I'm a 24 year old machinist I work CNC machines do setups and order tooling
most of the people I work with have worked here for over 15 years
the owner my company wants to make me the shop manager and honestly I'm not
too tore up about it I feel like the older guys who've been around won't want
to take scheduling and manufacturing advice from a young guy I have good
relationships with all the the shop guys but I'm worried about stepping into this
role so soon only been with the company for three years
any advice okay your boss isn't asking you to do this job if you're not ready
for it that's that's number one and the fact that you don't think you're ready
is a good sign I've said this before because it means that you're humble so
you feel like that that's good that's probably one of the reasons why you're
doing well and probably of the reasons that your boss thinks you're ready for
the job is cuz you're humble so that's good but you also have to remember that
being humble has to be balanced dichotomy of leadership with confidence
and even with a little bit of aggression so there's a reason that you're getting
asked to do this job and the boss needs you to step up now just because you
become the manager or the boss doesn't mean yet you have to start bossing
people around right it actually means that you should remain humble that you
should take input from them that you can still take advice from them as opposed
to just giving them advice all those things are fine and I just gotta ask
this question the other day young construction business and a kid we were
in a big meeting with a with a bunch of leadership foremen two engineers all in
the same room a bunch of great guys from a great company and one of the young
engineers raised his hand and said you know I'm young and I am gonna be in
charge of these guys you know I'm not sure I'm comfortable with these guys had
been doing it for a lot longer what can I do to you know gain their respect and
I said okay who in this room knows more than that engineer back there about
construction and all these salty construction Foreman's raised their
hands and I said who you know who's gonna think that this
guy's got the best idea raise your hands oh my hands go down and I said so this
is what you're dealing with buddy I said now let me ask another
question the group group if this kid comes in and says I know how to do this
better than you listen to me and do it my way
who's gonna have respect for him raise your hand no hands go up if this young
kid comes in and says hey I'm an engineer I've been educated but I
haven't been doing this for long can you give me some recommendations on how we
do this so we can do the best job possible who's gonna have respect for me
everyone raises their hand so there you have it you you you don't have to know
everything as a leader no one expects you know everything especially as a
young leader that's okay and actually when you admit that you actually gain
respect when you ask for people as input you actually gain respect people get the
paranoid feeling that if they don't know something they're gonna be seen as weak
it's not true so you can just step up into the position still be humble still
take advice now this doesn't mean that you're a pushover right this doesn't
mean that you just listen to what everyone says you don't make any
decisions no but it actually means that you show respect to their experience and
when it comes time to make a decision you get the best input and then you make
a decision and you explain your decision and if your decision is wrong you admit
it and if it's not wrong you push forward so that's you need to your
getting asked to be put in this position for a reason so do it
get some seems like a common one yeah that one I'm stepping in the new role
for sure everyone asks that question yeah I answered it again there you go
for everyone's benefit but my own yeah I learned from it every time well that's
the ethos right go in humble yeah be open-minded take advice yes yes yes
don't have to know everything yes three days ago
our neighbor young girl one of my daughter's friends 12 years old mm-hmm
it comes over there messing around there swimming she grabs my daughter's jump
rope and she's jumping rope she does the cross you know you join you cross cross
over and whatever us over yeah yeah so he does that in man I used to jump rope
in the day but I never really could be the Passover let's face it nonetheless
so she's jump roping and jumping rope and I'm like hey do that cross the
crossover thing again she does it she's doing you know she's 12 years old you
talk like dang I never could do that and she's like well you just got to do it
like this until it's something like okay I grab the rope
can I try and the roast do small so I go grab my rope yeah I got a jump rope um
well I told my daughter to grab it so she grabs it and this is like a kind of
like one of those pro speed ropes you know so it's like gonna so if I make a
mistake on this rope is gonna hurt I didn't have any shoes on I was barefoot
so I'm style points off for sure 100% and then so I go for it I'm Gemma rockin
jump rope still pretty good right now still I haven't done in a while and she
goes okay so right here at the top you know you you cross you this is where you
want to cross at the top I try it Oh hits my foot painful and she's like no
you got to do it your time no okay no no no I never show the paint to the kids
good I try not to anyway so I was like okay boom fail she's like no more at the
top you know it'll it'll just whatever so I'm like okay I do it and it took me
four times on my fourth time I did it for the first time in my life by the way
the crossover with the painful speed rope some you know some mental fortitude
right there thrown here so I did it you should have seen but you should have
seen the look on her and my daughter's face they were like like it was you know
like I just got my purple belt or something nonetheless so boom what do we
have right there a situation this is what I took from it too we have a
situation a full-grown athletic arguably person learning to do something that's
really not that easy obviously if I've never done it in my life learning to do
something that takes a fair amount of skill from a 12 year old girl in real
time and you know what I did to boot gave her the credit I said dang you are
the the best you have to everyone to the muster yeah
yes exactly right so that's the thing you're so the moral of your story which
was a long story yeah yes be humble you can learn from anybody yes
and when you do learn from someone give them a grep in it boom that's what data
see I said that in 13 seconds I know brow but I'm just saying it was
impactful and it reminded me of that story