Communication has always been a cornerstone of my work life. From my time as a sailing instructor to my management position with the Seaside Company, being able to effectively communicate has been critical, and at times lifesaving. While I realize being able to coach a victim to remain calm during a man-overboard situation was a lot different from managing my 20 employees working in the cash control department the common thread was strong communication skills. I am a natural leader and teacher and to lead and teach effectively you must be able to convey your message accurately, understandably and in a manner that suits your audience. You wouldn’t spew accounting jargon at a junior sailor, I mean you could, but the results would not be effective. Perhaps the most important part of communication is knowing who you’re talking to closely followed by being able to convey your message to them effectively. For example, I had an employee who had problems with following written instruction, he would get tripped up trying to relate the information on the page to the physical task. In order to ensure his success, I worked with him side by side and provided verbal and visual instruction so he could effectively learn. Communication comes in many different forms from verbal to written to physical, knowing which form or which combination of them is effective for you and those you are engaging with is key to ensuring that ideas are relayed effectively. This brings me to my next personal skill.
Perseverance. That employee was not the norm, on several occasions my director and I had meetings discussing his performance and if he was really the right fit for the job. I was always confident that if we could find a way to effectively teach him, he could be a great long-term asset to the company. Admittedly I struggled initially finding ways that I could fulfill my duties as a manager while spending extra time to focus on him, it was great when I could teach him one-on-one but I needed to be there for the rest of my employees as well. Eventually I recruited a trusted, seasoned employee to help me. We devised a plan about how in the slow times of the shift they would go train hands on doing various tasked that he struggled with. I chose that seasoned employee because his patience and willingness to teach was exactly what was needed in this situation. This worked wonders, and within a relatively short period he was up to speed. My director and I discussed what had taken place and as a result I was asked to create training slideshows and videos to go along with the written material. It is because of my perseverance with that one employee that I was given this opportunity to create training material that would be able to reach a broader scope of trainees. Sometimes you need to take a multifaceted approach to solve the problem, but the most important part is to not give up.
Tenacity. Like a limpet to stone I am a tenacious problem solver. Once I have set my mind to the task at hand, I am confident that I can succeed. After all this development bootcamp was not an easy task while working 50+ hours a week for AT&T. I am a driven problem solver who loves to create elegant solutions in order to achieve higher levels of efficiency and design systems that work. Whether the problem is with a piece of code or a workplace procedure I have faith in myself that I will be able to fix it. That is not to say I will always fix it alone, it’s important to know when to reach out for help, but I am always confident that through my research coupled with my resourcefulness and my knowledge that I can get the job done.
Communication, perseverance and tenacity are just some of the soft skills that I bring to the table. If you’re interested in hearing more about what I can do for your company, shoot me an email at mkunnari1@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.