Carolyn Humphrey On Helping UGA Leaders Emerge, One Difference at a Time If you ask psychologist and trainer Carolyn Humphrey, who works with the Consulting Psychology Group in Charlotte, about leadership qualities, she talks about passion and self-awareness. She says leadership traits originate “from something you’re passionate about. These are opportunities for leadership.” The mastery of “self, action and relationships” is a powerful tool for future leaders. by Cynthia Adams photos by nancy Evelyn
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hat do psychological tests and square watermelons have to teach about innovation? Carolyn Humphrey sips a cup of coffee and smiles broadly. Plenty, she says. Humphrey, a psychological consultant, is a Charlotte-based mother and mental athlete who teaches ways to become more mentally agile and leadership savvy. She has done this since her days as a young post-doc on the UGA campus. Today, she either rocks 80s music or tunes into National Public Radio whenever she carpools her three children to school and soccer events. Ideas come to Humphrey in the van, while sitting in the bleachers at games, or working at her favorite coffee shop in the course of her work for various clients, including UGA’s Fanning
Institute and the Graduate School. Wherever she goes, she observes people, and cocks an ear for insights into behavioral traits and cultural trends. She reads and is a lifelong learner as well as educator and trainer. “I’m reading (Martin E. P. Seligman’s) Positive Psychology, and Malcom Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, about an overly busy, breathless world,” she says, observing the morning traffic in downtown Charlotte, N.C., through a coffee shop window. “Our default behavior in crisis mode grows even bigger. How to help people reflect on this?”
“Remaining relevant in my mind means that we must challenge ourselves to push our learning further— we cannot rest on what we think we know or on our formal education—we have to find ways to continually be open to learning from a variety of avenues.”
Helping Leaders Develop For the past seven years, Humphrey has been moderating annual leadership
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