“I love seeing growth and change in humans and organizations by an extension of that,” said Thompson. “There is a confidence that is kind of palpable when someone is making progress.”

Thompson came to the rapidly growing FranklinCovey Education division after a varied career, starting in the field of clinical psychology, focused on child abuse prevention. She then transitioned into organization development, starting on the corporate side. 21 years ago, she joined FranklinCovey in the company’s enterprising sector. Working largely with pharmaceuticals, she developed her four disciplines of execution.

She was asked 11 years ago to join the education side of the company, and she first said “no.” “It was the first time in my career I decided to just do something in my career that wasn’t part of my plan,” she explained. “It has been one of the best decisions ever.” She ultimately decided that she wanted to have a greater impact on helping students.

Thompson works with teams to find the right answer to grow. “I think my role is to… source the best ideas out of the team.” She explained that the people with those answers are typically the ones who are closest to the customer, or whatever the customer equivalent is in an organization, a lesson she learned when she was on the corporate side of the company.

It all comes down to students for her job today. “We can get to the point that every student understands not only their personal goal but how their personal goal fits into the entire ecosystem of what trying to do in the school and the district.”

Thompson released a version of her “Four Disciplines” book that concentrates on education.

She also talked about how various curves are always occurring within a company or organization and their strategy. “I think every leader needs to just be emersed in understanding that the world we’re in… this is constant, and there are multiple curves layering on top of each other,” said Thompson. “We’re in a very organic environment.”

“The most tried and true advice that is… it just all comes down to communication,” said Thompson in a final word of advice, saying no matter how many times as a leader feels they have said a message, you cannot do it enough.