Challenge

I am scared to death and excited at the same time!!

I have been in the same department at my job for almost 7 years and this last Wednesday, I accepted a new position in our Credit and Collections department as a team leader. All these emotions keep running wild in my head..."What will happen with my current team? Are they upset or disappointed with me? Who will lead them now? And will they be as good as I know I was to my guys? How will the department run? Will there be a new "strong leader?" Do I really want to do this?"

Yep, I do. I am being a bit selfish this year. It's about me and my development. If I want to move up, I have to move to another department to grow.

So, before I applied, I talked with my mentor, my boss, the hiring manager and her boss to make sure this was the right move. They even reopened the posting so I could apply. So on a Thursday night, I made sure I could submit my resume. It was the hardest thing I have had to do in a LONG time. I almost cried because I am so loyal to those silly customers who think their phone is the remote or that the microwave is the TV and why won't it "Start?" (You thought that wasn't real huh? Well it is!)

I prepped for my interview which came the following Monday and I nailed it! I was so proud of myself. I got a response from them by Wednesday that my 2nd interview was on the next Monday. I went to that one and didn't feel like I did so well but they asked me if I was available to meet with the department VP the next day. (Of course I was even though it was my day off) When I walked into his office he informed me that usually he has 2 candidates to decide from but this time I was the only one. No one else even got a 2nd interview. I don't know how I got out of his office with my head being so big.

I caught my department VP in the hall and she said she was so proud but sad at the same time. She shared with me something my director had said about me..."Kevin said that he was losing his strongest leader." She felt it very important for me to know that he said that. I'm glad she shared. It's nice to know that your director talks about you in this manner to your VP.

I got the call the next day that I was being offered the position and I accepted it. I signed the paper they sent me through email and it's all up hill from here for now. I already have been tasked with a few things from my new boss even though I don't officially start there until 2/9. I guess that's a good thing.

I will let you all know in a few months if I am kicking myself for taking this! I'm sure I will be but not in a really bad way.

Without my desire to be challenged, I wouldn't have this opportunity.

Five

I'm down 5.4 pounds in 3 weeks!! All I can say is WHOOOPPPPEEEE!!!!

Eighty

No, this is not the year I was born or the number of people I talked to today.

It's number of pounds I want to lose. I started Weight Watchers 2 weeks ago and am already down 3 pounds. YAY!!

I decided to write about this tonight because I have discovered that if other people don't know, I won't have anyone to hold me accountable for it. I am going there with my best friend Stacey; she helps me and I help her.

I'm not doing this for anyone but myself. I decided that this year, I need to be a little selfish and take care of myself for a change. I would hate to have something happen to me and then my kids and husband would be left to take care of themselves. My kids love Peanut Butter & Jelly, hot dogs and cereal but I just can't have them eating that all the time!

I have been paying for a gym membership and not going and I started that again tonight. Even if I just go to walk on the treadmill, it's better than nothing and I can focus on just that while I am there.

Pray for me.

Grateful

Today, I took my oldest daughter to the eye doctor for her Strabismus (lazy eye). She sees a specialist because it is something that cannot be treated by a regular optometrist. The appointment was at 2:30pm and they get out of school at 2pm. So we rushed over there and sat down for a few minutes. I looked around the waiting room like most people do, watched my broken son play with another little boy, and remembered that a close friend of mine's daughter comes to the same doctor for her vision. My friend's daughter is a twin and she has a disorder that caused her bones not to grow right and a lot of her physical features didn't develop correctly. (Her dad says her brother took it all!) She is 4 years old and has had more than 30 surgeries. She is the most resilient little girl I have ever seen in my life.Then I remembered the other night when I was in the waiting room at the hospital. I AM SO LUCKY!!

I watched the ambulances pour in that night at the hospital and thought, "Man, if all I have is a broken arm or dislocated elbow, I can handle that." My child could have been that little boy that came in that had been mauled by a dog fighting for his life. He wasn't much older than my son. I could have been that mom who's daughter may have to have her leg amputated because she was in a car accident with her friend's parents. She was about the same age as my girls. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more.

Back to the eye doctor...I'm sitting there and a little girl in a wheelchair comes in with her mom and sits next to me. We start talking about our kids. Her daughter is 8 just like Tallynna and has never walked or spoken a word. She can only see 25% out of one of her eyes and the doctor is working on scheduling a surgery that will help her to have 50% in that eye and 25% in the other. While I was talking to the mom, she handled herself so well when she told me how lucky I was. Then she told me how lucky she is. It took every muscle in my face and neck to hold in the tears!

She said she wouldn't know half the things she does and she wouldn't have been as humble as she is now. She's a single mom. I told her I didn't know how she does it. She just said, "When you love something or someone this much, you find a way."

Tallynna was called back at that point and all I could say to her was, "Thank you!" She just smiled.

I am grateful for everything I have and don't have. There is always something worse and when I think it can't get any worse, I think about those that are worse off than me.

Leadership

I have 16 people that report to me at work, all of them are men except for one lady that has worked for Cox for 20+ years. These 16 people take the calls from customers that call in and say, "I want to talk to a supervisor!" My guys take those calls. About a year and a half ago they all reported into 16 different people and I put together a "plan" to take all of them under me and give up my very high performing team to help them out. They had horrible morale, they were inconsistent in their answers, they had lots of customer complaints...etc. As soon as I took the team over, I went out on maternity leave to have my son. I came back in October 08 and they were still struggling pretty bad. This is where Leadership kicks in. I shared my plan with them. I shared my life with them. I shared my aspirations with them. In turn they shared with me and opened up to let me help them. They had to know I wasn't the bad guy and I wasn't just trying to get rid of all of them. I did terminate quite a few of them, but it had to be done.

I went into work this last Thursday and one of my guys that I let have the 1st half of the day off came up to me and handed me a gift card. He said he had it since just before Christmas and it was from the team. I had been on vacation and he had some days off so we didn't see each other and he couldn't just "leave it on my desk." Understandably, it was for $120.00! I was floored! These guys put up with so much and they don't make enough to compensate for all the times they have been cussed at or yelled at and I get a gift card from them.

I took my parents and my family out to lunch today with it after church.

The reason I did that was because if I didn't have the family I do, I wouldn't be able to do my job the way it needs to be done. They understand that when January comes around, it's Review time and I have to work a bit more than normal. If I didn't have my parents teach me to be a leader, I wouldn't be in the position I am in. My dad has more knowledge about workplace things and more experience than I will ever know. Anytime I have something come up at work or I need to make a decision, I call my Dad. My mom has an impeccable work ethic. I don't think she missed one day of work when she worked for AT&T. No matter what she was there when she was supposed to be and she worked lots of overtime to help pay the bills. They may think that they haven't been "model parents" but they are. I strive to be just like them in my work and home lives.

So, that was a "Thank you for teaching me to be a leader!" lunch.

Impact

I had a peer of mine come to me at work today and say that he looks up to me and that I am a special friend and person. This guy was actually my very first supervisor when I started working at Cox 7 years ago. It made me really see what kind of an impact we really make on people. You see, about 8 months ago, I sat down and had a conversation with him about him and his girlfriend's relationship. I'm no expert at this stuff but I like to think I give good advice.



He told me that he had been with this lady on and off since they were in high school. He's a little over 40 now so that's a long time. He said that she usually flies off the handle when she gets mad at him and she has such a bad temper and he didn't know why. He's a pretty relaxed and chilled out person. He said that he had applied for a job with Cox in Las Vegas and was offered. He was thinking about taking it and just disappearing from Phoenix and not telling her where he was. I can't remember all of the conversation we had, it was a long time ago, but I remember telling him about me when I first got together with Juan and how bad of a temper I had. He didn't believe me when I told him that I used to punch walls, yell and scream, and hit him. So I told him that time went on and after many "sessions" with my now mother-in-law, I have no temper and especially not in front of my kids. I told him that he needs to picks his battles with her (some advice Sylvia gave me) and that he needs to understand why she does the things she does and not take it personally. I'm sure I said more than that because I like to talk a lot but he got the basic message.



When he came to me today and said that he was going to ask her to marry him, I was stunned. He said that it wouldn't have ever come to this if he hadn't stopped at my desk to talk to me that one day.



This is the impact we have on others.



If you share your experiences and knowledge and not be worried about what people will think of you, you can change lives.

Sad but very cute!

I would like to share how I spent my night last night. There's a picture down below but don't look at it yet...(fat chance) Anywho, I picked the kids up from the babysitter at about 5:45pm. She told me that Brianna had left her sweater in her classroom so they took the journey to go get it from the classroom. So, Nan (the sitter), Brianna, Tallynna, and Juanito went inside the school and down the hall. Nan had Juanito's hand and like all little boys will do, he took off in some other direction than where he should have been. In an effort to catch him before he ran off, Brianna grabbed onto the hood of his jacket and pulled him backwards, causing him to fall back onto his arm.

Now, when I got to her house, he was asleep on his arm so I didn't think he could possibly be hurt. So, we went to Walmart where I noticed he wasn't grabbing for ANYTHING! He just left his arm down by his side. When I got home, I tried to get him to use it and......you guessed it, nothin'. When Juan came home, I told him what happened and we agreed that he needed to go to the hospital so off we went. (We is Juanito and I)

We got there around 7pm and through the crying because he HATES people in scrubs and stethoscopes and because he didn't have his elephant to sleep with, we finally made it back to the room at 11pm. The doctor came in....more crying.....and ordered X-rays. The hospital transport came in....more crying....and took us to the X-ray lab. It took 3 of us to hold him down to get the pictures. Doctor....crying....said there was a fracture just above his elbow and he would need a splint. Nurses (3 of them).....crying.....came in to put him in the splint....popsicle to stop him from crying.... It took 4 of us to get it on him and hold it so it would set. Doctor.....crying......said the splint looked good and that we could go. It's 1:45am.

So, 2 bags of goldfish crackers, 2 little thingys of chocolate milk, a hotwheels car, 2 Sesame street toys, and a popsicle later; not to mention the headache I had and that I hadn't eaten in 15 hours...This is what we have. He's as happy as can be chewing on his new hotwheels car.

Don't Call Me That...

So, when my sister-in-law and I were putting this blog together for me, we somehow came up with Jenny from the Blog as a name. I HATE being called Jenny and actually there are only about 3 people that can call me that and get away with it. The reason that I hate it is because it seems a little childish and it makes me think back to when I had pony tails and a pink dress. For those of you that really know me, you know that I didn't really wear dresses until about 9 years ago or so. I was never a "girly girl" growing up. When I was in school I was a gymnast and then played softball until I got out of high school. I have 2 older brothers and I had to fend for myself because my older sister was much older than me and wasn't around when I was getting beat up...

I've decided that I need to get over it.

I am an adult and I know that when people call me Jenny, there's a reason for it. It doesn't really matter why. There was an old story that one of my bosses told me about when we were going to lunch and a song came on that reminded him of someone. He said that there are times throughout the day when things happen, you pass by some place, a song comes on the radio, or you meet someone with a certain name and it takes you back. It brings back a memory; good or bad. So, if someone meets me or speaks my name and it brings back a memory, who am I to take that away from them?

If you call me that just to do it, it might irritate me a little but I'll be just fine but you will be the one having to lay your head down at night knowing that you did something to someone just to hurt their feelings.

I'm the lucky one to have 3 different ways to say the same name. Thanks Grandma!