Being a Leader When Not in a Leadership Position

I have been working at Chick-fil-A since December 2016, which is almost a year and three months. Within the first two weeks of working there, one of my Team Leaders said I had a potential for leadership within the company. They even let me crew lead though I was not an official crew leader. However, that was almost a year ago now and I haven’t been promoted. Mostly because when I first started working at Chick-fil-a I was working longer shifts with around twenty-two hours. Juggling that with school and nannying ended up being too hard for me to manage. I began working around twelve hours which was not enough hours to be promoted. But while I may not get to be promoted, I still work just as hard.

Sometimes life isn’t about the promotion. While being promoted can make life easier and help you feel better about yourself, it can’t be dwelled on. As long as you work as hard as you can and are treated fairly, that is what matters. And just because you are not given the official leadership title does not mean that you can’t be a leader. Being a leader is way more than being a title. In fact, it is almost the opposite. Being a leader requires you to be humble. It requires you to work hard no matter the circumstances. Leadership for me at Chick-fil-A mostly consist of extremely kind-hearted customer service and constantly being on my toes. I am always looking for items that need to be restocked, coworkers that need help, areas that need to be cleaned, and customers that need to be tended to. Plus, I am always asking my supervisors on ways I can improve. Because I am diligent about my attitude and work ethic while I am on shift, my supervisors highly respect me and let me work the areas I want to work.

Interestingly enough, when I originally started this blog post, I thought I was just going to be content with being a leader without the title. However, today I talked to my supervisor and she said she would love to have me in a leadership position and that we could talk about what needed to be done. I am excited for what the future holds!