Josie Havens

OGL 482 Pro Seminar II

January 21, 2023

 That’s their journey; this is my journey. Growing up in a family of strong, independent

women has made me a leader from the beginning. From watching my sisters take on leadership

roles professionally, to seeing them stand up for themselves in situations that would have left

some standing in shock. I have been underestimated time and time again because of my age, my

gender, and my experiences. Every time I was underestimated, I came back harder and stronger

to show exactly what I was capable of. I used those moments as a steppingstone and a learning

experience to teach me exactly what I didn’t want to be. As I found leaders that lifted me up and

supported me, I found examples of who I wanted to be as a leader. Eventually, I was able to meld

all those experiences, learnings, and examples into my own leadership style. I crafted my own

journey, and all those moments played a huge role in that. I believe everything happens for a

reason. I believe every person we cross paths with has a purpose in our life. Nothing is

coincidental and I needed every failure to have every success. I am so proud of the growth

mindset I have created in those around me, the leadership role I have developed for myself, and

the lives I have impacted within my journey.

May 25, 2010, the day I turned 16. I was so excited to finally be able to apply for a job at

Ben & Jerry’s. I spend the next year working shifts after school and learning anything and

everything I could about the products, procedures, and the company’s values. In 2011, I was a

senior in high school with a half day schedule. I started taking the mid-day shifts that the other

high school students couldn’t work. I took on more responsibilities and learned more managerial

tasks like the inventory, ordering, social media advertising, scheduling, and even the hiring

processes. I took on these responsibilities without discussing the changes to my role or

negotiating my pay. I just did these things because my boss asked me to and that is what I

thought I had to do.

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 During my time at Ben and Jerry’s I got a second job as a barista at Starbucks in 2012.

When I was offered a starting rate higher than what I was making at Ben & Jerry’s, I realized I

was being taken advantage of. I went into Ben & Jerry’s and asked my boss if we could discuss

my pay. I explained the extra responsibilities I had taken on and asked for a raise. My sister was

previously the manager of the same location and made $18 an hour. I asked for $15 because she

had been managing 2 locations simultaneously. I was turned down. I will never forget how my

boss’ wife stood behind me during this conversation aggressively shaking her head from side to

side as I requested a raise. My boss asked if he could discuss with his wife and get back to me

tomorrow. I obliged. When I came in the next day, he sat me down and he said the best he could

do for me was a raise of 75 cents per hour to a new total hourly rate of $9.25. He said that I

“wasn’t really doing EVERYTHIING a manager does.” Being the young and impressionable kid

that I was at just 18 years old, I said that was sufficient and I thanked him. The next day he asked

in my assistance of firing an employee that was one of my best friends. I kept working at Ben &

Jerry’s and Starbucks for another year or so. During this time, Starbucks built me up. My

coworkers, my manager, even the customers made me feel so valued and appreciated. December

4, 2012, I put in my two weeks notice at Ben & Jerry’s and focused on growing my career at

Starbucks.

As I grew in Starbucks, my manager encouraged me through school, encouraged me

through new life experiences like moving out, and encouraged me through transferring to a new

store with a promotion. He walked me through the interview process and set me up with an

interview in a new location. In the interview, the store manager said how she was very impressed

with my interview, my experience, and my coffee tasting. She said, “If I hire you, I can’t go on

vacation right now because I’d have to train you. But If I accept this transfer, I can still go on my

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vacation…So I’ll get back to you in a few days.” In that moment, I felt defeated. I felt like I

wasn’t worth the time it took to train me and maybe I wasn’t qualified enough. I went back to

my store manager and yelled at him for even sending me to that interview. I waited the few days,

and my manager came to me and said that I got the job, but they wanted to wait a month to hire

me. As upset as I was about the interview situation, I needed the money and I wanted to grow, so

I said yes. I transferred to that store a month later and worked so hard to show my new store

manager how valuable I was. I picked up on all the new tasks quickly and efficiently. I built

relationships in the store quickly and used those relationships to further my growth and learning.

As my relationship built with my new manager, she opened to me and told me that if she knew

how old I was during the interview, she wouldn’t have hired me. I worked even harder. I had to

prove my worth to her and show that despite my age, I had value in her team. I stayed at that

store for a year before leaving on maternity leave and transferring to another location. In that

time, I increased the connection score, the cleanliness score, trained 3 new partners, and won

partner of the quarter for the first time.

Returning from maternity leave I had a new motivation to be promoted. I wanted to be

the youngest store manager the area had seen in years. The time came for my interview, and I

went all out. I did mock interviews for weeks beforehand and set up a 2-part comparison coffee

tasting with homemade pastries. I was interviewed by the new district manager alone. I was

turned down for the position about a week later. The district manager said he didn’t feel

comfortable promoting me because he didn’t know me. A male colleague of mine, with no prior

relationship to our new district manager, was hired for the position the next day. Again, I was

defeated. I felt like all the work I had put in went completely unnoticed. The following week my

store manager had a death in the family, and he named me as the point of contact for the store in

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his absence. Our store manager was a micro manager, so in his absence, the store suffered.

Partners were calling out last minute for shifts, inventory counts were being missed, and our

merchandise set ups were being forgotten. When I took leadership of these, I dove in deep. I

would drive to the store at 5am with my newborn, plop his car seat on the countertop, and I’d

open the store myself. I would call the store manager watching over us with solutions rather than

problems. She was astonished by the effort and creativity I put in to solving problems in the store

with quickness and efficiency. She said to me, “You did all this today?! You should be

promoted; I am going to help you get promoted.” Finally. I felt seen. I felt appreciated. I felt

recognized. I felt like it was all worth it and I had finally made it. She did help me. She helped

me prove myself once again to my district manager through community service events, barista

championship, and store results tracking. I had another interview for assistant manager 8 months

later. I had pages and pages for results to share with my interviewer and I had forgotten every

single one of them at home about 30 minutes away. I went into the interview confident anyways.

I showed the interviewer the care and dedication I had because I could recite those pages of

metrics from memory. I was promoted in 2016 to assistant manager at the first store I started at

as a barista. I was finally home.

I needed a new challenge. Not long into my time as an assistant manager, I moved to a

high-volume reserve store in Potomac, Maryland. This store had a very hands-off manager in an

environment that needed a very hands-on approach. I spent a year in the store learning the

customers and partners. In the last month I was there, the store manager went out of the country

for a month, and I was left in charge of the store. I did all the duties of a store manager by

myself, and the store was thriving. I lowered our food waste, increased our productivity with

scheduling, separated 2 partners that were long overdue for accountability, and got the highest

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connection score the store had seen in years. Upon the return of the store manager, I had an

interview to go from assistant manager to store manager. The interview went well! I spoke to our

results and my methods to get there. After the interview, my district manager came to me and

said that he felt I need to be an assistant manager for a little longer. This was heartbreaking.

After feeling so accomplished, I just couldn’t understand what else I needed to learn as an

assistant manager before I could move up. A week later, a district manager from another district

came to speak to me. Her and I connected over my experiences, and she offered me a position in

her district within one week.

Moving into the new position, in a new store, in a new district was scary to say the least. I

was so excited for the opportunity to showcase my skills in an environment where no one knew

what to expect of me. Within 4 months of being a store manager, my boss came and asked if I

would be willing to manage 2 locations until they found a permanent solution. She explained this

other store had staffing opportunities and it would need to be a focus very quickly. This felt so

amazing. To be so new in role and be offered an opportunity like this felt so gratifying. I

accepted and jumped into the role immediately. Within a month of running both stores, I had

both thriving. I had fully staffed the secondary location with partners that were positive and had

a growth mindset. My primary store was essentially running itself. After 3 months of duel

managing, I was asked to move permanently to the secondary store. This store was higher

volume, higher exposure, and more complex that my primary store. Originally, I turned the offer

down. I had been so discouraged from previous experiences that I was starting to doubt myself. I

was worried for the unknown and worried that I wouldn’t be able to continue showing positive

results. My district manager asked me to think about it. She explained that she waited so long to

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fill the role because she wanted to make sure she found the right fit. I accepted the role 2 days

later and moved on to my newest store.

This store is where I really grew into my own leadership style. I met a colleague that

turned out to be one of the most influential people in my life. He led his team with such ease,

accountability, love, and support. He took me under his wing and filled in some of the gaps I

had within my Starbucks training. He supported me in my growth, and never once did I feel

judged or undermined when I asked questions. We worked together on projects that changed the

way the district operated. We created an amazing shift supervisor development program that

separated high performing shift supervisors that needed support in refining their leadership skills,

from shift supervisors that needed support in refining their operational skills. These programs

gave each group support and resources to develop as well as gave the store managers an

opportunity to mentor the next generation of Starbucks leaders. After creating, presenting, and

facilitating these programs, I have never felt prouder as a leader. I was leading people under me,

but also my peers. It came time for performance and pay conversations. I felt confident going

into this conversation because the leader I worked alongside with this whole time on every single

project shared his raise differentiation with me, and I was confident mine would be similar. I was

not differentiated in the raise at all. I was given the same cost of living raise that everyone else

was given. This felt like a stab in the back. I went back to that moment at Ben & Jerry’s when

my boss told me I didn’t do “EVERYTHING.” The past year that was being evaluated, my work

hadn’t waivered despite going through losing my brother. My work hadn’t waivered, despite

supporting my son through being sexually abused. I couldn’t fathom how my manager came to

this decision, but this time, I wouldn’t stay quiet. I asked her for a transfer to be closer to home. I

told her how underappreciated I felt by this decision, and I gave her specific examples as to why

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I felt she was not being fair. We discussed the longest I was willing to wait for the transfer and

then we ended the conversation. Despite the disappointment in the conversation, I felt liberated.

It was amazing to finally stand up for myself.

Here I was, new store, new manager, new district, all over again. This time I wasn’t that

scared. I had done this before, and I had a newfound confidence. I knew what worked in the past,

what didn’t work, and how to make changes. My new district manager was a stickler for

standards. He always told me that we shouldn’t accept mediocrity and if we did, that is all we

would receive. Throughout his time as my leader, I have never felt more challenged. I felt like

someone finally saw my potential and wouldn’t let me give anything else that the excellence he

knew I could deliver. This changed my life honestly. I found myself not only having confidence

in my approach at work but changing my personal life as well. This manager valued the effort I

put in and was willing to put just as much effort into me. It was the night before I went on a

week-long vacation, and I texted him at 10pm to ask him to help me understand a goal sheet that

we were supposed to have completed in a few days. He immediately called me. He spent over an

hour on the phone perfecting these goals and did it with such joy and support in his voice. He

assured me it was no problem and at the end he told me how proud he was of the work I had

accomplished. It was that feeling again. That supportive home feeling that you get from those

who truly want to see you succeed for no other reason other than they care about you. It had been

a long time since I felt that from a leader. My joy was short lived when I found out he would be

leaving the state in just a few short months. Even as he left, he supported my goals. He suggested

to the new district manager that I be the next store manager trainer and suggested to give me the

opportunity to open a brand-new location.

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 November 27, 2021. It was the friends and family opening event for the brand-new

Watkins Mill Starbucks to which I would be the manager. I spent months planning and prepping

for this night. I had been interviewing, hiring, and training a team of 40 partners for this location

while also managing a $70,000 a week, 24-hour drive thru location for the month prior to

opening. I spent my days answering endless phone calls, text messages, workplace messages,

and managing a calendar with what seemed like constantly changing zoom calls and inspections.

It was a lot of manage in the moment, but it was time for it to all pay off. As I arrived at the

event, I saw some of the most important people from my journey there. My peer manager that

helped me develop my leadership style drove 6 hours to surprise me at this event. He hugged me

and told me how proud he was of everything I had accomplished. He made it a point to tell me

that I earned everything I got to this point. That my success was not reliant on him or anyone

else. My district manager that was a stickler for standards was there. He had me give him a tour

around the store and assured me that he knew I would be the perfect person for this. He talked

about how far my leadership had developed and how amazed he was at everything I had

accomplished. This was my moment and I wanted to savor every second. I walked up to the mic

and thanked everyone for their continued support throughout the opening process. My regional

director walked in the door in the middle of my speech, and he asked to say a few words. He

briefly summarized all that it takes to open a new store. He recognized me. He recognized the

work I had put in and the effort it took to get there. He then presented me with a BRAVO award.

This is the first award I had gotten as a store manager. The first time I felt my work was being

recognized by anyone other than my peers. After the event, I went home and took a deep breath;

I finally made it.

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 Just when I felt like I had peaked, I went to visit my friend in Buffalo, New York. He had

been working up there to support the unionizing situation. As I went to stores with him, I

couldn’t help but understand why partners were wanting a union and disagreeing wholeheartedly

at the same time. I felt conflicted. I saw the work he had done in one store. This store sent me

back to 2012. The first store I worked in. The family environment. The happy home. It felt safe. I

wanted all the partners in Buffalo to experience this. Despite the leadership journey I have had,

this was the first time in my life I felt genuinely envious of someone else’s experience. I wanted

to be that leader to create the environment that those Buffalo partners didn’t get to experience.

The one that made me willing to push past the negative experiences I had and strive to be the

leader I am today. I went home from that trip and applied for the same temporary assignment in

Buffalo, New York. My friend that was in New York mentioned to his manager that I was

applying and that I would be great for the position. I had already interviewed, and a decision had

been made so his recommendation unfortunately didn’t hold much weight. After speaking with

the recruiter, his manager came back specifically to tell him that I didn’t need his

recommendation. The recruiter said, “She is meant to be here.” This was another moment that I

felt so seen. Like someone finally acknowledged the place I had as an inspirational,

transformative leader.

Although my leadership journey started long before Starbucks, these last 10 years have

been the most influential when it comes to my leadership. I always say, I am not sure if I work

for Starbucks because of who I am, or if I am who I am because I work for Starbucks. Through

these experiences and this reflection, I realize it’s both. This is the journey I was always meant to

have. If that first store hadn’t been such an amazing support system, I wouldn’t have made it past

those negative experiences. I would have likely quit if I didn’t know what good leadership was

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or what Starbucks could be. I am forever grateful to the experiences I have had, the people I have

met, and the growth I have endured to be here. I am a semester away from graduating with an

Organizational Leadership degree, currently developing the next generation of leaders, and

providing support for those in my life that need some guidance. I have made it. This is my

journey.

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