Life History of

Kimberly Gutierrez

Interviewed by Jessica Schuster

Documented by

Anna Steiger Beatrice Rendon

andDelbert Leonard

BUSINESS 343 Summer Session A Professor Margaret Allen

June 15 2017

Interview Report

Life History of Kimberly

This is a report of an interview on the life of Kimberly Gutierrez. The interview entailed series of questions where we sought to understand Kimberly’s life by analyzing her stages of life. These stages include her childhood, her school life (elementary, highschool and college life) and the life she continues to live as a professional. We also sought to understand the factors that contributed to her life being that way and the impact the results had on her. In the interview, we considered factors such as people who might have had influence in her life in one way or another as well as the environment in which she was brought up and exposed to these stages. Specifically, we were interested in information about her mentors, how she had come to know them and her experiences with them. These factors were to enable us come up with sound information about factors that may influence one’s leadership abilities and abilities to hold up in teams.

In her tender age, Kimberly Gutierrez was shy and quiet girl. She feared people and could not get along easily with them. This made her be seen by many of the young children as an outcast, a feeling that was also common to her. Her role model and mentor as a child was her teacher in elementary school, Mrs. McGoldrick. Mrs. McGoldrick helped her to move from the state she was in and be able to interact freely with other children. According to Kimberly, her teacher had a positive influence in her leadership skills and fostered her participation in teamwork. Mrs. McGoldrick ensured that everyone in her class was an active team player. She ensure that everyone in her class participated in solving a team member’s problem. This was instrumental in making Kimberly want to be involved in the team’s activity. Since Kimberly felt an outcast in her early years, she was did not get along well with other children.Despite this struggle in her early life, she was able to take up leadership roles. Other kids elected her as a safety commissioner in the school. At her age, she was also elected captain of her cheer team. This charged her with a responsibility to

ensure that her teammates practiced routinely and that the team correctly executed its task. Part of Kimberly’s responsibilities included ensuring the timely arrival of team members during competitions as well as their readiness by inspecting their outfit and warming up her teammates. She also managed the cheering sessions by coordinating the performance. Kimberly was both a leader and a follower in her childhood. These two aspects in her life were highly influenced by the situations that surrounded her. The fact that she had the perception of a social outcast might have made her assume a follower's role as a child. She however assumed roles in coordinating her school’s cheerleading squad as well as helping in managing practice sessions.

Kimberly attended a private elementary school for eight years. However, her family’s financial constraints made her shift to a public high school, leaving all the friends she had made in the private school. Her high school life was also instrumental in molding her into the leader she is as well as making her a great team player. Mrs. Taylor, who was a drama teacher, was her mentor in high school. According to Kimberly, she was caring not only to her but also to other students. Being always busy made her have difficulties to integrate with other students. Mrs. Taylor assisted her in joining the drama club. She was instrumental in creating a link between Kimberly and other members of the club.

Several things linked Kimberly to the people she interacted with, whether, fellow team members or mentors. One of it is the influence that these people had through the care and compassion they showed her. The group accepted her just as she was regardless of how she felt about herself. This fostered her joining the football team. The fact that everyone in the school loved Mrs. Taylor made Kimberly love her too. Mrs. Taylor had her doors open to all students, making her the most caring teacher and many student’s favorite in the school. As a caring leader, she helped Kimberly overcome her depression. She portrayed the attributes of a good leader by listening to Kimberly and helping her get over it by showing her the positive things one could anticipate and realize in life. Her honesty about the varying situations in life, especially regarding the tough and hard times, gave Kimberly a lot of hope at that time. Mrs. Taylor acknowledged Kimberly’s feelings and supported her in the time when she felt like she had no one to run to for help.

The teams in which Kimberly was were instrumental in shaping her leadership traits. Mrs. Taylor showed Kimberly that beside leaders having a

responsibility to lead the members of their teams into fulfilling their tasks, they also shared in ensuring the wellbeing of each team member. The qualities portrayed by Mrs. Taylor showed Kimberly that it was not just enough to care about what the team was put together for, but also caring for those forming the team too. Leadership is more than just managing the tasks and groups operations but also managing your human resource by showing how much you care for them. The care accorded to the team members by their leaders is an important incentive for increasing their productivity. Kimberly learned that simple things such as listening and spending time with the team members could portray care. According to Kimberly, if the members of your team as a leader are not in the right state of mind and are unhealthy, their work will be not be efficient.Thompson, (285) states that leadership is not static but a dynamic attribute that changes with experience and the situation’s demand. This has manifested in the interviewee’s life as she has experienced great transition from a childhood leader to an adult leader. Kimberly claims that her leadership style transitioned as she continued to grow from a less involved leader who stayed in the shadows of others to a more dominating one. She changed from a shy and timid girl who was afraid of taking charge, to a courageous woman who can freely integrate with and lead people. Unlike her past, she is not afraid to address people in meetings and presents clearly understood ideas to people. In all situations, she is looked by other people as an outspoken and able leader. In the leadership transition she has experienced, she has learned to strike a balance between caring for the members of her team and giving the business an upper hand.

Kimberly is currently a restaurant manager for Katsuya working in the marketing department. She is in charge of managing the marketing and P&L statements for the restaurant. Her responsibility encompasses activities such as hiring workers and/or firing them. She is also responsible for the placing orders and scheduling activities for the restaurant. Part of her responsibilities also include responding to social media trends such as ratings and comments. Just like many people, Kimberly possess natural leadership traits but required mentors and opportunities to exercise them. According to Northouse (22), these traits include self-drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability, and task knowledge. In her journey to her position today, Bill Snodgrass, who was a regional director for California Pizza Kitchen for 10 years, mentored her. Also known as papa Bill by

his team, he allowed her to learn by trial and error, challenging her, while always being there to support her. He was instrumental in helping Kimberly to build up confidence in the traits that she portrayed.

Team members have great influence on each other and are important in ensuring the success of the team (Thompson 286). While being a leader who is proud of her accomplishments, Kimberly regrets one major failure in her professional life. In one instance, she was responsible for ensuring the training and smooth transition of workers in her place of work. However, the person she was supposed to mentor and train ended up losing his job for being late for work. Since this person was influential to the rest of the teammates, his loss of the job affected the team negatively as the management and those in the same rank as him were optimistic for the rolls he would play. One of her major accomplishment in her professional life was opening fourteen stores with California Pizza Kitchen. She was able to oversee the formation of the stores, meet and train the hired staff as well as see them grow into full restaurants in a fortnight.

According to Thompson (39), there are certain factors that may render a person or team successful of failed. Kimberly records that she was in E3 convention where she noted a team that had failed. The sucking of a manager happened without him having to inform the team members what a client had ordered. This made the team look unprofessional, as they did not adhere to specifications. Kimberly also states that her views on leadership and teamwork have changed. As a new leader, she sought to please all people but this has changed with her realizing that her prime reason of leading a team is doing business and giving positive results. Mentors are important in one’s life and in Kimberly’s they changed with situation. The situations that demanded much care and compassion determined who mentored her. She records that her best was her foster parents.

Kimberly points out that her leadership style is highly influenced by the importance of team cohesion. According to Thompson (116), cohesion is imperative for the productivity of a team, with those that manifest this trait being highly productive. In her leadership style, she counts it paramount to care for her team members by showing concern about their individual well-being and guiding them in the required steps. She works alongside them as a way of motivating them. Kimberly’s preference on teamwork depends on the nature of the tasks to be

completed. She completes small tasks individually and prefers teamwork when tasks are large. In one instance as a regional training manager for nine stores, she led to write and implement new training material. Her main challenge was implementing the changes, as people were used to the old material. She solved this by showing the how ineffective they were for training. In her activities, she faces difficulties in making decision that are right but hurt her team and standing her ground no matter what. She uses extracurricular activities and her hobbies to relieve work stress.

Her challenge in balancing work and life was the time she became a mother. She did not know when she needed to stop working, but solved the problem by prioritizing and managing her time well. Kimberly monitors the performance of her team members by conducting performance appraisals. This is an analysis report for certain work aspects for workers. Since motivation is an important asset for a leader, she motivates her team recognizing them as well as using cash and noncash incentives. Thompson (50) states that this is a way of improving employees’ loyalty and productivity. Kimberly is motivated by her success and achievements, which she evaluates by looking into the change in numbers, as well as the lesson learned from the experiences. She looks into being the manager of training and development or the vice president of training in the next five-ten years. She plans to achieve this by rewriting the training material to suit each venue specifically, and show its importance to the president.

Work Cited: Thompson, L. L. Making the team: A guide for managers. Boston: Pearson,

2014.

Interview Questions & Notes

Early years:

Can you tell me about some people who shaped who you were as a child? (role models, mentors, teachers)

Growing up Kimberly was a very shy and quiet girl. She saw herself as a bit of an outcast and outsider. Mrs. McGoldrick, her elementary school teacher, helped shape Kimberley by teaching her how to integrate into social interactions with the other children.

What type of impact did these people play in your view of leadership, teamwork at the time. Was it a negative or positive influence and why?

Mrs. Goldrick was a positive influence who included the class in all situations and made sure that everyone was working together as a team. If one kid was having a bad day, it was everyone’s job to make them feel better. The whole class would come together as a team to make that person feel better in their “family like” environment. This helped to show the class what teamwork can look like. Mrs. Goldrick showed Kimberly how to lead with a mindset of including everyone and working as a team.

Tell me about life in your earlier years. How did you get along with other kids when you were young? What social role did you usually assume when interacting in groups?

In the younger years Kimberly saw herself as an outcast, struggling to integrate into groups of kids. Although she struggled with fitting in, Kimberly started with leadership roles at a young age, becoming safety commissioner for her school as well as captain for her cheer team.As cheer captain, Kimberly would make sure every team member was making practices and that the cheers were being done correctly. For competition days, she insured that everyone was there on time and ready to go, checking outfits and warming the team up. She also helped coordinate the cheers order during the performance.

Were you a leader or a follower? Did you change roles based on the situation? Can you give me some examples you assumed roles?

During Kimberley’s younger years, her leadership and follower mentality changed based on the situation. It seems that Kimberly was a natural born leader but needed the help of mentors and the opportunities to pull it out of her. Kimberly saw herself as a social outcast in her younger years. She didn’t want to step on anyone’s “toes” to speak, and wanted to fly under the radar and not further isolate

her from the rest of the children. In social groups, Kimberly may have pertained a follower mentality in these years, yet it was clear in activities and roles she was given that she was a true leader.

High School/College Years:

Tell me about your high school and/or college years. Did you have any mentors back then? If so tell me about them. How have they influenced your leadership skills today?

Kimberly had a high school drama teacher who played a very big role in mentoring caring for her in those years. Mrs .Taylor was that teacher who cared for every student she met. She included everyone, whether you were in drama or not. If she knew you, she cared about you.

Kimberly was transitioning between private school in her elementary years to public school for high school. She knew no one, as all her elementary friends has continued on to another private school. During this time, she was also a competitive figure skater, which meant she didn’t have the time to integrate with other kids as she was always busy. All of the students already seemed to have a set group of friends. Mrs. Taylor helped Kimberly become part of the drama club and introduced her to students who became her friend group.

What was it about these people that drew you to them?

Kimberley met her highschool boyfriend on the football team. As an outcast, she found it shocking that he would even have interest in her. He was very kind and compassionate and so were the other team members that he introduced her too. They didn’t care if she was an outcast, they took her in and welcomed her as if she belonged. This group drew her in because of their acceptance of anyone. Kimberly finally felt like she fit in and was no longer part of the outgroup. What drew you into the teacher?

Everyone loved Mrs Taylor. She was a teacher with an open door policy,. If you needed to talk she was there to listen. She truly cared about every student and their well being. Even her previous students still came to her for advice and support

Can you tell me about one positive and one negative experience you had with a team, mentor or leader during this time?

One negative experience you had with a team:Kimberley had a negative group experience with a group of figure skaters

that trained together. They would be nice and friendly to her face but then go and talk about her behind her back. This behavior was also true with her coach, who was nice to her sometimes, but not nice at other time all based on her mood.

Mrs Taylor, on the other hand, truly showed what it meant to be a caring leader the day she sat with Kimberly in the school office all day long. Kimberly had been struggling with serious depression and it had gotten to the point where the cops were called. As they sat in the school office, Mrs Taylor listened. She talked about all the positive things in life to look forward to and was honest about the hard times and that life is tough but there is so much to look forward to. She acknowledged Kimberly’s feelings and supported her in a time when Kimberly felt like she had no one.

How have these teams influenced your leadership skills today? How have these experiences shaped that?

Mrs. Taylor exemplified qualities of a leader that deeply cares about the people. This showed Kimberly how important it is to not just care about a task or job but to truly care for an individual. Leadership is much more than just management of making sure that schedules are out, tasks are being done, and the restaurant is running. Leadership includes caring for your team; taking the time to stop and listen; taking time to check in and show them you care.

Do you believe that your views on leadership and teamwork were different or the same from your childhood to your high school and/or college years?

“My leadership style is always changing and growing,” Kimberly stated. At a young age she was timid, afraid to step on toes, or offend someone. As the years have past, her leadership has grown to a more dominating style of leadership. She is unafraid to speak up in management meetings, and voice ideas and thoughts. She takes the lead and steps up in all situations. She is constantly learning the balance about being a caring manager and when she needs to think about the business first.

Professional Years:

What is your current position and the responsibilities in your role?

Currently, she is a restaurant manager for Katsuya. Her major roles include being in charge of all the marketing and P&L statements, ordering, hiring,

scheduling, firing. She is in charge of all the social media and must respond to ratings and comments, special events and venue buy outs for clients.

In your current role or on your journey to this position who influenced you as a leader or mentor?

Kimberly possess natural leadership traits, “drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability, and task knowledge.” (Northouse pg. 22) From a young age these traits were there but needed the support of mentors in her life to be fully developed. One of the mentors in her life that brought these traits out was her regional director for California Pizza Kitchen. Bill Snodgrass, also known to the team as Papa Bill, played a huge roll in the strong leader that Kimberly is today. He allowed her to learn by trial and error, challenging her, all while being there to support her. Recognizing the leadership abilities Kimberly had, he helped to develop them as well as her confidence in those traits.

What were your biggest accomplishments and failures in your professional career? (how did teamwork or leadership play a part in these)

Kimberley was responsible for working and motivating servers/trainers to get to the next level. She had just groomed a server into what could be the trainer roll. She had started working with him one on one on ways to train their staff and teach their staff. She saw him slip and coming in late, he ended up losing his job and she couldn’t get him to the next level. Everyone as a management team was looking to him to get to the next level. When he fell to not performing, it played a negative role for all the servers and the management team as there was expectations for him and the role he would play. Accomplishment:-Opening 14 stores with California Pizza Kitchen -Traveling to each store and watching it go from just a shell and watching everything getting delivered-Meeting the entire staff that was hired and training them -Watching it go from a shell to a full functioning restaurant in 2 weeks was her greatest accomplishment.

Tell me about a time where you were on a team that failed? What factors do you think contributed to your team’s failure?

E3 convention on Tuesday. They had a full venue buy for the client to host their clients in the restaurant. Less than a week before the event there were some layoffs and the company laid off the main events manager that was handling the case. From that point, no one who was left knew what the client wanted, she kept calling the restaurant and the event manager who had been laid off. No one knew

what was going on and no one knew anything about the party. There were specifications that she asked for that no one knew about it including furniture layout and special request items. It was so last minute down to not having the signs created, from the guest perspective it just looked very unprofessional in handling her private event.

Looking back how have your views on changed on leadership and teamwork?

When she was a new leader she would try to please everyone. As a leader, you must do what is right for the business and you can’t please everyone. You aren’t trying to build friendships you are trying to run a business. This is what has changed between her early years and now. In her earlier years as a shift supervisor, it goes from trying to hang out with them to being their boss. When you allow them to become your friends it is likely that they may try to take advantage of you

Have your mentors or influences changed throughout your life? Why do you think that is?

Her mentors are constantly changing based on situations she has had in her life or a time in her life. The biggest mentors that she has had in her life are her unofficial adoptive parents. In high school, she ran away from her house and went to go live somewhere else. Her parents would tell her that they didn’t want her and with her depression this didn’t help. She had several attempted suicides during this time. She met her friend’s family and they kind of took her in. It was his friend and her two sisters. They would have her over for dinner and she wouldn’t want to go home. The foster mom took her on a walk one day and asked her to explain what was going on. She was very caring and compassionate and wanted to help. Her foster dad would take her on walks and talk to her about finances and goals. It was from these conversations that she understood if she wanted to be successful in her life she would need to make goals

How would you describe your leadership style?

Within her leadership style Kimberly also recognizes the importance of team cohesion. “Cohesive teams are more productive than less cohesive teams.” (Thompson p 116) As Kimberly talked about her leadership views she stated, “It's not just about being a leader” in the sense of management, “it's about caring for your team, caring about their individual well being and the well being of the team over all. Guiding them through the tough parts of life and struggles everyone goes through.” As you lead the group it's important for them to see you working alongside them and for them, “I believe that if you care for your team, they will care for you,” Kimberly stated.

Do you prefer to work individually or on a team?

This answer all depends on the task at hand. When she is working on a task she likes to sit down and keep working till it’s done. In a bigger task, she needs a team to be successful. An example of this is when she was opening a new restaurant or running a restaurant she needed her management team.

Tell me about a time that you took the lead on a project. What major challenges and problems did you face? How did you handle them?

By writing new training material, she was the regional training manager for 9 stores. She would revamp to a new training manual and make them more modern. Her biggest challenge was that a lot of people in the group liked the old materials and didn’t know why they would need to be changed. She worked through this by taking a step back and going to the team to have them watch old training sessions so that they could see how ineffective they were being.

What do you find are the most difficult decisions to make?Her most difficult decision is when to be compassionate versus standing

your ground. In her company, their policy is to use an attendance tracker sheet. It is a point system where you get half points for being late and if you get to 10 points then you are terminated. She tries to balance when do to give them a half a point for being late because of a car crash or oversleeping. The policies of the company are cut and dry, but it can be difficult to balance and when you should be compassionate and not.

How do you handle stress and pressure?

On the drive to work, she takes deep breaths trying to clear her mind, focusing on things besides work.She also stress releases by going to the gym, running, and hiking.

Tell me about a time you struggled with work-life balance. Did you manage to solve the problem? How did you do it?

The struggle for her is particularly great because she has a family and being a first-time mom is no simple task. There were days where she was working 10-12 hour days 5 days a week and sometimes her shift got extended. When she got home, she sometimes wants to shut down and be left alone, but still must work with her family and be active and engaged. Knowing when you are working too much and when you need to stop and be with family can be a huge struggle.. She really found the balance by focusing on what her priorities are and what she needs to do and how to cut time and put that into play.

How do you monitor the performance of individual team members?

Kimberley uses performance appraisal, a report that all managers and leaders in the company use. For new people, they are evaluated after 30 days for policies and procedures (showing up on time in the right uniform, sequence of service, running other people’s food helping people get drinks even if it isn’t in their section). After this, there is another evaluation done at 90 days, then it goes to an annual review process. This is the procedure for everyone in the restaurant (servers, line cooks, bartenders, bussers). All the appraisals are specific to each department

In what specific ways do you motivate your team?

Kimberly often uses recognition and cash/noncash spot awards to motivate her team. On extremely busy nights or nights where there is a vendor they are featuring in the restaurant, Kimberly will often reward the top selling server with $50 in food credit, movie tickets, or a gift card provided by the vendor. Kimberly understands the importance in helping to motivate the team. “Making sure that the employees are happy and feel they are appreciated builds loyalty and productivity,” (Thompson pg 50).

What motivates you?

Success and accomplishments of what she has gotten done so far continue to drive her. For example, yesterday was a record day since opening 6 years ago, they had a record day selling $75,000 without any major issues. Also seeing her family and watching her husband and his accomplishments and his success inspires her to be like him as a leader.

How do you evaluate success?

Prior year's’ number and prior week numbers drive Kimberley. She is looking to see if they are increasing revenue and increasing profit as well as comping over prior year. Are they watching their spending and controlled spending and if they are making a difference to the bottom line?

What are your goals for the next five years / ten years?

In 5 years, she would like to be the manager of training and development. Right now, she is working with the regional managers to get a training department

together. At California Pizza Kitchen they had an entire department that was responsible for this, but they do not have that in her new company In 10 years she would like to be the director of training and development or the VP of training.

How do you plan to achieve those goals?

She hopes to accomplish this by rewriting the current training materials. Currently they have several different concepts that the company owns from Japanese at Katsuya to fine dining and even the bizarre food. With all the different concepts, they still use the exact same training material to train their staff even though they are so different. Rewriting the materials and making them specific to each venue and showing the value of the new materials to the president of the company will show the value and the need for the training department.

Screen shots:

Quotes;

“drive, motivation, integrity, confidence, cognitive ability, and task knowledge.” (Northouse pg. 22)

“Making sure that the employees are happy and feel they are appreciated builds loyalty and productivity,” (Thompson pg 50).

“Cohesive teams are more productive than less cohesive teams.” (Thompson p 116)Work Cited:

Thompson, L. L. (2014). Making the team: A guide for managers. Boston: Pearson