TEAM CAMARADERIE INTERVIEW – PINK TEAM 1

Team Camaraderie Interview

Who is Team Pink? Racheal Rutherford

Megan Henderson Nickie Blossey

Formative years.

Megan: The mentor who stands out most to is a former teacher of mine, Mrs. Styre. The reason

Mrs. Styre left a lasting impression is due to her ability to treat each student as an individual and

to care for them on a personal level. While attending her class, Megan was diagnosed with ADD

and faced a multitude of challenges during that adjustment. This allowed Mrs. Styre to truly

stand out as she showed patience, kindness, and even an ongoing relationship with requesting

Megan be part of her class rotation in her upcoming school years. Megan is using this childhood

memory as she navigates her career today and is on the cusp of leadership herself. Though she is

not ready to make that move now, she is confident when she does, she will apply the skillset she

is learned within team collaboration and while remembering the key to individualism for each

human being.

Nickie: The mentor who stands out to me most is one I never thought I would say, though he did

teach me incredible values that I still apply in my skillset today. This individual would be my

former Stepfather. He came into my life when I was one year old and was then married to my

mother until I was almost twenty-five years old. While I did not agree with his controlling

mannerism of my mother or his verbal abuse, I do know these things were done mostly through
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goodwill in trying to make us responsible individuals for a successful adulthood. At least this is

the way I try to remember it. He taught us things such as arriving ten minutes early or you are

considered late, chores daily on a set schedule, we had to check-in while playing in the

neighborhood every hour and it had to be early or we could not go back outside. I was also

required to get straight A’s as well as have all E’s in behavior at school or I would be grounded.

My mom was to cater to his needs, and I was to cater to my younger siblings to ensure they were

not bothered during their evening relaxing time. I realize this sounds fairly sad and it could be,

but I apply these skills to my life now and it really has helped me with respect for others in

showing up on time, being diligent about my grades at school as well as applying that to work

ensuring only quality material is submitted, and I am a hard worker who stops at nothing less

than knowing I gave my best. In terms of raising my siblings, I am a mother of five and have a

child with a Congenital Heart Defect that honestly requires most of my free time, growing up

with little time to galivant as a child I do not become frustrated when I do not find me time. I

could have rebelled and gone the opposite way but instead I chose to take the valuable lessons I

did learn and create a happy life for my family and me.

Rachael: The mentor who left a lasting impression on me was my grandmother, who was also

my teacher as she homeschooled me. She was a kind, compassionate, caring woman who I

wanted to one day grow up to be like. She taught me to help people first and to be selfless in my

day-to-day life. As a leader in my current role at Starbucks I am soft spoken and kind like my

grandma and though Executive Leadership shares feedback with me that I need to be firmer, I am

working on that while still having what I valued most in my grandmother’s kind approach. I do

realize constructive criticism is equally important in complementing the team for their

improvement which is how I have learned to embody its purpose.

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Community involvement.

Megan: While I am still young, I sees the power in giving back to the community and do so

through my church engagement. I am a youth leader and believe in leading by example to ensure

our mentees follow along in a wise, thoughtful, and selfless lifestyle. In my current role at

Starbucks which I have been at for two years I have declined opportunities to become a leader

just yet as I am not ready to invest that time commitment. I believe I have room for growth in

my possessive ways, since learning that I need to work shoulder to shoulder with teammates and

only speak when in an educated manner and not just to be heard. I am thankful for courses such

as OGL 343 which shed added knowledge on me with how to be a good team member and even

more so a nurturing, compassionate, fruitful leader in the future which I do want to be one day.

Nickie: As a mother of a daughter with a Congenital Heart Defect who has lived in the hospital

for more time than at home having Open Heart Surgery twice along with multiple other

procedures, I have been an avid volunteer for Phoenix Children’s Hospital, American Heart

Association, and Make-a-Wish. I believe Addison’s here today because of the care she has

received, and it is important for us in the community to show our thanks and give back. That

said, as of October 2021 I joined the American Heart Association fulltime as an employee to

ensure my impact was partnered even deeper incorporating my personal story in a professional

setting to raise funds and awareness to Heart Health, our number one killer. I have held multiple

leadership roles throughout my career and have led with the we not me approach all along. My

motto has always been to help me team rise to the occasion, shy away from an ego, and let them

prevail beyond my success. As a leader my role is to build them up, not bring them down, and to

ensure I am an equal participant in the day-to-day grittiness of the job to ensure my team feels

valued at all abilities.

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Rachael: I have been at Starbucks for a total of almost 7 years, with the last 2-3 years being in a

leadership role. It is challenging and puts me outside my comfort zone but something I have

grown to love. As I shared above, my largest room for improvement is embracing a little more

of the constructive feedback in guiding my team than all kindness. I try to listen to my team, be

present, hardworking, and forthcoming in our misfortunes. I hold myself accountable and expect

the same of my time but find doing so in a positive manner is possible without needing to

smother the team.

Poor influences.

Megan: I hate to admit this but my current boss at Starbucks is by far my worst ever. He was a

helicopter leader who never had anything nice to say and simply only came around to tell us how

poorly we were doing, and then he would retreat into hiding. Sadly, he is the type of manager

that we prefer when he is not in the building so we could have some good team comradery

because as soon as he enters the building the energy tanks. One nice thing I will say is when we

need time off, he jumps on trying to find shift coverage quickly for us, though I know the truth

here is just because he does not want to get stuck working the shift himself. He is very selfish

and challenging to work for. I have told myself I will never lead under his terms; it is so bad.

Nickie: I worked for a technology company after I was laid off due to the pandemic, though I

absolutely loved the sales team I was on, our leadership had the largest egos and was never

present. Though they were always in the building, in consecutive meetings, we could never steal

their time to discuss issues on projects or review proposals as they simply did not have any free

time in the day. This became very frustrating when things would be promised to clients, and we

had to take the hit because we could not get an answer to meet our deadlines. Though we

emailed and sent Teams messages to leadership they would go responded to. In 2019, the sales
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team beat a company record. In 2020, that record was beat in the middle of a pandemic, but

leadership was very vocal about their frustrations with us working from home during the

pandemic and instead of congratulating our success told us often that they know we do not work

hard enough if we are not in office to be babysat. Having amazing leaders in the past, and being

one myself, this type of culture would not be tolerated by me which is why I left after 8-months

of working there.

Rachael: An earlier Starbucks Store Manager that I had the unfortune to work for was my worst

boss. He was not present when we need him and the moment, he comes on the floor he picks the

easiest position and consistently calls out our mistakes. As soon as the rush is over, he

disappears, and we do not see him again until the next rush. The positive here is he has taught

me the exact way I do not want to lead my team in the future, and this is what I try to keep in

mind when I become frustrated. I do believe his fate came as though I am not positive, I believe

he ended up being laid off.