Manager Spotlight #1: Amber Bryant, Keyrenter Denver - Leading with Empathy

What is the Manager Spotlight series?

The Charma Manager Spotlight series aims to provide our growing community of managers with authentic and compelling content to support their personal and professional growth in a rapidly evolving landscape. The series will feature interviews with real people managers, leaders, and Charma users who have practical experiences, insights, learnings, expertise, and anecdotes to offer that relate to this very landscape.

The interviews will touch on the interviewee's managerial approach, successes, lessons learned, and how Charma has played a role in their journey. We're excited to bring you valuable insights and perspectives from our community of managers. Stay tuned for upcoming interviews!

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Introducing Amber Bryant & Keyrenter Denver

Amber Bryant is a seasoned People & Culture professional with 15+ years of experience. She excels in building and nurturing people processes, empowering leaders, and scaling small businesses. At Keyrenter Denver for almost 3 years, Amber has transformed workplace cultures, emphasizing productivity and employee satisfaction. Her coaching and mentoring skills have helped many individuals achieve remarkable success. Amber also offers innovative training courses and consultant services for small businesses, addressing their human resource procedures and customer journeys. With her passion for creating thriving workplace cultures, she makes a lasting impact on businesses and individuals.

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Manager Spotlight interview with Amber Bryant, Keyrenter Denver

Watch the full interview on YouTube!

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How long have you been a people manager?

I have been managing people I'd say for at least 15 years. Been dealing with people and bossing people around. Just kidding! But, you know, it’s just my natural personality to want to lead. Given that, very quickly in my working career, I always found ways to be in charge, some way, some how. But at least 15 years with official titles as a manager.

Tell us a little bit about Keyrenter and how large the organization is.

Keyrenter Denver is awesome. First of all, let me say, I have a specific love for small businesses that are scaling. I think there's so much opportunity to grow people, processes, and see it flourish, which is really exciting to me. Being with Keyrenter Denver has been the highlight of my career personally. I really love being with them. I've been with them for about two and a half years. I can't say exactly where we started in terms of employees. Maybe around 15 or 20. Now we are close to 40 employees, with a mix of local employees that are stateside and remote employees out of Mexico.

How many direct reports do you have right now?

Technically, the title "Manager of" isn't really a thing for me. But I do meet with everybody in the company. Monthly, I have about 35 to 40 meetings as part of my review process. I meet with everybody once a month for now, as we're still small enough for me to be involved in everything and provide support, to help grow and plant seeds and help people with anything that they need.

But we want to scale and grow, and we have a goal of reaching 5,000 doors, which would require approximately 250 employees. So with that being said, I obviously won't be able to attend every meeting and check-in. So a large push for me by year-end is to only be meeting with leaders or individuals who show potential for leadership, helping them develop and grow. I'll continue meeting with them every month, but for others, it might reduce to once a quarter or even group sessions instead of one-on-one.

Could you briefly describe your managerial approach and the philosophy that you bring to being a manager?

What I try to do mostly is just meet people where they are, and help them to understand that just because I have a title or I have this position, that I still want them to be just as real with me as I am with them.

I like to be authentic and just let it flow naturally. I always just ask for whatever needs to come through to come through. I would say my style is authentic. I show up as myself, without pretending to be someone I'm not. I use bad words, I'm inappropriate, I do all the things. But what I try to do mostly is just meet people where they are, and help them to understand that just because I have a title or I have this position, that I still want them to be just as real with me as I am with them. So I want to show them my flaws. I want to be able to have them relate to me or resonate with me. 

So that's the first thing I do—I break down those walls for people. Beyond that, I value open communication and have no limits or boundaries really. There's just really nothing that somebody could come to me and say that is gonna shock me or make me turn them away. I'm very much a person that's geared towards growth and development. I don't see right and wrong. I just see opportunities for growth.

And no matter what business I'm working for, the very first thing that I like to do is really define, "What is our culture? Who are we?" And from there, really hire for culture more than position. I truly believe you can train anybody in any position. But if you have the culture right, that's really where the magic is at.

I also specifically seek out leaders, whether they have the title of a leader or not. I am very observant and I pay attention to industry dynamics and company dynamics, observing who makes decisions, who everyone follows, and who shows up with strong ideas and processes. I look for people with the potential to lead, even if they're not aware of it yet themselves. I invest time in developing them into what I believe they can be.

How do you define success as a manager?

A leader embodies what they expect from their team and leads by example. A successful leader or manager would embody the company's core values, truly live the culture, and pour that into their team.

Personally, I don't see myself as a manager anymore. I consider myself more of a coach or consultant, someone who wants to help grow people.

And while I am growing managers, I prefer to call them leaders. To me, an old-school manager just tells people what to do, checks metrics, and can be bossy and unapproachable. A leader, on the other hand, embodies what they expect from their team and leads by example. A successful leader or manager would embody the company's core values, truly live the culture, and pour that into their team.

So for instance, even if there's a conflict or somebody is not doing well, to me, a successful manager or leader would be able to dive in there, deal with the conflict right away, come up with a performance plan, and guide that person with empathy and love and get them where they need to go.

A good leader would also be able to have open communication to know what is and isn’t working and how they can be a better manager. Understanding your team, how they perceive you, and what they need is just as important as how you show up. A successful manager to me is someone who fully embraces the company's culture and who’s flexible and willing to adapt their communication style based on the person they are dealing with.

How are you fostering a culture of positive and productive work at Keyrenter Denver? How do you put employee engagement and motivation first or at the forefront of how work is getting done?

Our core values are integrated into every aspect of the company, from small to big, in every process we have.

We're not a company that just has a mission statement for show. We strive to live by it in every form of communication and throughout the entire journey for our clients and employees. Leadership sets the example by embodying our core values.

During our weekly company meetings, we read and discuss the core values. Each person selects a core value that resonates with them and shares real-life examples of how it shows up for them. 

Our quarterly review process also focuses on core values, asking individuals: "How do you feel like you've shown up this quarter in this core value? Which core value really resonates with you? How do you see yourself being part of the vision that Keyrenter has for our growth and our development?" In doing so, we really allow them to be bought in. We want our team to be fully invested in what we're doing and proud of our values, which are cascaded throughout the company.

Even in the hiring process, I am upfront about the reality of how we roll and the culture that we have, and that I've hired based on culture fit.

Our core values are integrated into every aspect of the company, from small to big, in every process we have.

What communication structures does Keyrenter Denver use, and what do you personally use, to collaborate and connect internally (e.g., recurring meetings, feedback cycles, etc.)?

We rely heavily on Charma for organization, action items, and follow-up in all our meetings.

From a company standpoint, we have a weekly company meeting with a structured agenda for consistent and cascaded messages. We also have department meetings and one-on-one sessions with direct supervisors for every individual, not just HR.

Some property management pods also have daily roundup meetings on an open Zoom link where people can ask questions and get information, especially newer people that feel like they still have a knowledge gap.

It’s important at Keyrenter Denver that people have spaces where they can always go and know that somebody's there to communicate with them. 

We rely heavily on Charma for organization, action items, and follow-up in all our meetings.

We also use Charma for our quarterly reviews. At the end of each quarter, we have review sessions and action items for those reviews, and share all the goals that we have. Each quarter, we come up with at least two or three goals per person to help them elevate in their role. They can pick maybe one or two personal things if they want to as well, but we are always looking for some growth opportunities in the specific quarter. Once we come up with those at the end of the quarter, we add them to Charma. Then their direct supervisors, in their one-on-ones, regularly check in to see how they're doing.

And then during the following quarter review, we review how they've done and talk through it. We hold them accountable to leveling up, but it's up to them to decide how they want to do that. Their goals are usually something more specific than just wanting to be a better person. Rather, their goals are usually job-related, and dive deep into what their role is.

For instance, I want to make sure that the onboarding process I have in my head is totally aligned with our culture and oozes out in every single communication I have. If it doesn't, then I’ll make the goal to go back, reread, and probably use AI to help me spruce it up and make it more beautiful, because that's a beautiful tool to be using. Just making sure everything feels really aligned.

That's typically what people do. They come up with a good goal that helps move their position, their role, or their department forward.

Which aspects of managing people have you found to be natural or easy, especially earlier on in your career of managing other folks?

I think I'm blessed in that I'm pretty intuitive about people. It doesn't matter if I'm in a room full of a thousand people; I can see and feel when somebody needs something and how to communicate with them.

I think it's really a superpower for me, luckily, and it hasn't come easily. I don't come from an easy background and have experienced many difficult periods in my life. Most people might have assumed "oh she probably won't succeed in life." But what I found from all that hardship in the early part of my life is that it allowed me to dive into building my emotional intelligence, understanding how to adjust in almost any situation. I think you could put me into extremely different environments, and I would know how to acclimate to whatever the situation was.

And so it is a superpower that I know how to work with people. It's easy for me to connect with them, and they become vulnerable quickly. They share their deepest, darkest secrets because I won't judge them. I have open perspectives and always want to help. I feel like because I can be a safe space for people, they respect me in that way, and we can communicate effectively, helping them level up. Before realizing this was a superpower I could leverage, it naturally happened in my life, and in that way, being a manager has been easy for me.

What are one or a few things that might have been more difficult or less natural for you when you started your managerial journey? And were there are particular resources that helped you grow and move through that difficulty?

The part that was more challenging for me was when I started managing people the same age or older than me.

That was a challenge in the beginning because there was a part of me that felt weird telling people my age or older what to do. But I also knew that I had a high responsibility to get things done. If you put something on my plate, I'm not going to drop the ball; it's just not likely. So if I have an agenda or something that needs to get done, I am going to figure out how to get over it.

I'm a person that tends to do a lot of self-development. I'm constantly flooding my brain with ways to develop and be better, to show up better for others. In times of struggle, I read plenty of books, watched tons of free resources on YouTube, Googled things, got different ideas, and made them my own.

But more than anything likely, I'm also somebody that dives straight into conflict. I'm not afraid of it. I feel like the best way to get over the hump is to go straight to it.

So for me, let's say I was in a situation where I had an older person that I had to manage and it felt a little off. I would 100% pull that person into my office right away, have a sit down, and say, "Hey. I just wanna be real honest with you, this feels real strange to me that I have to manage you. I know that you're a little older than me and you probably have a lot more experience than me. But we're here to work as a team." I’d just have a real conversation with somebody, and then that helps drop those walls and create mutual respect, and then folks wanna do what it is that I need them to do.

For me, again, it's really just about having that open communication and being able to connect with people.

Something else that was hard for me was when managing felt like micromanaging, especially when you had goals that you had to reach. For example, I worked in the beauty industry for a long time and worked at makeup counters where we had numbers we had to hit, and we had to sell this much — that didn’t resonate with me.

I hated that because, for me it wasn't about selling stuff to just sell stuff. I wanted to genuinely help customers get what they needed, customize their products, etc. So I just remember having a hard time with helping the team get motivated to reach their sales goals just for the sake of getting a sales goal.

It just didn't resonate with me personally. Instead, I told my team, "You know what? We're gonna flip it. I don't want you to put 25 products on these people's faces just to see how much they're gonna buy. Instead, I really want you to lean in, build a relationship, get really invested in this person that you have on the makeup counter today, and find out what they need. If it's just skincare or they never had eyeshadow, then focus on that, whatever their need is." And once the team started making that connection and really focusing on what the customers needed, sales just skyrocketed. Because then we were giving people what they needed, helping people be seen, helping people be heard. They weren’t buying products just for the sake of buying them. These weren’t impulse buys, and we were genuinely helping them leave happy and fulfilled.

This was a case where I had to figure out a way to have a different perspective about something that I didn't really enjoy and make it mine.

What's the most important lesson you've learned about how to be a good people manager and a good leader?

Don't let your ego get in the way and make you think that you're supposed to be this or that, or because you're a CEO or a boss, that you're better than anybody. Stay humble always.

Yeah, I think the biggest lesson is to get out of your own way. Don't let your ego get in the way and make you think that you're supposed to be this or that, or because you're a CEO or a boss, that you're better than anybody. Stay humble always, and don't just put yourself in other people's shoes, but forget your own self and actually be in that other person's shoes. Because once you really see the perspectives of where other people are coming from, you're going to lead with more empathy and be able to give them what they want. Instead of having perceived ideas of how something should be or what it should be like, remember that other people don't have the same life experience as you. Really, don't get in your own way, put yourself in those people's shoes, and stay humble.

How has Charma helped you develop the managerial journey for yourself and other individuals at Keyrenter? How has it helped the organization overall with team morale, communication, and organizational success?

Charma is very much embedded in who we are now, and I aspire to continue to find out how to implement it and maximize it even more. So far, it's been really helpful in obviously helping people stay organized, manage and track their action items, and be held accountable for what it is they need to get done.

Yeah, it's actually funny. We ran our leadership meeting yesterday, and the CEO said, "Everybody, don't wait for the action item, just go ahead and get the book," or whatever it was that we were supposed to do. And another member of the leadership team said, "Well, if it's not an action item, it's not gonna happen."

Charma is very much embedded in who we are now, and I aspire to continue to find out how to implement it and maximize it even more. So far, it's been really helpful in obviously helping people stay organized, manage and track their action items, and be held accountable for what it is they need to get done.

It's been great on that mini level, but also in terms of manager development and leader development, it's been really cool for me. As I'm scaling, I can't be part of everything all the time. So I have to be able to teach my leaders how to do what I do in their teams. Having templates that I can set up and use to come up with great questions, especially for new people, and creating checkpoints for when a new member is at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days has been critical. I have a whole flow for what that development looks like, and I’ve been able to pass it off to my managers to help them take point on that process. So with the templates already available, my job is just to have a big training with everybody to go through them, and then they can take the materials and implement them on their own. It's been really good in helping us organize and actually develop.

I also have to just praise you guys so much for the 360 review processes that I ran because I do those at the end of every quarter. As we grow, being able to summarize those, submit them, and get them back to somebody in such a quick time with Charma has saved me so much time. It's been so effective.

I also have to just praise you guys so much for the 360 review processes that I ran because I do those at the end of every quarter. As we grow, being able to summarize those, submit them, and get them back to somebody in such a quick time with Charma has saved me so much time. It's been so effective. Those completed reviews are available for everybody to see almost immediately. When I was doing it in the old-school way, that might have taken me a whole week to get all of those out to everybody. I feel like that’s just another example of how Charma has made everything very efficient for us, and we're just looking forward to continuing to maximize it.

Is there a specific Charma feature that’s your favorite? We’re guessing and hoping it’s the 360 reviews!

Yes! For me personally, in the role that I have, Charma saves me so much time in the review process. You actually recently added a function where I can pass the review off to the leaders now, so they can actually compile. I haven't gotten to that training yet, but I'm really looking forward to diving into passing that off to them after our busy season, so that I can continue to scale.

Each org probably measures this differently, but do you think you're seeing the results to back up increased productivity, collaborative spirit, transparency within your team since Keyrenter started using Charma?

Charma has really been invaluable in helping us stay on top of what we're doing and keeping track of the goals we have every quarter.

Yes! Yes, absolutely. Especially with staying on track, right? It's very easy to get off track at work. I'm this kind of person too. I could be working on one major project today, but then if you talk to me in two weeks, I'm light years ahead of wherever I was. I can easily forget, or not go back to, or not do the things that need to get done.

So having those action items and being able to hold yourself accountable, push yourself forward if you need to, push yourself back, etc., is so critical. Charma has really been invaluable in helping us stay on top of what we're doing and keeping track of the goals we have every quarter.