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1 Working to Learn and Learning to Work: A Learning Autobiography Alana Gamble Purdue University Global EL206: Academic Prior Learning portfolio Professor Betsy Daniels May 16, 2023

2 Working to Learn and Learning to Work: A Learning Autobiography If someone told me 7 years ago that I had the opportunity to get my Bachelor of Science in Business Administration - Human Resources, degree by using my work experience, I would have thought they were making things up. How in the world would I be able to get my degree without doing the course work? With the new educational benefit from my company, not only am I able to petition for my learning experience using my work experience, but I could also finish my degree using the company paid scholarship. I always wanted to go back to school and finish the degree that I started. Having to put my family and finances first, school was out of reach for me. Not only can I finish what I started with my degree, I can use my work experience that I have gained with practicing my learning and applying my skills to help others succeed, and become the best example for my daughters. Anything is possible with determination and ambition. I am very grateful that I can use my life and work experiences to prove that I have captured and became proficient in college level learning. My learning journey began in 2009 with a new position with limited to no experience. as a server for Red lobster which was extremely intimidating. I learned very quickly that I had to improve my communication, problem solving and customer service skills. Without these basics I was no match for the upscale customers. Learning how my new coworkers worked as a team became crucial . Making sure to stock and

3 prepare salads according to the food safety training videos, ensuring that clean cups were stocked for the drink station, and Preparing rolled clean silverware. making sure the clean silverware was rolled.. If these seemingly small tasks were not completed promptly, it easily caused a delay in the production of my peers and prevented us from providing pristine customer service . This was the prime breeding ground for a frantic environment as it stopped the normal workflow. Seeing how my small mistakes took a huge toll on my coworkers, I wanted to learn how to maintain the comradery of my working environment. Making sure that I kept up with my share of the responsibilities became the easiest way to encourage the positive drive my peers needed. Effectively communicating with my peers lead. to satisfied customers, accurate orders, and well endowed t ips. This is how I began to build upon problem solving and critical thinking, and much needed customer service skills. As I continued to practice these customer service and food preparation skills , I learned, it became apparent to me that the food service industry was not fulfilling my goal of helping people. I was in the wrong job field. With the drive that I had to help people, I knew I wanted to do more than help take food orders and follow food safety procedures. After 3 years, I realized it was time for me to make a real difference in someone's life. In 2011 I decided to go back to school and start a career as a medical assistant. Being a medical assistant student, I learned the importance of patient privacy rights, documenting vital signs and ensuring the comfort of

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4 patients. After obtaining my medical assistant diploma from Kaplan C ollege, I was now ready to help make a difference in the lives of others by becoming a habilitation specialist. What better way to make a difference, than to help those with disabilities? Working with adults and children with disabilities for Heinzerling, I became knowledgeable in connect ing with helping them through their normal daily routines. What can considered be simple for non-disabled people , was a daunting task for some of these residents. Learning how to follow their provided regimen was critical . After all, repetition for them was important. It was important that they had a set schedule for them to follow so that they became accustomed to how to do these tasks. From teeth brushing, to bathing. From eating to daily activity, everything had to be done in accordance with their personal plans laid out. Otherwise, it would lead to behaviors of lashing out at staff or their peers which could potentially be dangerous to themselves and others. I was assigned a young girl who was 10 years old. With her mental disability, she had the mental capacity of a 4-year-old. This little girl was not able to walk on her own, had limited motor and verbal skills, and had challenges with feeding herself. With her daily care plan, she would have behaviors that entailed hitting, biting, and scratching herself if she became overstimulated, frustrated or had any kind of instant change. As I began working with her, I learned that her previous staff were unsuccessful in helping her advance in achieving her milestones. This led to an

5 unfortunate ly high turnover of her staff care, which added to her behaviors as she had to deal with constant change. I knew I had to build her trust for her to allow me to help her with her development. Although it took a month for her to get used to me being a new part of her staff, I was able to do something that she did not do previously on her own. She was finally began able to feed herself. Although it was messy, she seemed to be happy with how I was able to relate to her. By using I used the problem solving, communication and teamwork skills which are from small pieces of the customer service skills acquired from my previous role as a server . I found a way to relate to her so that I could match her wits where she was instead of forcing her to move outside of her comfort zone unnecessarily. An example that worked to help her eat was surprisingly simple. We sang a song. At the time my own daughter was 6 years old, and she loved cartoons. One of her favorite shows had a song that was upbeat and had lyrics about “having a party in my tummy” (Jacobs,2007). One day, I began to sing this song with my resident out of desperation as she refused to eat. I encouraged her to sing with me, and as we sang the final sentence of the song together “so yummy, so yummy...” she ate her first bite of food for me. I was honored. I continued with this method and after about a week , she began to sing this song on her own as she ate her food. My co-workers were amazed. Afterall, the only food they got from her was the food she threw across the room. Everyone on the staff took this lead and found other fun upbeat songs to sing with her

6 to help her with other daily routines. As she continued her tasks by singing, it was noted that she was gradually happier, ate more of her food often, tried to dress herself and participate in planned activities. When her parents came to visit, they were awestruck with the progress she made in only a month's time. Seeing the joy in their faces was more than rewarding, not to mention I became her favorite “friend”. As time went on After about l year in this position, my home life changed drastically, and I was no longer able to maintain my position as a habilitation specialist. This inevitable change forced me to find a new job closer to home and put my career as a m edical assistan t career on hold. Using my customer service skills, I found a position at a company being a dish satellite technician over the phone in 2012. Although I could not see my customers face to face, I still had to assist them through trouble shooting their satellite issues over the phone. By taking the lesson from my habilitation specialist position of meeting people where they are, I quickly learned how to do this within minutes of a conversation by gaining the customers trust, sharing knowledge to help aid in their technical issue and resolving or scheduling a technician appointment. In dealing with customer issues, angry and frustrated customers came with the territory. By using emotional intelligence, I was able to de- escalate customers by keeping a calm and sincere tone of voice, properly applied empathy and resolving their issues or providing next steps as needed. I was able to maintain my performance requirements as well as

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7 increase the company's customer satisfaction goals. With the newfound success, I was ready to grow with the company in the hopes of helping others achieve the goals I was able to accomplish. Unfortunately, this company did not agree, which led me down the career path in the financial industry of banking and lending. It had also become apparent that I also wanted to own my own business. In order for me accomplish this goal, I knew I also needed a business management degree. I gathered my courage and took the plunge to enroll in the University of Phoenix to earn my bachelors in science management degree where I went on to earn ing 53 total credits . O ver a period of two years. I was far from being finished, but I could no longer ? afford to complete my degree. Feeling defeated I re- entered the workforce. In the fall of 2013, I began my new role as a telephone banker with Chase Bank. During training with my new company, I had the privilege of learning in depth how to pinpoint a customer's personality type from using the four types of personalities , to provide a “wow” customer service experience. Being able to exceed their expectations instead of just meeting the expectations was a huge deal with my new company. While still in training, I learned the new performance expectations, how to navigate the computer systems , and to multi-task while on calls. I also learned how to and avoid risk to the company by ensuring every caller was properly verified. Without this seemingly simple verification, it c ould lead to exposing customer account information. Customer privacy was a must as I was now

8 essentially dealing with their livelihood. During the final days of training, I was finally able to shadow an experienced peer , so that I could may physically see the day in the life of what our training entailed. I was able to use Using the job shadowing , I was able to put all of my combined training together. I was able to participate in mock calls so that I found a smooth flow for calls before taking what was called a “live” call. “Live” calls were the real deal, dealing with real customers and their very real accounts . It was finally time for me to take my training and put it into action motion. Helping customer after customer with their issues, it became apparent that some of my peers needed more help and it seemed they had to wait long lengths of time to get assistance from our peer- coaches . This led to their calls being longer and even more unsatisfied customers. Since I understood the training and quickly became a top- performer, I decided to use my knowledge to help my peers as we were all a team. Helping others learn ensured that I was not only proficient with my knowledge, but it gave me back my ability to make a difference by helping others. in someone’s life. I was able to fulfill my goal ok helping my peers and earned the status of a peer-coach. Although this was not a formal position, it gave me the ability to step outside of my current customer service specialist role and mentor any new peers. STOPPED HERE WITH Editing Being a peer-coach, I was easily able to relate to the mindset of my peers to aid them during calls in finding resources quickly, providing best practices for deescalating customers, and finding a call flow that worked for

9 them. All the while ensuring the accuracy of information given and security of customers' accounts. This led to a higher customer satisfaction rate as the hold time was now minimal for the customers and the agent assisting them appeared knowledgeable and willing to assist. I was able to aid my peers with articulating positive language by creating a simple how to guide using One Note that supplemented our training. Although training was over, having a simple refresher was a huge help to many of my peers. I was able to enlighten my peers as to how to use their own One Note to keep track of any difficult scenarios so they may recall them during meetings with their managers for them to gain insight into their struggles. I continued to find different ways to aid management with the performance of our team. By doing so, I sparked a new career path on the management track. Although I did not realize it at the time, this was my new beginning to continue to find new ways to improve the performance of others by assisting them in achieving their own growth. Although it was fulfilling to solve customer issues taking 90-100 calls per day by listening to determine the root cause of a customer issue and resolve them while maintaining a 95% first call resolution rate, I realized that I could help more customers by promoting better training of my peers. The best way for me to achieve this goal was to become a Team Lead or Manager myself. In 2015, after two years of growing within my customer service specialist role, I started to find myself becoming complacent in my role. This is when I knew I needed a new change, a new challenge that would push me

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10 out of my comfort zone. Being out of my comfort zone is how I learned best. Just as I was able to help my peers learn, it was time for me to challenge myself to resolve escalated customer issues. I became an escalations representative. My role as an escalation specialist was to accept calls from other consultants who were not able to resolve customer issues during the interaction. Additionally, if the customer had more complex issues such as issues with their accounts revolving around fraud or account closures, issues stemming from branch interactions, or even de-escalating the call from the previous interaction. By empathizing with customers and using my critical thinking and problem-solving skills, I was successfully able to gain the trust of my customers to ensure their resolution. Even if that meant they would have to wait for a follow-up. During this experience I encountered some extremely angry people. Some people simply wanted to stay angry and refused to get any other help than what they were demanding. Some demands were to simply refund an overdraft fee charged so that the customer could have additional funds for gas. There were also egregious demands to have more funds added to the customers' accounts for them so they may use it to continue to overdraft their accounts. Although this was certainly not an option, I had to accept that I was not going to make everyone happy. For these unruly customers, I was able to provide what I could do and used that positivity as the focus. I had to learn how to use emotional intelligence so that I could not only

11 match the customer at their pace, but also keep in mind that they were angry with the situation, not me directly. I learned that I had to quickly articulate positive language so that I could help the customer focus on the issue at hand. By effectively articulating positive language, I was able to find tailor- made solutions for the customers using the critical thinking and problem- solving skills I had acquired and maintained since my journey began. As I became accustomed to the day-to-day irate customers, I realized to prevent the escalation, I had to find a way to help them with their issues before they became a problem. After a year using my newly gained problem-solving and critical thinking skills, I found a different way to put those skills to use so that I could not only help customers by stopping fraud before it hit their accounts, but also by helping my company minimize loss and avoid risk. I became a secondary review analyst. As a deposit review specialist my goal was to recognize fraud trends such as check forgery and check kiting as these were many of the issues I ran across with my previously escalated calls. During my time as a secondary review analyst, I was able to aid in finding more efficient ways to locate and report fraud activity by creating and implementing a new process, so that the fraud trends larger deposits of 50k or more were recognized quickly. As a part of the process, I used an excel spread sheet. This spread sheet had the ability to track the fraud trends efficiently so that other peers were able to use this new tool as an aid. This created a singular

12 approach that everyone was able to use so that the practice of tracking fraud trends became more consistent across the company. The more deposits I analyzed, the more monotonous my role seemed, and I found myself with minimal desire. I also began to feel like I wasn’t making a difference within the company. It was then that I realized, if I wanted to move forward in my career, I had to go to a different company and start over from the beginning. In 2016, I obtained a new banking and customer service role with PNC. During the interview process I realized that the company was invested in the learning and growth of its employees. This was exactly what I was looking for in any company I worked for. Although I had to begin again, I had already acquired many of the necessary skills the company was looking for. They didn’t have to teach me problem solving, critical thinking or how banking worked. Little did they know, they just needed to teach me the processes and products of the company and I provided the rest. During the 1 st 6 weeks of the 3-month training, I was able to aid in the coaching development of my peers without question, resolve complex customer issues on the first contact and above all, de-escalate my own calls; all the while providing pristine customer service to my customers. While I was able to highlight these skills during my interview, I was excited to have the opportunity to showcase every skill I had conquered over the last 7 years. As I was still fresh in the role itself, it became clear to my training team and supervisor at the time that I was not just an ordinary

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13 consultant looking to simply earn a paycheck. I was in it for long-term career growth. As the 3-month training concluded I was introduced to my permanent supervisor where I would continue to maintain growth in the customer service representative role. There was a vast amount of information needed to assist the day-to-day requests of the customers. As I was helping with the coaching and development of my peers, it became apparent that the wealth of knowledge was overwhelming to my peers. I started a one note for myself, that had specific sources of one-off scenarios as well as common calls. This aided in the efficiency of my calls, exuded confidence in my knowledge so that I was effectively able to assist my customers with their requests. During one of my bi-weekly meetings with my supervisor, she noticed that I was well versed during my calls as if I had the knowledge all along. She then asked the question “how are you remembering all the information needed? I don’t even know everything, and you speak as if you have worked here for years.” I explained to her how I took notes of the calls that gave me the most trouble and added them in my one note so that the calls would be more efficient, effective and appear to be knowledgeable to my customers. This sparked the interest of my supervisor, and an anchor consultant for my supervisor. An anchor consultant was not an official position, but it gave me the leverage and creative authority I needed, to show that I was able to lead our team in the absence of my supervisor. I was able to take the notes that I created and shared with my supervisor as well as my team to aid in

14 maintaining our performance metrics. My peers were excited to have this new tool simply, so they didn’t have to try and remember everything. This began my personal motto: I may not know the information off hand, but I can surely find it quickly. Such a mindset spread like wildfire and my simple one note became a tool shared with the whole department. After about 6 months in my new role, I was sought out by the supervisor of the inbound sales team who was interested in my passion. He saw how easily I retained any information provided and was impressed with my ability to provide tailor-made solutions to the customers. I politely declined his offer to join his team. After all, I didn’t want to sale anything to customers. I only wanted to help them resolve issues and be the first and final point of contact for them. I then found out that I was 3 months pregnant and had no idea! I was ecstatic that I was going to bring another new life to the world. I was also terrified that all my hard work had to come to a standstill. I felt selfish and ashamed that I even had that train of thought. There was only one thing left for me to do in this position! I had to work harder and faster to achieve the status that I started. With my new determination, I knew I only had roughly 5 months to make a solid impact. I was afraid that I would lose my job as I was not eligible for family medical leave. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was never going to lose my position just because I had additional doctor's appointments due to my pregnancy. Without this knowledge, it gave me the drive that I needed to show that I was still the best employee even in my

15 situation. I maintained my work ethic all the way until I was 8 months and 3 weeks pregnant, just to prove this point. In the end, my pregnancy won. One day, I was mentoring a new class of new hires. To help them effectively, I had to walk around when a hand was raised to provide support in the moment. During this (unknowingly) last 6-hour day (and against my doctors' wishes) I remained on my feet walking around. I refused to be known as the lazy pregnant lady! Everyone received the help and support they required. Some needed help with navigation of the systems, others needed help with wording to de-escalate their calls and I was there to help them all. This was extremely fulfilling to me. As I left work early, I went to my normal check-up with my doctor only to learn that not only was I not returning to work the next day, but I would not be returning for the next 4 months. I was devastated. I let my supervisor know the situation and the first thing she said was “See, I told you to slow down! I will see you in 16 weeks after a healthy delivery. We can't wait for you to return.” This relieved much of my stress as I knew above all, I would be able to pick up where I left off once I returned from maternity leave. My daughter was born 6 weeks early, but she was healthy and strong. In the fall of 2017, I was finally ready to go back to work and pick up where I left off ready to continue my journey. Upon returning, I had to work to catch up on all the company updates over the last 16 weeks with only one week to catch up. By taking the time to prioritize my training, read over email updates, as well as ensure my one note was updated with new

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16 findings and information that I came across. In the banking industry, change is inevitable and constant. Being able to adapt to the change and quickly is detrimental to this workforce. A last, it was time for me to get back to what I started, and in perfect timing. My supervisor was going on vacation and needed to have a replacement to help the team in her absence. I finally had the chance to lead the team on my own for two weeks. During this two-week time frame, I gained the opportunity to network with other leaders as I did not have access to administrative tasks. Thes tasks included time sheet audits, corrective action, and all requests from human resources. The remaining responsibilities they were bestowed upon included sitting side by side with my peers listening to calls and maintaining team engagement. As I listened to calls, I was able to provide in the moment coaching and feedback. I was able to provide suggestions and recommendations tailored to each of their individual styles. Many of the recommendations included helping with verbiage and explaining or relaying information to customers in a simplistic manner. Examples of providing verbiage included can statements. Such as, “here re the options we do have available” instead of “we can’t do XYZ, and no resolution is provided”. This simple yet effective recommendation with over 10 of my peers helped increase the team’s customer satisfaction scores as well as lowered the talk time by 2%. This may not have seemed a huge feat, but in the short amount of time of the accomplishment, the progress laid the groundwork for our whole team to perform at the desired metrics until our

17 supervisor came back from vacation. She was thrilled to find out that not only did we increase our productivity, but we did so without her being there. I was rewarded by getting a shout out to the entire company, which is called a spotlight, so that everyone knew how well the team and myself were able to increase our productivity. Now that the team was headed in a better direction, team morale continued to improve as well. The expander sales supervisor noticed the impact I made on the team and requested that I apply for his team as a expander sales representative, this time I happily accepted. By accepting this position, it was a new challenge for me as it was a way to step outside of my comfort zone in general customer service. As a part of the interview, one question I asked was what would be my focus for my customers? I explained to the interviewing manager that although I was not interested in the sales aspect, I was intrigued about being able to provide solutions to my customers. To this they replied, “That is perfect, we expect that you focus on the customers issue and the reason for their call much like your current position. Now you have the added option of being able to offer a tailor-fit solution to aid the customer in either earning cash back on their transactions by using a credit card. Or helping customers with their dream of home improvements by offering a home equity line of credit.” (Weed,2017). With this information I was much more comfortable accepting the position as I was also able to show the customer the value of these products to also help them with the growth of their

18 savings account. This was the exact mentality the expander sales leader was looking for! For the 1 st time in my adult life, I was hired on the spot. As I went on to complete the two-week training, I realized I would aiding customers with applying for various loans and line of credit. This included credit cards, auto loans, personal loans, home equity line of credit, personal line of credit. I also learned how to help customers open checking and savings accounts as well. Although these applications were indeed sales being financial products, positioning them as a solution based on the customer’s specific need was perfect. I found that this solution-based selling was yet another way that I fulfilled my desire to help others. As I became acclimated with my new team, the vast amount of knowledge obtained through training as well as the on-the-job experience was very intimidating. There was such a vast amount of knowledge needed in order to provide these solutions. By using out-of-the- box thinking, critical thinking and problem- solving skills my sales metrics soared. However, I found a new challenge in being efficient on my calls and my talk time increased. I had to find a way to balance customer satisfaction, call efficiency as well as sales to meet my metrics consistently. My talk time remained an ongoing challenge as I simply did not want to rush the customers through their decisions, which for some applying for credit was a big deal. I attempted to use the coaching techniques given to me by my new supervisor, however I refused to minimize my customers satisfaction. As I explained this mentality to my

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19 supervisor, he understood very well, and continued to help me work toward efficiency within my calls so as not to diminish the customer’s experience. After a month in my new role, I began to be more proficient with my newfound knowledge. I also found ways to be efficient withing my calls that increased my customers’ satisfaction. By explaining to the customer, the next steps and asking proper probing questions, I was able to walk the customers through their applications effortlessly while avoiding the feeling of rushing them through all. This was tremendous growth. Being able to adapt quickly to my new changes, my supervisor saw fit for me to continue to mentor others as another way for me to hone my skills. Although being a mentor was not a formal position, I was able to help my peers once again with best practices in the moment to help aid them with their efficiency. What better way to learn, than to teach! Using all the tools I acquired from my use of the one note keeping track of information needed, to provide out-of-the-box solutions, my peers were able to continue to enhance their own sales and performance. This helped our team become on of the top expander sales teams of the company, which was very short lived. Although we were sent to work from home virtually, our team morale had not changed. We were sent home as the company was selling the building and needed the space. We all learned very quickly how to adapt to this huge change with virtual life. Then the world as we know it came to a stop. Covid took the world by storm.

20 In the spring of 2020, after 6 months of being in my role, covid knocked out the world and without warning it seemed. Being sent to work from home turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I never lost my job despite the many people who were now with out work. I was extremely grateful and relieved. This blessing did have its caveat. Not only did our call volumes increase drastically, but we also virtually lost our opportunities to provide sales solutions. How could we sale to someone who lost their source of income? Some customers were extremely offended by the offer of a credit card, while others welcomed the option as they already had a comfortable 6- month or more cushion of savings already set aside. It became apparent very quickly that our new goal was to service our customers with empathy and compassion. Some customers needed fees refunded to checking accounts where they couldn’t make in-person deposits, others not being able to work, lost the ability to keep up on their credit card and loan payments. I learned how to help customers with different virtual solutions to help in these now detrimental times as we were all on lockdown. Many of our customers were accustomed to making their deposits or payments to their loan or credit card accounts in person using a bank teller. Since the world was on lockdown and our branch tellers were at home, we had to get creative. PNC had about 75% of branches open and other branches closed until further notice (CBSNEWS Article reference). For the branches that did remain open, they were drive through only. For many, online banking became the most useful tool. I was able to help the

21 customers navigate deposits by explaining and helping with using their banking mobile app, and for others it was sending deposits by mail. For those who had cash to deposit, teaching them how to use a ATM or the drive-thru video teller to aid in their deposits was a tremendous help. For others, educating them about using online bill pay became a life saver. Many customers appreciated that we had non- in-person solutions for them to maintain their accounts. There were those who found additional challenges as they did not have the ability to access their accounts through online or mobile banking. Some did not have the resources available to use the drive-up ATMs or video bankers. Most of all, the knowledge of how to use their mobile device or computer. For these customers, they only had the option to learn something new or perform their banking by mail. It may not have been a simple and easy solution, but it was what worked for them until the branches fully reopened from the seemingly temporary closure. What everyone thought would be temporary turned out to be a long- term change. The summer of 2020, as the covid lock down continued, many businesses remained closed, and many people remained with out jobs. Although I was lucky and was able to remain working being that we were working from home, at this point we all but lost our ability to provide sales- based solutions as an expander sales representative. With the influx of customers not able to pay their loan accounts the increase of loan deferrals continued substantially. Our loan servicing partners needed more help fielding these calls, and they needed help fast! Since we did not have the

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22 ability to sale loans or credit cards, our position was repurposed to aid in the servicing of these accounts. Everyone in the expander sales role became cross trained in servicing loan accounts. This included auto loans, personal loans, personal lines of credits home equity loans, and home equity lines of credit. The training we needed was a two-week course on the basic servicing of these accounts in order to help out partners in this permanent but temporary change. During the training, I learned how to understand and explain the statements of the loan accounts, and how daily interest accrued if a payment was not made before the due date. I learned how to request late fee refunds, suspend or remove auto deductions for loan accounts and assist with loan deferrals. With loan accounts, even with a deferral, the daily interest would continue to accrue. This insightful information was great to know so that I was able to properly explain to our customers what would happen with a loan deferral, so they were able to make a well-informed decision. There were some customers who chose not to complete the deferrals based on the continued interest, where others welcomed any remaining interest at the end of their loan. At last, I was able to be a one stop shop for my customers. I was able to now service a checking, savings, auto loan, personal loan, personal line of credit, home equity loan, and home equity line of credit. The only accounts we could not service were mortgage loans and credit cards. Although the number of calls coming in for assistance increased, my team and I were able to effectively

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23 spread out the calls to provide the much needed relief to our loan servicing partners. In the Fall of 2020, we learned that there was no longer any need for the need for the expanded sales role. Although this was disheartening, we were essentially being molded into a new position, the inbound sales team. The difference between the two positions was the expanded sales team expanded the general customer service calls but did not service loans or lines of credit. Whereas the inbound sales team performed all the servicing as well as aided in the sales of the accounts. I ultimately remained the end all be all for many of my customers. I no longer had to transfer simple calls for customers requesting a payoff for a loan, who also had questions about their checking or savings accounts. This increased my customer satisfaction scores greatly because my customers were no longer being transferred from department to department to have their simple task completed. As the remaining of the year progressed, my supervisor recognized how I adapted to change quickly and picked up on any knowledge I needed to aid my customers as well as my peers. He also noticed how I helped him maintain the morale of our team through these challenging times. During my end of the year review for my 2020 year, he made a comment to me that stuck forever. He said “Alana, you have been the rock we needed and have been a huge support this year, it’s time for you to manage your own team!” (Weed, 2020)

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24 In April of 2021, I finally became the leader of my own team! I earned my role as a customer care center supervisor. Being a supervisor came with its own new challenges. Not only was I responsible for the performance of others, I was also responsible for their growth and development as well. I also had to learn to lead quickly, so that I could prepare my new team for one of the biggest bank mergers in the fall of 2021 as PNC had bought BBVA. This merger not only acquired all of the accounts and customers, but we were also bringing over many of the employees as well. With only 5 months to prepare, I had to learn about my consultants individually, their strengths, opportunities as well as perform audit for deposit account refunds and time sheets. Auditing time sheets was extremely important to ensure that consultants were entering time correctly as to not falsify records. This prevented them from being paid for hours not worked. With the short amount of time to prepare them, I also had to ensure that I maintained my own training. Being new to the role was not an excuse my consultants wanted to hear in my opinion. As I met with all 13 members individually, I learned that they wanted a leader who was open with communication, dependable, trustworthy, knowledgeable and available to assist them with all of their needs. These were all traits that I myself possessed, so it was up to me to show them rather than tell them I could meet all of their expectations. The main expectation I asked of my consultants at this time was patience.

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25 As a supervisor, I learned that the development and coaching of my consultants was only a small portion of my duties. I learned how to conduct time sheet audits for accuracy, conduct corrective action conversations including terminations, how to audit fee refunds for accuracy, listen to my consultant calls to ensure risk was avoided and correct and accurate information was provided. I also had to learn how to help consultant navigate obtaining assistance for medical related absences to our leaved and disabilities team. I also had to partner with our HR teams in order to provide the proper documentation as required to aid in the application process for a consultant’s family medical leave claims. For example, if a consultant was consistently absent, before I moved on to immediate corrective action, it was my job to listen to my consultant’s issue and ask proper questions to that I could help them make sure their jobs were protected while they handled their personal issues. As I was fresh out of the consultant role myself, I understood more than most leaders how they felt. Using this mindset, I quickly earned the trust of my team. Earning their trust was important because I needed them to perform their duties. If an employee does not trust their leader, they do not perform their job duties. By trusting me as their leader I was able to get their buy in, for their own development. It was as if I had to “sale” them the idea of success. Once I learned how to manage my time efficiently between all of my different duties, I was ready to prepare my team for the upcoming merger. As a part of the preparation, I held biweekly meetings with my team to help

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26 them understand the similarities banking products between PNC and BBVA so that they were ready to answer one of the biggest changes for customers, “how will this bank change my accounts?” By preparing my team, this provided the confidence my team needed to help our new customers. I also held individual biweekly meetings with each of my team members so that I understood any performance deficiencies. For example, one consultant was great with knowledge but was unsure of how to efficiently explain details to customers which lead to high talk times. For this consultant, creating a step-down action plan was the best option. For this step-down action plan, I had the consultant provide the timeline in which they wanted to achieve their results as well as what they wanted the results to be. I provided them with weekly check-ins to help keep them accountable for their growth. If for any reason my consultant did not complete their set goals for the action plan, apart of the next step would be verbal, written, or even probation corrective action for their performance. During the Fall of 2021, all the preparation for the merger was ready to be put into action. I had become accustomed to having the biweekly meetings as well as the individual coaching’s with my team. I was able to build bonds with my team as a whole and individually. As the merger initiated, calls began to come quickly and in abundance. For me, it reminded me of how calls came in during covid, and I was ready. This time I was the leader of my own team. As the need of the business required all

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27 hands-on deck, I had to cancel all my team’s meetings and individual coaching’s. This meant I would not have the ability to properly meet with my team to go over issues and help guide them as we would during our meetings. Now that I was the leader of my own team, this did not bode well with me. I did not want to be insubordinate, but I also knew that it was an injustice to my team to not have access to me as they were used to. To satisfy my team as well the leaders above me I found a unique way to provide everyone with what they wanted and needed. I created a “virtual meeting” for my team. I created a PowerPoint using my own voice for audio so that I could relay any pertinent information to my team via email. By doing so, I was able to maintain the team atmosphere I had created while also abiding by the needs of the company. My consultants remained on the phone to assist the new influx of customer calls and received any updates as needed. I managed a group chat for my team via skype, where I was able to use the white board as a tool. I was able to keep the teams’ stats posted and provide any in the moment updates. To maintain the morale of my team, I added simple quotes of encouragement, and I started a trend of the joke of the day. Since this was all done in our chat my consultants had a bit of light laughter in their long workday. My new manager was curious as to how I was able to maintain the integrity and morale of my team. I was honest with my manager about how I felt about having my team meetings and coaching cancelled. Much to my surprise he agreed. I explained to him how I was able to use PowerPoints to

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28 have virtual meetings with my team so that they could still have at least my voice vs words on the screen. My manager was impressed at how I used my creative authority and out of the box thinking to maintain my team’s performance as well as follow our company’s business needs. He was extremely impressed with my ability to think on my feet and began requesting my help with my other peers as well. What a breath of relief to know that once again, my manager was on my side. About 3 months into the merger, we learned that we were getting temporary team members coming from the branches to aid in our call volumes. This meant that I would lead of two teams as one. Being familiar with one note, I used it to help me keep track of my team and their individual stats and needs. As I had to maintain proper records and documentation of all 21 members. With a large team, it was important to have a system in place for documentation. Without it, things would have been chaotic. Being unorganized at this point would have been a huge hinderance to myself, my direct team, my peers as well our HR business partners. Simply because not only would my own performance falter, but my team’s performance would as well as any necessary documentation needed for corrective action cases with our HR business teams. During this time, a peer of mine was going on a parental leave of absence and needed coverage for her team. I was honored to help support her as I remembered my own leave all too well, not to mention, she was a great mentor to me before I became a leader myself.

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29 I quickly found myself as the leader of roughly 40 consultants at one time. Although this was no easy feat, it is what molded me to become the most thoughtful, effective, and efficient leader. I went on to lead these teams over 16 weeks. During this time, I learned the art of delegation. I found that I could use some of my stronger consultants to help me with the coaching of their peers while I managed the administrative duties. As my stronger consultants aided me with the coaching of their peers, this also aided in their own development as well. I had 4 consultants helping with support, and as time progressed, 2 of the four went on to develop in other areas of the company. While my my guidance directly aided in their development, their success was my success. My own direct manager was always available when I needed extra assistance for my peer’s team I was overseeing, however he was beyond impressed at my ability to manage so many tasks all at once. The performance of my team was not perfect, but all 41 of them progressed in their own way. Unbeknownst to me, my manager was moving to the lending department, and leaving the customer service space. Due to my ability to show determination, found creative solutions while maintaining the performance of myself and my team, my manager requested that I join him in his journey and move to lending services with him. I had put so much of myself into my team, I simply could not leave them behind. Much to my surprise, my manager offered for me to bring my entire team with me. My peer had returned from her leave to take back her

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30 team, and the branch consultants were being sent back to the branches, it was perfect timing. In lending services, my goal as a supervisor was the same, the difference was I now had to learn a new skill set. I had to learn how to learn how to service mortgage accounts as well. Being that I had previous training with all loan accounts, this gave me an advantage to help teach my team as they were also learning something new. I stored the materials I had from my previous training and was happy to share with my team. By learning with them side by side, I was able to reinforce the atmosphere I envisioned. The atmosphere that my team did not work for me, rather we all worked together. Although I was by title the supervisor of the team, I wanted them to know that I was on their side to help lead them to their development goals. By enforcing this with my team, I found they were more open to any coaching and suggestions I had to provide, and they were able to communicate with me openly about their needs. During the fall of 2022, the company generated a new education benefit where they would pay for certain college courses. I wanted to be able to use my skills and finish the education I started from the university of Phoenix. Finally, I was finally able to include my education along with my skills to meet the needs of my peers, managers, and consultants with out the financial burden. One of the main needs of all the consultants in the lending services department was having immediate access to a supervisor for escalated calls. Escalated calls consisted of not only upset customers but also

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31 providing approval on certain tasks such as spreading an escrow shortage more than 24 months. Based on this need I saw that there was only 33 supervisor to assist approximately 550 consultants. I became a part of the consultant assistance team (CAT chat) where I would go on to provide scheduling for my peers to ensure that some one was always available for the needs of our consultants. As a part of this team where I worked alongside 3 other peers, we created schedules for 90 min segments which were fair and efficient. We had to consider individual team meeting times so that the leaders could be available for their team. We accepted the vacation request to ensure there was adequate scheduling available. My main portion was creating an excel spread sheet that helped ensure that everyone was scheduled according to the provided schedules. In the event a leader was not available for their segment, my goal was to network with other peers to help find coverage when available. Although our group leaders (or managers) were able to aid in finding coverage, by taking this off of their plates, this allowed our group leaders to be available for other responsibilities. This gave me the creative authority and networking skills to work with all of my peers. As I worked alongside my peers to ensure coverage for our consultants, I also volunteered for a Cohort project where the primary goal was to learn how to lead meetings for our entire group where the meetings would hold roughly 90 or more attendings. As a part of the cohort project, better known as the All-In cohorts, I was able to use the presentation skills

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32 obtained in the COMM 220 course with Purdue Global University. As I continue to learn, I can use my knowledge in real time to ensure I become proficient with my knowledge. Now that the opportunity to use my work experiences to gain college credit is available, I hope to save time with what I’ve learned so that I can continue to grow within my company, my career, and my life goals. I want to show that I not only have college level learning experience, but I continue to use it each and everyday. Regardless of the amount of credits earned through the petition, I will continue to be an example of determination for my daughters, be an inspiration to other peers to continue their journey and most importantly show my company that their efforts to provide funding for higher education was a remarkable investment.

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33 References

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EL206_Gamble_Learning Autobiography_Semi-final draft

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