This week’s #TeamMemberTuesday is featuring Voni Woods, - PDF document

This week’s #TeamMemberTuesday is feat
This week’s #TeamMemberTuesday is featuring Voni Woods, Vice President of Customer Experience at Giant Eagle! Voni’s always had a passion for the Deli Department but her newest role gives her the exciting opportunity to impact the entire customer experience. Read more about Voni’s 42-year career with Giant Eagle here. Tell me about your recent promotion. Today, I am the Vice President of Customer Experience at Giant Eagle. I’m focused on the entire customer experience. It’s new and I’m learning. When you have a new job, it’s scary and exciting at the same time. I’ve been involved with the Deli in some way, shape or form since I started, which was 42 years ago. It’s a very long time and even though you learn things every single day, Deli is very much my comfort zone because I know it so well. When the senior leaders approached me about this new role, I said “yes” because that’s what I do. I raise my hand and step up. What I’m finding every day is how much I don’t know. I’m reading everything I can possibly read and I’m jumping into it with both feet. I’m signed up to go back to school. It’s sort of an Executive Leadership type of school where it’s condensed. I’m going to do 50 hours, which would be a whole semester in college, but it’s crammed into one week. Because I’m in experience and it’s a new role and this is my opportunity to write the book, I thought to myself, “Why don’t I pair up with somebody who already wrote the book?” So, I have this book called The Experience Economy and I was having a hard time getting through it because the language is different, and it is more design thinking and doing and journey mapping. It’s a language that I’m not used to, so I decided to call the author Joe Pine. I picked up the phone, found his number and called him up. We spoke for a little more than an hour-and-a- half and I realized that he could teach me a lot. And I could bring something that he didn’t have because they have not had retail supermarket client yet, but they’ve talked with many companies that are very much about experience. They have not worked with the supermarket industry yet, so I’m going to be in a cohort of 12 and I’m going to go back to school and learn all the metrics around what they call putting the “ing” in “thing”. I have no idea what that means. It’s all brand new and it’s very fun but I spent the last 16 years running the Deli, Bakery and Prepared Foods Departments at Giant Eagle, so the journey was long, but it went by in a flash, and it’s not over because I believe I’m an able body that has a lot to give. I’m not counting the days until retirement. It just doesn’t pop into my mind. I learned my work ethic from my dad. It’s not about work/life balance where you have a work life and a home life. Mine is just life. It’s blended. If I had to go out of town for work, my children came with me if they were able to. We did so much stuff together. We would work hard, and we’d play hard and we’d rest easy. It was just all life. It wasn’t just a hard stop and start to work and home. I believe every able body should work and it doesn’t necessarily need to be for pay. Some people are done at a certain age and work at home or volunteer or whatever else they choose to do. I’m starting my 42nd year with Giant Eagle, but I was acquired twice. I didn’t start with Giant Eagle. I’m originally from Cleveland. I worked for a company in Cleveland that did catering and home meal replacement. When I started there they got a little too big and expanded too far. They overextended themselves and the company was spiraling downward and there were three different independent entities in Cleveland that decided to form a business, and they bou

ght the company. They bought the Team M
ght the company. They bought the Team Members as part of the deal. They literally saved us from going out of business and being out of jobs. The transition took just the opposite turn where we were winning and growing and ripe for a takeover when Giant Eagle acquired us. At the time when all these acquisitions took place, they bought the company and the Team Members, so we were given credit for our original hire date. Nowadays it doesn’t happen like that, you are severed and must reapply for a position, so that is why I have this longevity of 42 years. I worked for a company and just never left. I was acquired twice so I have three different company cultures to benchmark against in my career. Why have you chosen to stay with Giant Eagle since being acquired? It’s rare to be at a company for this long. Every day I loved what I did. I loved my team, and I loved working in the Deli. I love cheese, and I love traveling. I ended up very early in my career deciding that I wanted to be part of the industry, not just part of the Company. I became really entrenched in the International Deli Dairy Bakery Association, which is a nonprofit organization specifically for the furthering of the industry, which includes cheese. Doing that really helped me with relationships and it helped to be constantly learning. I laugh about my love for cheese, but it’s pretty much been a love affair with cheese. Recently I was inducted in the World Cheese Society about a year ago, and I was inducted at the residence of the American French Ambassador at his estate in Washington, D.C., and I was humbled by it because as much as I’ve been in the cheese world for all these years, I still know just a fraction of what there is to know. It’s a world that keeps changing and the United States has come so far in artisan cheeses and earning respect in the world of cheese. What’s exciting to me is the American Cheese Society is coming to Pittsburgh. They chose Pittsburgh for their annual showcase this year. People wonder what’s sexy about working in the Deli. I worked in the Deli for thirteen years and its hard work, but there was always something fun to, something to learn, and there were tradeshows to go to …. that’s what kept me here. The culture of Giant Eagle has also kept me here. I moved from Cleveland and although it’s only two hours east across the turnpike, it was a major move away from home. I never regretted it and I’ve loved every day of it. I found the joy! What do you love most about your current role? I’m a little bit selfish on this one because I’m learning so much and really, it’s an investment that the Company is making in me to learn something new. Once you learn something no one can take that away from you. It’s an opportunity in my career to learn something brand new and it’s energizing. When you think about experience, you think about where you like to shop or where you like to eat, and something becomes personal about it. We have so much data on our customers and we have ways to make them feel special, and we’re really making a lot of progress towards that. We can make it more personal based on each person’s preferences. We get to make those connections with our guests. We can’t survive on people being satisfied, that isn’t good enough. I’m all in. I’ve been here a very long time. The Team Members are my friends, as well as coworkers and I want them to be around for a very long time. There’s more than 33,000 Team Members that work here and need a job, so how are we going to compete and win in this experience economy that we’re in? We must make it easy. We must make shopping fun, not a chore. What was your best day at work? I’ve had so many good days. People talk about your “15 Minutes of Fame” and you think that once you have that,

it’ll be your best day. I’ve had a
it’ll be your best day. I’ve had a million “15 minutes”. I can think of some meetings we’ve had when we’ve had all of our Deli Team Leaders come in and talk and you leave that day thinking “They get it. We’re all onboard. They’re engaged. We nailed it.” And we all high-fived and those are good days. Other good days are when you see someone that you’ve worked with and mentored. And maybe you never called it a mentorship, but you know you’ve helped them along the way and you see them get promoted, those are good days. It’s a great feeling. Or at the end of the year, when you’ve had a good year because during the year, you’re never satisfied and at the end you hit the goal. Those are good days. Those days are hard to come by right now because in my new role, the score card is a little ambiguous. My scorecard is hard because someone else owns all the hard metrics. I can’t think of just one day that stands out to me, but when you look around my office and you see things that I put up on the board of places that I’ve been, and people that I’ve met because I worked for Giant Eagle. I have this beautiful job. I’ve been to Italy. I followed the hind of a hog around for 365 days to see how you take fresh pork and it turns into a Prosciutto di Parma. I followed it around the plant and I was mesmerized. I sat, and I had lunch with four people from Italy who made this happen. They didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Italian and I had the best lunch and time of my life. I think of all those times I got to meet people that I never would have had the opportunity to meet. I interviewed people that showed up at conferences and food places. Most recently, the three Directors that reported directly to me got to cut the cord and fly on their own. It wasn’t like I was replaced. They got to report further up the chain and it made me feel so proud. That was a good day. They come in all the time and I still get to have a relationship with them. Have you had anyone you consider to be a mentor play a role in your career? How have they influenced you? I’ve had so many mentors, but one that was just so mean. I kept wondering why he was so tough. He was very early on in my career. He was called “the Hatchet Man”. He was brought in to streamline and break down all the heaviness on the top. I had to go into his office once a week and I had to explain margin shrink and the calculations. I did it by hand and I was a nervous wreck every time I’d go into his office, but he would teach me. Over time, I got to the point where I didn’t need to do it out by hand. I knew if I did this, this and this, this was going to be where I was going to be at the end of the week. People thought I was just skipping a step but I did it for years over time and so he really helped me have the discipline to do it, or I wouldn’t have done it. I have another mentor who I talk about all the time. I was suggested to go to the Women’s Executive Leadership Program and when I asked him why, he said it was because he didn’t know me. It was a pivotal point in my career where I thought I would leave Giant Eagle. I didn’t want to because I loved being here. It wasn’t that I settled for being here, I loved being here. I still wanted to move up and I didn’t want to just stay at a certain level for the rest of my career. But everybody’s different, some people would be very happy being in a role for the rest of their career. If they’re good at it and they’re happy, but I just have this competitive spirit where I wanted to keep moving up. This mentor of mine didn’t say it in a mean way, but I thought he was mean for doing it. Years later I told him “thank you.” I never brought up the situation because it was emotional for me, but I just told him, “you told me something one time and I was mad, but m

y eyes were opened.” I think both
y eyes were opened.” I think both of those people were my big mentors, aside from my dad. My dad is first-generation Bulgarian. He wasn’t the warm and fuzzy dad. He was all about work ethic and that was how you earned his respect. Of course, a lot of girls want to make sure their dad is proud of them. I learned that very early. Those are the mentorship relationships that brought me along in my career. It was like having a girlfriend that you could tell everything to as a mentor, but also more about the people who have been honest with me and gave honest feedback, regardless of whether I liked it or not. Can you speak to Giant Eagle’s Women’s Business Resource Groups? In 2008, I mentioned my experience at Duquesne University with the Women’s Executive Leadership program and what I learned coming out of it at 52, when I started running, taking care of myself, getting rid of the chips on my shoulder and contributing in a different way. I thought to myself, “Why did it take me so long?” I was the Co-Founder of the Women’s Business Resource Group (WBRG) at Giant Eagle. We set it up in a way so that it was a charter, not a one and done. It wasn’t the coffee club where the girls could get together. It was networking. It was about teaching people. I saw Amy Wambach, who was recently a keynote speaker at a university graduation ceremony and she delivered an impassioned speech about how there are times, especially as you move through your career, when it’s time for you turn around and help the next one in line. She stressed that you help coach the next one in line, and I’ve done that for my entire career, when selfishly, we may want to surround ourselves with people who are smarter than we are. But there’s a time to coach and help and there’s a time to say give me the ball. This all really resonated with me when I think about the WBRG. What work are you most proud of? I’m most proud of my family. My two daughters are my best friends. My oldest daughter has two children and a third on the way and has brought so much joy. My youngest who’s going to be 33 on Sunday, she hasn’t found that yet. She longs to be a wife and mom. I could talk to her ten times a day. I must refrain, maybe three times a day or at least two times a day, while my oldest daughter, I try for once a day. When she needs me, I’m there. I’m just proud of how I was able to overcome a divorce, rebuild and come out stronger. All the other stuff is just fun stuff that I’ve done. I’m proud that I’m in the World Cheese Society. I just got a Silver Plate from IFMA and that made me proud because I am the face of the Deli and Prepared Foods Departments, having served as the Vice President of those teams. I led the teams, but I wasn’t the “do-er.” It’s hard to explain how you don’t feel worthy. It was a very humbling experience receiving that. The team is what makes you look good or bad. I led the team and I’m proud of that but the “do-ers” are the ones fighting that arena. I’m proud of all those things but it’s nothing like my family. I’m also a runner. I started running when I was 52, and I’ve done a lot of races since then. I’m able, so that’s why I do it. I don’t run full marathons. People try to get me to do marathons, but I want to be able to run for a very long time, and I don’t want to put my body through that. My legs are strong and if I go out and run five miles, I’m happy with that! I’m also very obsessive about my steps. I do 10,000 steps every day, minimum. I have not missed a day since February 10, 2016. I usually hit 90,000 steps per week, but when I was in Vegas two weeks ago, I did a quarter of a million steps in one week. That is a lot of steps! Is there anything else you would like people to know about Giant

Eagle? We always ask ourselves, is
Eagle? We always ask ourselves, is this a great place to work? If your mind immediately goes to I’ll be shagging carts, or I’ll be ringing the register for the next 42 years, to me that sounds like working in a factory. I don’t mean that as disrespectful to people who work in factories, but what I was able to do, and how I was able to find the joy was by working in the Deli. I worked in the Deli for 13 years. I didn’t always find the joy in it because it was repetitive. Once eight or nine years went by I pretty much had it down. Some people can do that a lot quicker, but at that point I could pretty much do it in my sleep. I was able to do a nice zigzag through my career. I worked in the Deli as a Clerk for a year and I was a Manager when I was 19 years old. Then I would go to different stores and eventually, they made me the trainer. I would train Deli and be the Manager. I had that extra responsibility. Then I became a Buyer. A Buyer got sick and I was the first one they thought of, so I was put in as a Buyer. I went to the office and with zero training at all, I bought for the whole chain. It was back in the day when we did not have computers, but we didn’t have electronic invoicing or orders. We had carbon paper for our orders and faxed them over. When I think about that today, I think how hard that was, but I learned so much doing that. This was all right at the time when those three organizations bought our company, so I was already in the office which was a step up. After that I became a Supervisor, so I had around 11-12 stores and eventually that turned into 20 stores. Then I was promoted to the office and I was called an Operations Manager. I operated the Deli’s, which meant the merchandising, the ads, planning, pricing, all of that. I was zigzagging along and then we came to the acquisition when Giant Eagle acquired us. I was ready for a Director of Deli position, but Giant Eagle already had a Director. I had to figure out how I fit into the organization and how to navigate that. Then I was promoted to Director and then Sr. Director in 2002 and another ten years to get promoted again. It was all good. I slowly moved my way up and up. Each time you move up, it’s a different job but you still have the knowledge of day one when I was a Clerk. I had all that experience and brought it with me. Plus, I got to meet so many people around the organization. When I was offered a new position, I always said “yes” and then I learned how to do it. We all must be here for a certain amount of time, why not keep moving up and learning new things? I try to explain that to people. We always ask ourselves if we’re a great place to work, and whether we’ll get voted as a great place to work. I don’t care if we get voted as one or not; this is a great place to work. It’s a great place to network with other people. We have Core Values that we live by that other places don’t. Ours are lived out and are posted on the walls. When people are looking for a good culture and a place to grow their career, we want those people. If people can find their passion, there’s a place for them at Giant Eagle. We want people that keep learning so they don’t have to stay in one place. I think of all these young people that are coming in …. there are so many opportunities at Giant Eagle. You can go from being an attorney to running the Gift Card business. You can be a Supply Chain expert and then run a Line of Business (LOB). Once you learn that, those skills are forever in your toolbox. At Giant Eagle you don’t have to pigeon-hole yourself into one path or position. You start somewhere, and then you work hard and make connections. You can go to a lot of different places, especially if you’re willing to reach out and be recognized. People will acknowledge value that you’re bringing