I entered the “Corporate America” world 10 years ago. My first day of work at a “we are not telemarketing” sales call center was the day after the Superbowl in 2008. I remember staying sober and not overeating because I wanted to show up to my first day sharp and ready to go. Oh, if I only knew then……Thankfully I did my time in sales and have moved on to our Customer Retention Marketing department.
Previous to call center life my work ethic and experience came from 20 years in the restaurant business. Do you want to talk about building a work ethic? Survive the restaurant business for that long! Along the way, I have worked for people that were true mentors, and others that had no earthly right being in a management position. I am, crazily enough, thankful to all of them. I have absorbed so much energy, both positive and negative, and I continue to work diligently to balance that into who I want to be in this crazy work world.
So, where am I going with this? Well, I’m excited, and I’ll get to that. But first, let me set the tone for this excitement.
There are things you should be asking yourself if you run a department, a company, or any type of business. Do you have the right people doing the right things? Are you encouraging their strengths and mentoring their weaknesses? Especially in a company that takes care of customers, are you making sure those customers are confident justifying the money they’re spending to keep your doors open? Are you ANY type of example setter? Do you practice what you preach and give your employees someone to look up to? If you look at these questions and think these don’t apply to you and how you run your business, congratulations on still being open! Are you hiring? Yes? Shocking! 🙂
Since I got my first job as a busboy I have always worked my way into some type of leadership position. Being a leader isn’t easy, even if seems to be that way on the outside. But I love doing it, I always love showing people recognition for the work they do. Have I made mistakes along the way? Of course, I have! In my head, I’m still apologizing to a cocktail server for making her cry when I called her out during her shift for giving away another tables food. It’s moments like that never forget and I build myself from. And don’t worry, we made up and she made me a better restaurant manager because of it. Thanks, H!
And here we are today. I am currently in charge of a process in my department called Rapid Continuous Improvement. It’s great philosophy companies use to better their processes. If your company isn’t using it, look it up. Or, give me a call 😉 My job is to ensure all the agents in this department get their credit, make their meetings and come up with ideas. Up to a recent point, it was just a thing we do. It was something that has to be done to stay employed in this company. But, I decided to take it a step further than that. I thought to myself “Why not make this encouraging? Why not make this something people can look forward to? And, how do I do that when it’s never really been done before on the level I want to do it?” I watched for the first year to see the overall flow. Then, I flipped the whole thing on its head!
I threw myself into it. I put as much of my personality, experience, and twisted humor into it as I could. I’m not going to go into all the details of what was done, let’s just say so far I see a difference. I see people I work with more engaged in what we’re doing. I see projects and ideas being completed faster than ever before. I see the actual enthusiasm in people around me. The best part is, I feel proud. Not pride for what I’ve done, but for awakening what is already in them. The enthusiasm was always there, the desire to do the work should be there for any employee of any company. I feel proud knowing I opened that door to make people feel like what they’re doing matters. Believe me, it really does matter what you do people!! See, I told you I’m excited!!!
And I’m just getting started! I may not hold a management or department title, but that will never stop me from being the person I want to be. It will never stop me from taking any opportunity I can to show those around me they matter, I will always practice what I preach. I’ll still make mistakes along the way, but I’ve finally been given something in this company that I can showcase how I see the best in people. If I can do even the smallest thing to make people around me feel like they matter, that is a true definition of leadership! A bigger definition of leadership is not showing how proud you are of what you’ve done, but showing those around you how proud they should be of themselves for the hard work they do. I will enjoy every second of this until it’s time to enjoy something bigger, and I will make sure that happens for me!
So, how to do you succeed in business? Really, really try!!! You can make an amazing product and you can have great metrics on a spreadsheet. But if you don’t have the right people encouraged to do the right things, I ask you, what do you expect to get out of your business?
This blog is a place for me to display who I am and the great things that happen in life. I think this post could either be an amazing cover letter, or will never get me a job doing anything else ever again 🙂 But, if anyone reads this and doesn’t feel having confident, encouraged employees taking care of their business matters, you keep making that great product and hope for the best. I’ll even throw a coin in the wishing well for you.
Thanks for being here 🙂