Hi everyone!

I am so excited to share this week’s From a Friend with you. This friend and I go way back. We were roommates in college where I got to watch her first start thinking about some of the ideas in this letter. Here she talks shares her take on how we manage people, show up for ourselves and others, and try hard while navigating imposter syndrome. She is someone I go to when I am frustrated at how I am being managed and need to be reminded that good managers exist.

I love how she wrestles with ideas and I hope that you all are able to take inspiration and advice from her words.

Before I go any further — lets do the housekeeping.

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Okay — back to it.

Hey Zoe!

It’s taken me a long time to sit down and put my thoughts together, partially because work is chaotic but also because I feel unqualified to offer any sort of advice on being a young woman trying to navigate the professional world. However, that’s exactly what I want to talk about as a General Manager overseeing an entire business and staff while often being the youngest one in the room. I see the numbers and the positive impact I have but somehow I still don’t quite believe that I’m doing a good job.

Working in restaurant operations is not what I had originally planned. My college degree is in Dance Kinesiology where I spent my time studying athletes and their mental and physical health. I didn’t take a single business or economics class since I wasn’t thinking of going into a field like operations management. What I do carry with me from college is my sports psychology knowledge. I know it sounds a little bit out of left field, but understanding how to build team dynamics and create flow state1 has taken me farther than anything else in my job.

My #1 goal as a manager is to make sure every single person under me feels supported and valued. Part of my onboarding speech is directly telling employees my management philosophy: if someone is struggling to do their job well, it is most often a lack of resources given to that person and it is my job to provide every resource they need in order to succeed.

Most people want to do a good job or at least not feel like they’re failing. Acknowledging every single employee as a person and a valuable part of the team who is more than welcome to share their struggles and needs with me opens up lines of communication and trust, an invaluable asset in the chaotic world of operations. Almost every employee I’ve worked with has been shocked at my willingness to drop any sort of hierarchical ego and make good on my promises to not blame workers for struggling but finding the root of the issue in order to solve it instead.

This philosophy has gotten me very far and the business numbers have reflected it. My restaurant has increased profits more than any other section of the company and has sustained that success despite the cost of goods coming in increasing and the usual struggles of staff turnover. I say this not to brag, but to exemplify why I find it so difficult to then take this success and translate it into the business world and language that our VP of Operations understands.

Most weeks, I have a meeting with the VPO who asks me about our MBOs, ROIs, and KPIs. I can answer his questions most of the time, but we come from two very different worlds and perspectives. My goals are often in building soft skills for employees which translate to slow growth but sustainable success in our customer service based work. His goals are often quick, easy to achieve targets that will give a boost of income but are temporary solutions. It’s not that I don’t want a quick infusion of cash for my business, believe me, I very much want that. However, there’s only so much that can get done in a single week and if those short term goals are prioritized, the long-term success will suffer because we’re not building and supporting those small scale changes on the ground level that add up to huge positive changes.

But what do I know? The VPO has decades of experience and a business degree while I’m just some Gen Z gal who fell into this job by working too hard and caring too much. I was a barista trying to make some money during college in Western Massachusetts, and now here I am having a stare-off in a business meeting trying to advocate for teamwork training over running a seasonal special my in a restaurant in San Francisco.

It’s incredibly difficult in these moments to stand up for what I know is right for my team and the business. Imposter syndrome is always lingering in the back of my mind, telling me that I don’t know what I’m doing and am not qualified to be in the role I’m in. Like you said in your “On Archery” article, I’m trying to have patience to know that the trenches I’m currently fighting in will eventually going to propel me towards what I will truly find fulfilling and allow me to have confidence in my own abilities and strengthen my resolve to stand by my values as a manager.

For now, it’s all about reminding myself to take a deep breath and trust my instincts. I know that taking care of the people who work for me will help them take care of the people they serve who will continue to be loyal customers and grow the business. It’s the humanity within the chaos of operations that matters and is what I care about, the ability to step back from our capitalistic culture to see that is what’s hard. That and finding some semblance of work-life balance which is something I certainly shouldn’t speak on since that’s my next professional goal inspired by this newsletter.

All the best,

Your Friend

Femme Futures Cooperative

The Femme Futures Cooperative is a community space for young professionals who identify as over-achievers and activists to generate collective success by providing resources and platforms to thrive in challenging workplaces.

By Zoe