Leadership and teamwork are integral parts of the Kellogg experience. Describe a recent and meaningful time you were a leader. What challenges did you face? What did you learn?

I have held leadership roles professionally, socially, and athletically, all of which taught me something new about leadership. Participating in team sports since I was a child, I earned the opportunity to Captain our Varsity rugby team at university. This taught me how to motivate different personalities, lead through adversity, and how to listen when the team raised concerns. Two years ago I began volunteer coaching youth rugby. Coaching kids helped develop my leadership abilities, especially honing my communication to various skill levels. At (Company) I progressed through multiple roles supervising others and managed five different teams. I took over teams with challenges and discovered ways to turn them around. I learned how to manage difficult employees and benefited from extra training about leadership and team management.

In April I was given my biggest leadership opportunity to date: becoming a Sales Manager. The facility was hemorrhaging money and I was tasked to create a three-year plan to turn around the results and make it a top revenue generator within the country. After assessing the situation, I recognized that the culture within the facility needed immediate attention.

When I arrived the facility had an individualistic atmosphere, which led to a ‘clock in / clock out’ mentality. I quickly identified two main causes for this. The first was a lack of direction. The previous leadership had not set up any routines and the communication of priorities was non-existent. This led to associates completing what they felt was imperative. To solve this I set up weekly calls, monthly meetings and increased the amount of face time between managers and their reports to ensure alignment and consistency. These changes also helped solve the second issue: the lack of an employee “voice”. Due to the communication disconnect the team felt forgotten and powerless. After opening up the lines of communication I heard the team felt their targets were unrealistic and that the vast geography of their territories was not being considered. Once identified these concerns were easy to solve. The decision to overhaul communication has paid dividends as we climbed from a bottom revenue generating facility to the top revenue generator within our region.

A leader’s job is to prioritize what will drive results, communicate effectively, hold people accountable, and create an environment that people want to be part of. With Kellogg’s community being heavily team-based, I will leverage these experiences in the classroom by aligning the team on a goal, prioritizing work and building a positive team-dynamic. I also plan to use these skills when taking on a leadership role within the Business Leadership Club, helping prepare my peers and my peers for the next step in our career journeys.