Will you receive a call from a previous colleague to say thank you?
Look, leading people takes many qualities, patience, stamina, determination, and even love. We will all fail sometimes in our lives, we are born to do that. We will all do it. The question is, are you willing to stand back up, dust yourself off and learn from your mistakes?
As a leader, it is our responsibilities to mold our colleagues and push them to become greater than we are. We learn to nurture and encourage and push our people to be better, DO better.
I haven't been in the business as long as some, but I have seen so many things. I continue to fall and repeat. I continue to learn and grow and I am proud of every last bruise and cut I receive from those falls, it makes me who I am. It recreates me as a human being. Whilst I fall, I hope that I learn my lessons from the fall or else, I will continue to fall time and time again.
My wish is also that once I fall, I get to learn something I can pass along to my colleagues. Schooling can only teach so much. You can take so many classes in the world but the on the job training that you can learn means so much more. Being out with the guests, experiencing different opportunities to do better, to learn.
What I have been questioning lately is this, will colleagues that I have trained previously contact me and say THANK YOU I learnt THIS or I appreciate you being hard on me because I learn this?
When I worked for Disney I had my very own experiences and trauma. Working at Le Cellier once upon a time, I was in F&B and was trying to become a server. When you receive the nod that you have been chosen to work there, it's an HONOR to become a server and certainly not a RIGHT. With that means tons of training. They don't just hand you a pen and a bill fold and send you off into the dining room and say GOOD LUCK. You go through immense training and shadowing with others. But long before you do that, you have to study your menus. This means knowing every last bloody ingredient in each and every dish. This is for the guests benefits of course but whilst your in the moment, you question.....WHAT THE HECK DO I NEED TO KNOW THERE IS TARRAGON IN THIS DISH??? I'm not a chef? Why do I need to know that this Chardonnay goes with this filet?
IMPOSSIBLE. That is what I continued to tell myself. I studied night after night after night and continued to tell myself this is impossible. Right there, the lesson............I put the negative road blocks in front of myself and blocked myself from learning these important things. Now, there I also had several brilliant leaders to lean on and get guidance from. One however, stood in my way. I felt that this guy was bullying me, picking on me if you will. He was CONSTANTLY questioning me, quizzing me about sines and ingredients. I was SO angry with him, felt that I was being picked on, I ignored him and tried to stay clear from him if I was working the same shifts as he was.
After learning my menu FINALLY, after many weeks of constant struggle and hard ships, it was time to spiel to my managers. This is the time I get to feature the menu to all my managers, one by one and they hold my fate of being a full server in one of the most popular restaurants in all of Walt Disney World. I was so nervous I almost threw up. Seriously, it was a serving job, WHY WAS I SO NERVOUS. This was a big deal for me and it meant so much, it meant I was LIVING A DREAM.
So, one by one, I would lead my mangers through our current menu and would answer question after question and recommend this and that. I could tell you that the tomato stack is one generous helping of tomato goodness. (Funny after 5 yrs I STILL remember my spiel for the tomato stack )
When it came time to spiel to the last 2 people, my area leader Megan and the last, DON. I was terrified. Seriously I wanted to die. I almost quit. ( LESSON HERE- stick with it even if it makes you want to QUIT....you can do ANYTHING you set your mind to )
I managed to get through Megan and with flying colors may I add. And when I completed my time with her, I BEGGED her that she would pass me and not allow me to have to go to Don. They would often pass someone who would blow everyone else away. I was begging it was going to be me and I wouldn't have to go through the bully. Megan ruled NO and that I was going to finish what I started.
Bummed and totally down on myself, I continued to study and push myself to clean up anything I felt uncomfortable with and tried to calm myself as best as I could. I told Megan that if I was being forced to spiel with Don, I was going to be doing it with a colleague of mine so I wasn't alone. I was going to stack the deck in MY favor so I don't have to do it alone and he couldn't bully me again. The worst case, I had a witness to his nonsense.
I walked into the office at our allotted time with my friend and room mate Allison. I was terrified. The usual comfortable, confident gal was turned into a blithering idiot. Allison was STUNNED to witness me like this. I told Don when we got into the office that I would appreciate it very much if he would turn his chair around so I wouldn't have to look at him if he wanted me to spiel to him. He laughed, intimidating me further and obliged after much persistence on my part.
In the end, I made it, with flying colors may I add. I can also proudly report that I contacted Don many years after and apologized and thanked him. I sent so much gratitude to him I sounded like a little school girl with a crush. What Don did for me will stick with me for the rest of my life. Don found something in myself I couldn't see. He tormented me, in my mind of course, because he finally admitted, that I was someone that was extremely passionate about working for Disney and everything I touch. I not only put 110% in all I do but I ooze it to others. He was so excited to have a cast member like myself, that he pushed, challenged and quizzed me because he saw something that I couldn't see.
So, after being awarded the title of server, I was also given the prestigious title of Disney Trainer and after a few months, I also was awarded the EPCOT cast member guest service excellence award. Needless to say, I went above the turmoil I felt and pushed forward through all the dark times, only to emerge out the other end in a glorious spot. I have also become very great friends with Megan, with whom I wouldn't have lived my dream of working at Disney without her. She convinced me when I was questioning my time in a program that focused mostly on younger adults and there was me, 36 yrs old and already through the beginning of my adult life. I was about to quit and Megan brought me into her office and told me how it was. She didn't blow sunshine up my ass as she mentioned to me and told me what I needed to hear. She saw those same things that Don saw in me and I couldn't see myself. Megan was my mentor and continues to offer so much in my life and I suspect she doesn't even realize.
Those trying times have followed through with me through my career and have taught me so much and has also given me things to offer those I mentor and develop. My question to you is this, have you made a difference? Are those you have lead able to call you and sing your praises?
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