Growth and Development Isn’t Always a Straight Path
Failure is okay, just fail fast and learn from it.
I have a passion for putting a team together and watching people grow and develop. I look for opportunities to coach others. This passion currently involves coaching my son’s soccer team – but he’s five so it’s more like herding really energetic cats than coaching. I’ve also gotten involved with organizing the STANLEY® Leadership Development Program (SLP), and I serve as the North American Finance lead for STANLEY® Engineered Fastening.
Since I’ve gotten involved with the STANLEY® Leadership Development Program we have grown STANLEY® Engineered Fastening’s participation from one associate to six associates, located across North America. What I enjoy the most about the experience is watching young people bring in new ideas and improve processes. We focus on giving SLP associates true jobs and not just projects to fill their time – and we have seen great results. We have found that these young innovators can drive tremendous value into the business.
Recently, I worked on implementation of a group case-study process which helps the SLP associates come together as a team, regardless of physical location. I was in a position to offer assistance with this since I work in Connecticut, but my responsibilities include facilities in Connecticut, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, Iowa, and Canada. That a lot of locations to cover, so I have learned the value of working cross-functionally and working as a team.
It’s a simple fact that when you work as a team you can accomplish a lot more than working individually.—Noah Forrest
Our parent company, Stanley Black & Decker, is about to celebrate its 175th birthday, but it feels more like a modern tech leader than a legacy industrial. I work in Finance now, but I have an MBA in technology so I’m sensitive to the IT side of our business. We have fantastic systems in place that leverage and connect our global business together.
STANLEY® recognizes intelligence and effort, regardless of experience. Our employees are empowered to make decisions and drive results. It’s a challenging company, doing important work, and sometimes what you’re working on doesn’t go as planned. But as a coach at STANLEY, I’ve learned to tell people that failure is okay – as long as they fail fast and learn from it.