Discover Noel Massie’s insights on leadership development, coaching, and building strong teams for lasting team performance and growth.
On Episode 77 of my podcast Teams, Culture & You, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Noel Massie, former Vice President of Operations at UPS and author of Congrats! You’ve Been Promoted. Our conversation was packed with leadership wisdom and practical insights on building strong teams, coaching new leaders, and elevating team performance.
Noel’s leadership journey began long before he stepped into an executive role. As a young boy sweeping floors in his grandfather’s barbershop, he absorbed values that became his leadership DNA. His grandfather ran the shop with one rule above all: respect others. Noel recalls watching his grandfather calmly handle customers, defuse conflict, and create an environment where everyone felt welcome. An early lesson in ethics came when his grandfather overheard a customer bragging about tricking someone in a car sale. His response:
“What comes around goes around. Right is right, and wrong is wrong.” That moment shaped Noel’s conviction that ethics and integrity must guide every decision.
These values were reinforced when Noel joined UPS. James E. Casey, the company’s founder, built the organisation on principles of fairness and integrity. As a 19-year-old Irish immigrant in early 1900s Seattle, Casey experienced discrimination firsthand. Determined to create something different, he embedded ethics, service, and respect into the DNA of UPS. Noel described how this ethos was alive when he started as a young supervisor: integrity wasn’t a slogan, it was non-negotiable. Employees were trusted, customers were respected, and leaders were expected to model fairness at all times.
One of Noel’s central messages is that leadership is coaching. Effective leaders aren’t just task managers; they’re people developers. Coaching isn’t optional—it’s the core responsibility of leadership. He reminded us that leaders are always being evaluated. There are no casual moments, and every interaction is an opportunity to influence behavior and build trust.
For organisations, this underscores why leadership development is so critical. Promoting high-performing technical experts into management roles without support can lead to stress, overwhelm, and lost confidence. Investing in leadership coaching ensures that new leaders have the tools to succeed and their teams thrive as a result.
Noel shared how, throughout his career, he saw the best results when employees were included in solving challenges.
“People support the ideas they help create,” he said,
highlighting the natural law of ownership. Strong teams form when individuals feel valued and heard, and when leaders take the time to establish trust, fairness, and clear expectations.
At UPS, Noel experienced first-hand the power of value-driven leadership. Integrity wasn’t negotiable—it was embedded into every decision. Intentional leadership meant leading with clarity, ethics, and respect. For him, creating a high-performing team wasn’t about crunching numbers, but about investing in people and modelling the right behaviours every day.
- Coaching drives performance: Leaders must see themselves as coaches first.
- Invest in your people: Team performance grows when leaders dedicate time to development.
- Inclusion builds ownership: Employees support what they help create.
- Lead with ethics and intention: Strong teams are built on trust and integrity.
As Noel put it so well: you can’t expect more than you give. When leaders invest in their teams, teams give back with commitment, performance, and resilience.
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