Courage In The Moment: Adulting and Life Skills
This summer at SpartanNash we have more than 100 interns starting, and I can’t wait.
New energy. Fresh perspectives. Creative problem-solving. There’s a lot to like about an ongoing talent influx from a growth mindset point of view, which is vital to our People First culture at SpartanNash.
Each new class of interns also brings a sense of nervous excitement with them on their first day at work. As they step through the threshold between education and career, it’s natural to feel intimidated by entering into the unknown and realizing you no longer get to look solely to the adults in the room for answers. You are, in fact, one of the adults now.
I’ve seen my kids make this same transition in the past few years. Just three years ago, I posted a dad-to-daughter commencement address for my oldest child when she graduated from Arizona State University. Since then, my family has celebrated more graduations from ASU and also the U.S. Army.
Each ceremony marked my kids walking through the threshold into adulthood, prepared for unknown situations and cautiously optimistic for what’s to come.
Though it’s been a long while since I started my first job—or walked across the stage reaching for my diploma (see photo above, Arizona State University, 1985)—a career is made up of a lot of “firsts.” The first day in a new role, the first day in a leadership position, the first day working on a new project. There are lots of thresholds, big and small, that we need to have the courage to walk through.
And here’s a new, unexpected first for me. Until COVID brought on widespread remote work, I wouldn’t have thought it would be something with durable, cross-generational appeal even in a hybrid state. I thought it was temporary. Work had just never worked that way before in my experience.
Now I wonder, in the parlance of many 20-somethings today—literally, quite literally—how are we going to show up at work? Are we going to show up in-person or online? Or could it be, given the option, both?
Just having the option would be the choice of one of my daughters. She recently left her first post-college job because the position was fully remote. She quit because she wanted the option to see her coworkers face-to-face and learn directly in an office setting. And while she appreciates the flexibility of occasional remote access in-person is an option she wants to have.
So here we are, learning to love “optionality” in 2023, and I confess that warming up to this concept and reality still seems new to me because there are plenty of details to keep working out for how and where we work. It’s a reminder to always be open to life lessons and keep learning.
Back in early summer 2020 when I wrote the commencement address for our first college graduate, I mentioned a book called On Becoming A Leader by the professor, consultant and author Warren Bennis. I recommend it for its observations and insights on the importance of continuously learning about the world around us.
One of my favorite quotes from Bennis is: “Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life.” I’m all in on that idea, and it’s a good discussion point with our new class of interns this summer, as we learn from each other and muster the courage to tackle the firsts that life puts before us.
Take charge of our own learning. That’s the greatest life skill of all. Welcome to the SpartanNash family, interns!