{"id":12321,"date":"2019-10-03T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/?p=12321"},"modified":"2019-10-03T11:00:50","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T16:00:50","slug":"michelle-qualls-taking-lead-leadership-culture-envoy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/2019\/10\/03\/michelle-qualls-taking-lead-leadership-culture-envoy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Qualls, taking the lead on Leadership Culture at Envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cWhat you leave behind is not what is engraved on stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.\u201d ~ Pericles, ancient Greek statesman<\/em><\/p>\n

If you ever get the chance to talk with Michelle Qualls, there\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019ll leave the conversation with a smile. Whether she\u2019s meeting a stranger or a longtime friend, Michelle wants to make their life just a little bit better \u2013 if only for a moment.<\/p>\n

Michelle is one of Envoy\u2019s de facto professors of leadership \u2013 a prophet of servant leadership. Through Leadership Training Courses provided to our Customer Services employees, Michelle guides Lead Agents and General Managers to lead by example.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust as your mother or father were the last ones to sit at the dinner table after they took care of everyone else, we want our managers to be that kind of servant leader,\u201d said Michelle. \u201cIf we can make our people feel valued and appreciated, I\u2019ve seen how that positively impacts the operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

All across the Envoy system, Leadership Training has had a lasting effect on the morale of employees and on the operation itself. As Michelle explains, if the leader has a positive attitude and\u00a0values their employees, satisfactory results will follow.<\/p>\n

Out of the ashes rose a phoenix<\/h3>\n
\"IMG_EHQ_Michelle_qualls_blog-2\"<\/a>
Michelle with two American Eagle pilots in Abilene over 15 years ago.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Growing up wasn\u2019t easy for Michelle. Living with hardship and in a rut, Michelle needed to find a way out.<\/p>\n

Beginning as a junior in high school, Michelle chose to focus on a career and got a job at a local airport. Eventually, Michelle ended up at American Eagle and Envoy where she has been for the past 23 years.<\/p>\n

Name a job in airline customer service, and Michelle has done it. Cleaned cabins? Check. Loaded bags on the ramp? Check. Worked in busy hub? Check.<\/p>\n

Met the love of her life? Yes, she did that too. When she was a Lead Agent in Abilene, Texas, Michelle remembers a certain Envoy Captain who always had his eye on her, but eventually he was relocated and didn\u2019t see much of Michelle after that.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_EHQ_Michelle_qualls_blog\"<\/a>
Michelle with her husband, Roger (now an American Airlines Airbus pilot), when Michelle was a Lead Agent at DFW and Roger was an American Eagle Captain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As luck would have it, she ran into him at DFW and the spark was rekindled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had heard from other people that he always talked about me, and said that one day I would be his,\u201d said Michelle. \u201cThankfully, we were brought back together at the right time. We went on one date and that was it. He\u2019s the best thing that\u2019s ever happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

“She refuses to give up on people.”<\/h3>\n

\"IMG_EHQ_Michelle_Qualls_blog_august_2019-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finding love can definitely shine a positive light on your place of work. But Michelle said that it\u2019s not the only thing that gets her up in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this place,\u201d she said. \u201cEnvoy is a unique company. It\u2019s big, but not too big. You can build relationships here and become part of a work family. It\u2019s a fast-paced work environment that keeps you on your toes and allows you to be a problem solver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of what Michelle teaches in her Leadership Training classes is about navigating situations and people. She acknowledged that there are challenges in any job, but that every new day is an opportunity to reset.<\/p>\n

Sometimes she has some doubters in her classes, but that only makes Michelle more persistent to change their attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe understands Envoy\u2019s vision and takes ownership in seeing that her students leave here with the skills needed to turn vision into reality,\u201d said Jude Mayeux, Vice President of Airport Services. \u201cShe stays positive under any circumstance. Even when students don\u2019t participate in class, she keeps engaging them until they come around. She simply refuses to give up on people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only does Michelle impact her students, but also her teaching partner Laneshia Fentress.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichelle is not only a friend, but she\u2019s like a sister,\u201d said Laneshia. \u201cMichelle is Accountability<\/em> when I need an adjustment. She is Encouragement<\/em> when I am having an off day. And she is Inspiration<\/em>, because I know her story and her resilience in the face of challenges she has overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plain and simple: Make an impact<\/h3>\n

\"IMG_EHQ_Michelle_Qualls_blog_august_2019-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Michelle, who is a mother and wife, is active in her church community and spends much of her free time helping the homeless. She hopes that her lessons in leadership don\u2019t end when people leave their work, so she continues to lead by example so her children and others can see it too.<\/p>\n

Michelle gave an example of what she teaches looks like when applied to daily life, and talked about going to a restaurant and receiving excellent customer service.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go out to a restaurant, and if you get exceptional service, ask the server to speak to their manager,\u201d said Michelle. \u201cAll day long, they\u2019re beaten up. So when someone shows them value for their hard work and their manager sees it, it\u2019s priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked, have you actually done that before? <\/em>She immediately states, \u201cThat\u2019s Michelle Qualls, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is Michelle, indeed. Someone who tries to be everyone\u2019s \u201csunshine,\u201d who honestly believes that she was put on this Earth to be the Envoy guru of servant leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my life has been working up to this job,\u201d said Michelle. \u201cIf I could leave one legacy behind, it would be this: Be the type of leader you want to follow. It\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cWhat you leave behind is not what is engraved on stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.\u201d ~ Pericles, ancient Greek statesman If you ever get the chance to talk with Michelle Qualls, there\u2019s a good chance that you\u2019ll leave the conversation with a smile. Whether she\u2019s meeting a stranger or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":41983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[105,64,66,144,173,185,86,51,68,118,519,585,586,63,90,100,83],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}