Bruning Speaker Series: Be yourself, serve well and excel, Griffin says

Melanie Griffin told students: "If you want the boat to be effective and keep floating and rowing in the same direction, you've got to make sure that your team is on board with your ideas and the mission."
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Melanie Griffin, a three-time Florida State University graduate and the secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, delivered practical business insights and leadership advice during an October appearance at the College of Business’ Charles A. Bruning Distinguished Speaker Series.

Known for her speaking ability, leadership and genuineness, Griffin told students: "If you're serving in a way that feels comfortable to you, it's going to help you excel.”

She added: “If you're not being authentic and you're acting in a way that's out of your realm, then everybody around you is going to see that.”

Griffin earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the College of Business in 2003, then paired an MBA with a juris doctorate (JD/MBA) in 2006 through the business and law colleges’ joint pathway. 

She emphasized her undergraduate years, which included experience in the Florida House of Representatives and service as a staff assistant to Frank Brogan, Florida’s lieutenant governor at the time. She also completed an internship in the UK Parliament.

Griffin spent 15 years as an award-winning lawyer at a private firm for which she handled commercial litigation, employment law, contracts, real estate and more. She returned to public service in January 2022 after Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to her current role. 

In introducing Griffin to students, Michael Hartline, dean of the College of Business, praised the secretary’s leadership during Florida's recent hurricane recovery efforts, noting her example of giving blood in advance of Hurricane Milton.

"I get to help someone pretty much every day," Griffin told students later.

As leader of an agency that oversees more than 1.7 million licensees across more than 30 industries, Griffin – a member of the college’s Board of Governors -- offered students valuable perspectives on technology, work-life balance, leadership and priorities.

Technology

Griffin noted that Florida today has almost 300,000 more business licensees today than it did in 2019, “with zero additional employees" at her agency. "We've leveraged technology to serve thousands of additional people without additional manpower," she said.

She highlighted an automated application review system that handles about 50% of real estate professional applications, allowing staff to focus on cases requiring human judgment. 

She also discussed emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, sharing how companies use "rage keyboarding"  detection to identify and address customer frustration during online shopping experiences.

Work-life balance

Griffin advised students to set clear boundaries, with emphasis on personal health. She said a worker might think, for example: “I'm going to really invest in my job right now because a hurricane response is needed. But next weekend, I'm going to dedicate to my family unless there's a true work emergency.”

Leadership style

Griffin advocated for collaboration over autocracy, saying: “People make the mistake of thinking that just because you serve in a leadership role then it's your way or the highway.

"You've got to build collaboration and consensus,” she added. “If you want the boat to be effective and keep floating and rowing in the same direction, you've got to make sure that your team is on board with your ideas and the mission."

Priorities

Griffin advised students to practice flexibility and to know when to adjust focus and priorities. For example, she said, immediately after a devastating hurricane, her agency, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, doesn’t focus on, say, barber shops that seek licenses to operate. It instead emphasizes the new need for more construction companies to rebuild the state’s storm-ravaged counties, she said.

“So, if it takes us 30 days to get the barber-shop application out the door, then that's going to take 30 days,” she said. “That is not Floridians’ current priority.”

She added: “If the house is burning down, what will make your company the most money that day? What will allow you to pay your employees that day? One of the things that good business leaders do well is to issue-spot and figure out where they can make the biggest return on investment every day.”