Jennifer‘s story: Open to new opportunities

Just a myth: A secret, all-encompassing guidebook for leadership

My team is extremely diverse and includes young salesmen and women, employees with decades of experience, part time team members, and completely new team members. When I started in my leadership role, I sought out models and theories that I thought would help me succeed. However, I quickly realized that there is no singular, perfect recipe or leadership model that works across the board.

Instead, I’ve found that good leadership requires constant active listening to understand how each member of the team wants to be led. Sometimes you won’t have all the answers and sometimes you will need to simply rely on your intuition. Even with the many unknowns that come with leadership, there are a few essential guidelines: your team must always know that they are heard, that their concerns are taken seriously, and that you will reliably report back to them. Most importantly, you need to show that they can count on you.

The word “teamwork” is thrown around a lot – but what does it mean?

A vital component of effective teamwork is to build trust with one another. As a leader, you should set the direction of the work that needs to be done, but then take a step back and let your team figure out how to ultimately achieve the end goal. But for this approach to be successful, you must (1) build a learning culture within your team rather than a culture of mistakes and (2) always be willing to help one another out. If you have each other’s backs and help one another grow, your team will be unstoppable.

A BORING DAY IN MY LIFE? NONEXISTENT!

A wide range of responsibilities fall under my To-Do’s every day, including working on our wide-ranging portfolio (from alcohol free beverages to spirits to coffee), meeting our customers in the market, and coaching my dynamic team. Together, these tasks make my job flexible and fun!

At the same time, this broad range of tasks and fast-paced environment also means that things can change very quickly and significantly - whether it's new products, an internal job change or new departments. It can sometimes be difficult to always be prepared for the possibility of change and still perform well in the current situation.

Tips for young talents

Be bold, open-minded and embrace the challenge! All employees can benefit from the warm atmosphere at Coke. Your own ability to be open and ask others for their advice can be the key to success.