season and told her, "You can come out." HOW VELOCITY HELPS ### Velocity Culture & Engagement Pepper's change work began with listening sessions across a third of the workforce and questions designed to surface worry before it became resistance. Velocity's Culture and Engagement work follows the same principle. Culture assessments, engagement surveys, and stakeholder interviews show leaders what employees value, what they fear losing, and where friction lives. The High Performance Culture Workshop then helps leadership teams turn those findings into clear paths that make change easier to follow. [Explore Culture and Engagement](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/culture-engagement/) ## The Takeaway: Lift Your Head Up Pepper closed with a reminder that leaders often get so deep into the work or the to-do list "that we forget to kind of lift our head up and learn and connect." She praised listeners for taking the time to sharpen the saw. "We want people to be great," she said. Her approach to change follows the same logic. Strategy and data matter, but people move when they help write the plan and when the path in front of them is clear. Leaders who want change to last should spend less time selling it and more time clearing the way. ## Listen to the Full Episode Hear Melissa Pepper's full conversation with host Alec McChesney on *Activating Greatness*. [Find it on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@VelocityAdvisoryGroup), or listen on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/4LcgAut0KyYiGyDhFvMjPD) and [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1868386871). FREE GUIDE ### The Elephant, Rider, Path Model When a change initiative keeps stalling despite smart planning and hard work, this short framework shows how to reach both logic and emotion, then clear the friction that pulls people off course. [Get the free guide](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-library/elephant-rider-path-model) Share: [facebook-f icon](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper) [linkedin-in icon](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper) [Twitter icon](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper) [pinterest-p icon](http://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper) [envelope icon](mailto:?body=https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper) [Culture & Engagement](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/culture-engagement) [Strategy & Change](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/strategy-change) ## Ready to activate greatness on your team? Velocity Advisory Group helps leadership teams build the culture, strategy, and systems that let good people do their best work. [Book a discovery call](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/contact/) ## Related posts [Culture & Engagement](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/culture-engagement), [Leadership Mindset](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/leadership-mindset) ## [Episode 36: Employee Engagement: Fixing the Survive Work Problem — with Patrick Manigault](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-36-employee-engagement-patrick-manigault) [Alec McChesney](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/author/alec-mcchesney) Jul 6, 2026, 4:00:00 AM We Have a Survive Work Problem: Patrick Manigault on Fixing Employee Engagement In this post:... [Read more](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-36-employee-engagement-patrick-manigault) [Construction](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/construction), [Team Alignment](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/team-alignment) ## [Episode 35: Turning Around Troubled Projects: Protect the Front Line — with Steve Thompson](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-35-turning-around-troubled-projects-steve-thompson) [Alec McChesney](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/author/alec-mcchesney) Jun 29, 2026, 4:00:00 AM Manage the Want, Protect the Work: Steve Thompson on Turning Around Troubled Projects In this post:... [Read more](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-35-turning-around-troubled-projects-steve-thompson) [![20 Episodes into the Activating Greatness Podcast: The Leadership Lessons That Stuck](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/20-Episodes-in-Leadership-Lessons-1.png?height=200&name=20-Episodes-in-Leadership-Lessons-1.png)](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/activating-greatness-podcast-leadership-lessons-that-stuck) ## [20 Episodes into the Activating Greatness Podcast: The Leadership Lessons That Stuck](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/activating-greatness-podcast-leadership-lessons-that-stuck) [Alec McChesney](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/author/alec-mcchesney) Apr 8, 2026, 1:31:54 PM When we launched the Activating Greatness: A Leadership Podcast, the goal was simple: have real... [Read more](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/activating-greatness-podcast-leadership-lessons-that-stuck) --- [![](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Velocity%20Logo%202023%20Wide-2.png?width=1025&height=267&name=Velocity%20Logo%202023%20Wide-2.png)](http://velocityadvisorygroup.com) Copyright © 2026, Velocity Advisory Group ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Alec McChesney", "url" : "https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/author/alec-mcchesney" }, "dateModified" : "2026-10-20T15:03:42.604Z", "datePublished" : "2026-06-15T08:00:00.000Z", "headline" : "Episode 33: Leading Transformational Change: Why Shaping the Path Works — with Melissa Pepper", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/hubfs/Velocity%20Logo%202023%20Wide-2.png" }, "name" : "Velocity Advisory Group" } } ```