From The Archives: 17: Transitioning to Leadership - Personal Perspectives with Natalie Ruhl

From The Archives: Week 4 Topic: Personal Stories of Transitioning to Leadership

Natalie Ruhl had a dream….

Transcript

Charlotte Ward 0:14

Hello, welcome to the Customer Support Leaders Podcast. I'm Charlotte Ward. Today we're listening to one of my favourite episodes from the archives. Today I'd like to welcome back Natalie Rule. Natalie, uh, thanks for coming back. And this week we're talking about your personal story of transitioning to leadership.

Natalie Ruhl 0:43

Hi Charlotte, yeah, nice to be back. My story starts in a call center-ish. Working for a company uh that sells electronic goods of all shapes and forms and sizes. I was at university at the time and I wanted to take a break. So a friend of mine at the time was working in customer support for another team, and he was like, Yeah, we're always looking for people to sit on the phone. And I went there, I really liked the company, I liked the people. And very quickly I found that I really liked it. You know, it wasn't always easy. Sometimes people got very loud and yelled at you, and I didn't know how to um deal with that. I had a manager, so to speak. That person really wasn't really there for me. They didn't really do anything apart from look at how many tickets I'd done or how many calls I'd answered. I didn't know how to develop, I didn't know what to do. It was just all about must-reach X tickets and X phone calls by the end of the week. Quality even wasn't something that that was looked at at the time.

Charlotte Ward 1:45

Yeah, I I'm not aware that quality existed as a program 10 years ago. I I created a small spreadsheet about 10 years ago. And that was and it actually served its purpose really well.

Natalie Ruhl 1:57

Absolutely. And then something funny happened. The company started to get into eBay and Amazon, and that's when quality became hugely important. You know, people all of a sudden could leave reviews for your products. I want to say the first time that I really experienced real leadership was when I got put into a team with a colleague of mine calling people to ask them to revert their reviews. And we got terrified because we knew these were people that could be very happy when you call them. She was very seasoned. And she kind of took me by the hand. She um, even though she wasn't my manager or anything, she was the person who helped to like develop a plan. We worked together very, very well. And I think this was the first time when I saw that you know, someone that can help you motivate yourself, share the burden or like the vision of what you want to achieve or have to achieve. I wanted to develop further in this company and they told me no. And I was 23, and I thought, no, I don't think it wasn't what you'd always dreamed of then. No, it's you know, I didn't really see myself there, grey haired glasses, and I really wanted to learn more.

Charlotte Ward 3:06

I want you to tell your twins that story. Um did that desire to be more involved in the business and to learn more on the business side come only once you had started that journey in customer support, or did you have earlier aspirations? You're really pushing for that story. So I know I know the story.

Natalie Ruhl 3:28

That's why thinking back to this, like my early aspirations of being in the workforce were just really organized. I wanted to be an organized person that does something that is helpful to others and that kind of like get things in order. And so, yes, this person in my head was wearing a twin set, and they and like my biggest wish for my sixth or eighth birthday was to get a clipboard and a briefcase. That's what I really wanted because I, you know, it helped to like keep track of things and write lists, which I love. And the thing about that role in hindsight is that that role didn't have any power, you know, it's more of like a oh, a problem, gonna go there, fix it so that nobody is bothered. It was it was more of like a of a role of like a fixer.

Charlotte Ward 4:15

I yeah, like like you said, you said to me once, you know, it was perhaps the assistant to the CEO that you were perhaps picturing some sort of Doris Day in an office who really who really has everything organized, but perhaps not necessarily necessarily any of the real decision making. You are right, I did want this story, and um it's a shame our listeners can't see how much I'm trying to stifle a giggle because I know you told me this story on three separate occasions, but I just wanted them to have it as well. Because I think it's hilarious.

Natalie Ruhl 4:44

It's a true story, but it couldn't be further from uh from what everything really looked like at the time. As I said, like I didn't have a manager, so even when I then finally moved on to a new gig, it it I didn't have a like a manager that would kind of do a one-on-one situation with me or you know, even be remotely interested in how I felt. It was more of like, what have you what have you gotten done? When I became a leader in a further role and started to like build out my own teams, I didn't know a lot. You know, I I kind of only knew what worked for me and um I expected that to work for others as well. And uh, surprise, doesn't how you communicate uh is important and and so I I learned in a very, very harsh crash course in in one of my first leadership roles. Apologies to people in my team that were like, oh, what is she doing? Like with casualties by the roadside like rabbits in in a lab, you know.

Charlotte Ward 5:48

It's like one thing that we have talked about before is seeking out things that will allow you to develop your skills and your profile at the same time. It did did you do anything of that nature? Yes.

Natalie Ruhl 6:02

I think it's it's very much in my nature. I will go out and find interesting things to get involved in. Uh what has been really helpful there is really finding out that oftentimes people are happy if you get involved with, you know.

Charlotte Ward 6:15

But I think I think that's great advice though, isn't it? Whether you're already a leader or whether you really are looking to expand in the business, either into leadership or or to deepen a skill set, is actually don't be afraid to go out and find things to get involved in. One final question. Did you ever get the twin set? Yes, I did. That's it for today. Go to customersupportleaders.com forward slash seventeen for the show notes, and I'll see you next time.