Starting in a chair assembly/manufacturing plant, I worked my way towards an Operations Work Team Leader role, which gave me insight into how shop floors run daily, helped me begin to discover who I am as a leader, and the standards I hold myself and my direct reports too. Through meticulous planning on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis, I consistently prioritized my work and managed my time to meet business needs and deadlines. To promote positive, impactful change throughout my teams, I frequently made myself available to have coaching conversations around lean manufacturing tools and concepts to promote how they help establish standards and hold others accountable in a way that breeds trust. After my time as a Work Team Leader, I accepted a position as a Continuous Improvement Leader for a steel manufacturing plant. This allowed me to continue to grow myself as a coach, my understanding of lean concepts and how they apply in different environments, and strengthened my technical skills, all the while allowing me to get exposure to vertically integrated value streams. The time I spent in that role ultimately aided me in stepping into my role as a Continuous Improvement Manager focused on improving efficiency and problem-solving capabilities within administrative and office departments.All the roles I’ve sat in up to this point, granted me the opportunity to step in as an Operation Manager for two wooden worksurface, machining departments. Here, I’ve been able to apply the skills I’ve practiced honing, while pulling from personal experiences I’ve had working in operations for close to a decade. My goal now is to spread continuous improvement and manage perception and culture of my departments to cultivate a positive environment centered on working safely and creating quality products in an efficient manner, while never losing sight of the importance of our people and their right to development. These experiences, in addition to a handful of other important characteristics such as being reliable, consistent, possessing strong work ethic, a positive attitude, active listening skills and a passion to coach and spread learning, are all characteristics I have observed to be prevalent in successful leaders, and are qualities I try to emulate daily. With this, I understand there is always room for further development, and I strive to actively apply and build upon the skills I have learned to help further mold me into who I am as a leader, and as a champion for positive improvements.