Master Plan

When I took a position with Grainger, I had absolutely no intention on staying in the position that I was offered. In fact, after I had been working with Grainger for a while, I knew that my master plan with the company was to advance my way up to Branch Manager, and beyond. Shortly thereafter it became clear that being hired on as an STL was one of the best things that could happen to me. An STL is in the trenches more than say an CSM, and this required me to rise up and learn more at a faster pace.

I was hired on to work for Grainger because of my leadership experience. The Managers that interviewed me saw that I was ambitious, and that I could handle a team of subordinates. I knew going into the interviews that I had a drive to be the best, and that I had skills that I could offer Grainger. I’m smart, a quick study, and I am not afraid to make the tough decisions.

I will be forever grateful to the interviewing Managers, Vicki Nicklaus, Lex Fort, and of course Tim Wood. It is ironic that in a room full of unknowns that I was being interviewed by people of ambition and countless amounts of experience behind them. It is of no coincidence that the three managers in the conference room at the Chino branch were key people in the district. Mr. Fort went on to become the district’s Continuous Improvement Manager. Vicki Nicklaus moved from Branch manager of a mid level branch up to one of the larger branches in district. As for Mr. Wood, unbeknownst to me I was being interviewed by the District Branches Services Manager (read: The Big Kahuna).

Recently I decided that being a Sales Team Lead for three years was not what I had planned. It was my intention to have advanced after a year of service as an STL. My next Logical step is to become an Assistant Branch Manager. I recently filled out a questionnaire, and it really was the nexus to force me to ask the questions. Why am I still a Sales Team Lead? What does it take in Grainger to advance to an Assistant Branch Manager? How can I get to the next level, and how quickly can I do it?

I decided to start a blog because outside of work, writing is what I do. It is almost a second job to me. I write because I feel that I need to, so logically I decided to start writing about my Journey from Sales Team Lead to Assistant Branch Manager. I have started a plan, and I have started asking the questions to anyone who can help.

I have been reading books on theories on how to be an effective manager. I recently finished “Who Moved My Cheese?” a book about change, and how to deal with it. The books are a tool, and like all tool they don’t do any good, if one doesn’t implement what is read. It is part of an ongoing theory that I have that by behaving like a Branch Manager, I will fast track to being a Branch Manager.

I have also made tentative plans to reach out to other branches and learn key aspects about the various aspects of what a branch manager does. I plan to visit the call center in Commerce, to get an understanding of a typical day of operation in a branch with only phones. I also plan to travel to our Northridge Branch because it is the closest branch to me that actually has an Assistant Branch Manager on staff. My intention is to press the Managers there on the role an Assistant Branch Manager plays, and what a relationship is between an Assistant Branch Manager and a Branch Manager is.

Ultimately I know that in order to reach the next platform of my Career plan I need to start the climb, and I understand that you can’t climb by simply knowing that you have to. It will be the DOing of these plans that will get me to my desired destination. This blog serves me as a journal on a journey would serve the traveler. It will be another tool that I can look at and track my own development.

So I go forward with the Master Plan now, starting with this blog.