Exploring Life & Business with Dr. Bryan Malone of MGE Professional Coaching

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Bryan Malone.

Hi Dr. Malone, Thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Dr. Bryan Lewis Malone. I was born and raised in Memphis, TN. I am a Leadership Coach, HR Advisor, Keynote Speaker, Author, and Educator. I attended Memphis Central High School and graduated in 1997. Shortly after graduation, after working part-time at a local department store, I responded to an ad in the Commercial Appeal for open positions at the FedEx World Hub.

Shortly thereafter, I was hired on as a package handler on August 18, 1997 (I had just recently celebrated my 26th Anniversary). I would go to work part-time at the Memphis Hub while attending classes at the University of Memphis. While at the U of M, I studied Engineering – which took some trial and error before landing on the major that I finished with.

I went on to graduate in May of 2003, with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology degree, with hopes of landing a job in the field of electronics engineering technology. Still working at the Hub, and searching for opportunities, I enrolled in the Master of Engineering Management Program at Christian Brothers University in the fall of 2003.

During this time, I came across my first professional opportunity at FedEx. I was hired on as an associate engineer and nervously began my professional career at the FedEx World Headquarters in October of 2004. I went on to complete my master’s program in December of 2005 and began to focus on developing my professional career. In 2007, I was promoted to Project Engineer in our US-International Planning and Engineering Department.

Seeking to move into management, I began having discussions with my manager about the best way to accomplish this. His advice at the time was to expand my knowledge in depth to become a more valuable asset. So after several repeated attempts to land a management position, I started seeking opportunities outside of engineering – ultimately landing a role within our finance department in December 2011.

After 2 years in that role, I realized that it was not what I wanted to do long-term. So, I began searching again – this time wanted to get back into engineering. In June of 2014, I found my way back into an engineering role – this time with customer engineering. I stayed in the role for a few years before finally landing my first role in management.

In February 2018, I was hired as the manager of our Schedule Compliance and Revisions team and ultimately served in the role for 1 year. During this time, the company began changing. It was the result of these changes that, for the first time in my career, forced me to begin to think about life after FedEx. Coupled with some personal challenges that I was dealing with at that time, I began to do some deep soul-searching.

I wanted to rediscover my purpose in life and align my career plans to that purpose. Additionally, I leaned heavily on motivational speakers to help me deal with the personal challenges that were prevalent during that time. One speaker in particular, Dr. Eric Thomas, was extremely influential in my process. His story inspired me so much so, that I decided to go back to school to pursue a doctorate.

In October 2018, I enrolled in the PhD Business Management Program at Capella University – which I would go on to complete in September of 2022. Still seeking to discover my purpose, what I found that resonated the most with me was the idea of helping someone become the best version of themselves so that they could in turn inspire someone else to become the best version of themselves. It was this discovery that led me to learn more about leadership development.

I began to ponder, how could I use my professional experience (and this Ph.D.) to benefit in this space. I spent some time with my colleagues in our Learning & Development Department FedEx. This entailed meeting the Managing Director and talking to some of the people in the department in an attempt to build some relationships and learn more about what our existing leadership development programs look like.

Additionally, I developed a strong interest in professional coaching. In November of 2019, after some serious research, I decided to enroll in a coach training program. I would go on to complete the coach training program at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching in August 2020 – earning certificates in professional coaching, energy leadership, and Core Leadership Dynamics. That same year, I also joined the Learning & Development Department at FedEx.

Today, I am an HR Advisor in our People and Systems Development team, where I am responsible for the management of some of FedEx’s key talent mobility programs such as the LiFE program, which is a tuition-free education benefit to our operations employees in partnership with the University of Memphis.

I also have a leadership and executive coaching practice MGE Professional Coaching, LLC. I work with high-potential individuals looking to transition into leadership roles, as well as, entrepreneurs looking to get started in moving their businesses forward. Additionally, I serve as adjunct faculty in the Fogelman College of Business at the University of Memphis.

Image Credits
Harrison Williams Photography, Wiley Brown Photography, Ashley Felton, and Johnny Baker