Bridging The Gap: Bo knows Football, Camren Knows Leadership
Like Bo knows Football, Camren knows Leadership.
The Future Master Class Today (FMCT) Spotlight is featuring Camren B Pritchett as its guest to share his story about what advice he would give to himself at the age of 18.
A little about him: he is 28 years old and married; he is a Junior at Penn State University; and has been a supervisor for five years in the Food Production Industry.
Let’s hear how Camren advises himself:
CB dialogue with self.
There is so much I want to share with you. I remember being charged up, excited, and nervous about the next big steps in life after high school. The feeling of sky’s the limit filled my mind and it felt great. I was in the countdown mode of launching forward.
Fast forward to 10 years, our life has evolved in a good way. I have been able to do a variety of things and learn many lessons while doing them. So, having this opportunity to give you advise is a blessing for me.
The two things I would like to advise you on are Engagement and Leadership in the workplace. You will need to be efficient in them as you navigate through your educational and professional experiences.
Engagement occurs everywhere and at different levels in the workplace. People think it just happens because they are doing work together. They believe this closeness is healthy. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. I have seen both and knew I had to intentionally create and sustain a culture of engagement. A place where a team is a strong unit filled with confident individuals who feel empowered to own and fulfill their individual and collective responsibilities.
Because I supervise in strenuous production environments, I need my teams to be lucid and creative in their efforts. They must think on their feet, so that they can make on the spot decisions that add value to the product and the team. To make this happen, I get to know them as they get to know me. I spend quality time on the floor, observing their work habits, and talking/listening to them as they feel comfortable to share with me. This interaction helps us to fulfill the demands of the schedule as their buy-in and accountability drives the floor activities from the start to the completion of the shift. All these things together have helped me to build, cultivate, and sustain a culture of engagement.
Moving on to Leadership in the workplace. Learning to effectively self-lead is the first advice I would give you. There are many books in the marketplace about leading others but being a self-leader is misunderstood and rarely discussed. People assume that a person does this without thought and action. Not true, as I now know leading myself first is critical in helping me to lead others. Things like waking up in the morning and going through the steps to get me from my home to my next stop requires leadership. Missing one step in this process could cause me to be late and or miss an opportunity. I know this because it has happened to me on different occasions. Without going into detail on these times, just know my decision and behavior were a failure in leading myself. The fallout took me away from other things that needed my attention, and it wasn’t fun when I had to back pedal. But now I know it was necessary for me to go through it because it allowed me to see the value of my self-leadership at my current age and share with you and others who could benefit from it.
Leading others with emphasis of being an example setter to them is the second advice I would give to you. Because I embody leadership, I knew setting the right example to my team would be critical in our relationship. Case-in Point. Once I remembered glancing at the schedule at the beginning of my shift- 1:30 pm and quickly saw the extra heavy workload that needed to be accomplished before we left for the night. I was furious as I knew that it would take us up to 14 hours to get everything done. Fortunately, I had 30 minutes to process my frustration, determine how to share the schedule with my team, and how we would accomplish the assignment. I know…it seems like it would take longer to work out the details, but I did not have a choice. I had to present a confident approach when I stood before them at the start of their shift.
I saw their faces after they reviewed the schedule. It was not good. They knew it would be a long night to complete the job and I knew there was no avoiding what had to be done. But I knew I could influence how we did it. I gave them some space to digest what had to be done and then asserted that we could keep the lines running through the breaks and lunch period plus use people from other areas to help us with this effort. They agreed with the plan, and (long story made short) we were able to complete the schedule in 12 hours. Mission Accomplished! We made it happen as a team and with little turbulence. Kudos to my team for a Job Well Done!
Self, you should know the workplace is always changing. The advice I have given you will continue to evolve as the food industry’s landscape evolves. Just know you will be ready and able to adjust when necessary. Step Forward! Make things happen. I hope this was helpful-Take Care of yourself.
Dialogue with Self is over.
Camren B Pritchett, a Generation Y Future Master Class Today member, is making his mark in the Food Industry now. He has the baton running and winning in his race today. The Future looks Brighter.
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