What We're Reading Now

Lessons and Inspiration from New Team Members

30 August 2016

Allison read the bios of our new Allison Partners team members and celebrated a growing team and the lessons colleagues can teach us.

Tags: allison read, careers, change, courage, human resources, teams

I started Allison Partners the summer in between my first and second years at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. My office was the second bedroom in my apartment for the first three years of the business, and each month I’d hope a new client would want to hire me. We’ve just celebrated our 16th anniversary and our fifth and sixth fulltime team members joined us this summer. As I read their bios, I’m pausing to celebrate our growth plus the things I’m learning from each of them.

When you’re in the midst of recruiting, hiring, and orienting new team members, I imagine you spend a lot of time thinking about how to pick the right candidate, welcome a new employee, and train them to be successful in your organization. These are all important aspects of developing your team, and we enjoy helping our clients with each step of the process.

However, an equally important part of the onboarding experience is learning what new skills and qualities your team members will share with you. They bring fresh ideas, new ways of approaching work, and new dynamics among team members.

For example, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying watching our newest Consultant, Eden Green, dive into her work. Eden graduated from the University of Virginia in May with a degree in Economics and Psychology. Allison Partners is her first fulltime employer, and she’s approaching her projects for us with the diligence of a student. I like to think I’m a lifetime learner, but watching Eden tackle overwhelming amounts of research and reading on our behalf has reminded me that when you’re learning something new and a bit daunted by the task, the trick is to just get started.

Eden’s diligent attitude and her enthusiastic approach to work has been an inspiration to me. Her questions about Allison Partners are helping me to think about how we explain our work and why we do what we do. She’s also challenging me to consider offering some new courses, and I know I’ll learn even more from her as she teaches me what she knows about curriculum development and classroom materials.

Eden Green and Cindy Ventrillo
photographs by Cramer Photo

I’m also learning a lot from our new Office Manager, Cindy Ventrillo. Cindy had a rewarding 20-year career in veterinary medicine, but was ready for a change and decided to pursue a new career in the corporate world. She knew this would be a big transition so she started by getting Certification in Administrative Support from Piedmont Virginia Community College.

We coach a lot of people considering or in the midst of a career change, and I know that the things I’m learning from Cindy will benefit our clients. I admire how courageously she identified a bold new goal and took steps to get the training she needed. She’s also embraced a lot of change and is conscientiously immersing herself in a new field so that she can ensure the smooth operation of the Allison Partners office. We were without an Office Manager for six weeks, and in the midst of learning so many new things, Cindy has already brought much-needed administrative relief. Figuring out how to learn new tasks and add immediate value is a good goal for any new employee in pretty much any work environment.

What have you learned from your colleagues?

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