Other Leadership Programs Didn’t Inspire

Megan Krucwal, now Senior Vice President of Business Operations, was Director of Sales and Marketing at the time. She was in charge of overseeing emerging league verticals in addition to the NHL and MLB verticals.

Megan says she had come across many leadership training programs during her career, but they shared one common problem: they were all just theoretical. None of them taught you how to apply the learning.

“The theory was nice-to-know but lacked functionality. How do you bring this, operationally, into your day-to-day? And then how do you track that things are getting better?”

Megan admits that she was a little hesitant about more leadership training, since past training was “wishy-washy, and kind of fluffy.”

She quickly realized that Unicorn Labs and CEO Fahd Alhattab were very different.

The Unicorn Labs Online Course

The online course is a 12-week program with rich content in audio, video, and written formats. Cohorts have weekly coaching calls with Fahd to discuss the content, and participants can contextualize the material within the ongoing challenges specific to their roles. Pre and post-assessments help establish a baseline and track the cohort’s progress with  the learning material. Along with that, students have access to the course community, for support from either a Unicorn Labs team member or peers. It’s a combination of self-learning with support and hands-on coaching.

Megan was drawn to the  program instantly. It was different from ones she had encountered before. “There was a lot of science and academic backing to it,” she says, referring to the use of both independent research studies and Unicorn Labs’ own study data. “There was a lot of research around what was taught historically in leadership training, and this is how it’s evolved, and why. So it felt really topical and current to today’s employees and today’s way of working.”What grabbed her attention was the practical application of the theory.

“What I really enjoyed was how to implement that into our day-to-day. What’s hard about it? What’s not? What are different ways that you can operationalize that?”

Megan says the supplementary materials--a series of worksheets and templates--helped with getting down into the practical details.

“There was a workbook that is really a kind of guide to how you actually do these things. I thought it was incredibly important, and not something I’ve ever seen before.”

From Theory Into Practice

Megan has been with StellarAlgo since almost the very beginning. Initially she was a one-person show, running all the sales and marketing functions. Wearing so many hats, she learned first-hand what customers wanted, what would drive inbounds, what would create brand awareness.

But as the marketing department grew, she found her fledgling team didn’t have all the tools and knowledge they needed to succeed. “Our marketing team needed to really understand the platform, understand what we do, understand our customers, and be able to identify opportunities proactively. My group needed to level up the work they were doing, and I was really kind of falling down on that.”

During the Unicorn Labs leadership training, Megan realized a few things. First, she was happy to see that her team already enjoyed a culture of psychological safety, one of the foundational lessons in the program.

Second, she realized she had never really intentionally provided coaching or fully appreciated what it means to empower team members. “Even though I was asking them to take more ownership and be empowered,” she says,

Taking The Learnings With Her

Fast-forward a year. Megan, by now Senior Vice President of Business Operations, was tasked with building a new business unit, taking a cross-section of people from all over the company—engineering, product implementation, delivery, customer success, account management—and molding them into a focused unit with the goal of doubling revenue for one vertical. Megan was also managing people from outside of sales and marketing for the first time. She thought, “I’m going to have an engineering team to lead and I don’t know the first thing about engineering!” Luckily, the Unicorn Labs experience had prepared her for the new adventure. “What I drew on from Unicorn Labs this time was that communication piece, and starting to have empathy.”

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Implementing The Training

First, Megan intentionally nurtured a culture of psychological safety. Part of that involved openness and honesty among team members, admitting that everyone has struggles and that they are all in this together, but they still hold each other accountable. “We’re a growing company, with growing pains all over the place. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows.”

Next, the team took the Unicorn Labs personality assessments, “which everybody gets a kick out of. It was really interesting to see the different ways that we try to communicate with others, and then realize why it’s not hitting the mark.”

The fact that engineers think and communicate very differently from marketers is not exactly a revelation. However, Megan says she now has the skills needed to identify these communications barriers and create action plans to move past them. Megan also used other practical tips from the Unicorn Labs program to facilitate team communication.

At team meetings, for instance, she avoided vague questions like, “How’s everybody doing?” because everyone just says they’re fine. Instead, she would ask questions like, “What are you most excited about today?” or “What is the most frustrating thing you’re facing today?”, which sparked authentic sharing. Megan says these subtle shifts helped build deeper relationships with her team.

The Unicorn Labs training transformed Megan’s approach to interacting with her team as a leader.

“Just so much of it came from communication, and then being able to read those signs that probably I would’ve brushed over before, wishing people would communicate the way I want them to.”

Now she lives by the “platinum rule,” which is to communicate with people the way they want.

Finally, Megan made sure to implement coaching right from the start, empowering her team to be more independent and proactive.

Passing The Goal Line

Megan’s team had an 18-to-24 month window to accomplish their task, but they did it in less than a year. And they didn’t just double revenue for their vertical—they tripled it!

Before the training, Megan says, she had a hard-driving style, but “through Unicorn Labs I learned how to influence people to feel that same dedication and passion, while working towards the same goal. And we did it without losing the most vital piece, genuine human connections.” Megan attributes a big part of their success to the Unicorn Labs training, although she is quick to point out, “I had an awesome team!”