In January 2017, I was chosen by the owner of the Pieology franchise, Frank Kalil, to become a team trainer. Team trainers are experienced workers who go to each new store opening to train a large group of new hires all the duties of being a Pieologist in just three intense days. My first store opening was in Corona, California, and I was flown out to begin working without any training of my own. I was the only person from Minnesota, the rest of the team trainers were all from California and most had already opened stores before. This was a challenging experience for me, since I was quickly thrown into things and had to learn on my feet.
This experience reinforced my leadership quality of harmony. Harmony is the ability to smooth conflict and get everyone to work together. Since none of the new hires knew each other, it was difficult to get everyone to act as a team, instead of them just focusing on their own tasks. An example of me using the ability of harmony was when tension sprung out between two of the new hires, and as a team trainer I decided that the best way to resolve this conflict was to remove the two people from proximity. This was easily done by just switching their positions in the store, and there wasn’t any conflict after that. I knew this was only a short-term solution, but I was only there for three days of training. I informed the manager of the tension and encouraged him to talk to the two workers to prevent future conflict.
Traveling to a different state to work in a new store full of new people was intimidating to me at first. It was a very intense experience for me, but I was able to catch on quickly and use the leadership skills I had already developed. This opportunity forced me to be even more independent and incorporate all of my leadership values into action. This allowed me to turn a group of strangers into a team that no longer needed me to guide them. In this way, I considered my role as their trainer to be a successful one.
Traveling to a different state to work in a new store full of new people was intimidating to me at first. It was a very intense experience for me, but I was able to catch on quickly and use the leadership skills I had already developed. This opportunity forced me to be even more independent and incorporate all of my leadership values into action. This allowed me to turn a group of strangers into a team that no longer needed me to guide them. In this way, I considered my role as their trainer to be a successful one.