First Prep Flashcards
Please describe your current or most recent position in terms of major duties & responsibilities (and relevant education) and how it pertains to this position.
· MBA & Bachelors in Mgmt & Mkt from JU
· Nearly 10 years in JF progressing to now leading billing team
· Support my team by influencing business partners (foreign roads) to ensure activity report data required is provided to meet billing deadlines
· Aim to consistently deliver responsive customer service internally & externally
· Dedicated to identify opportunity to enhance processes & systems with several successfully implemented systems & process improvements
· Developed close working relationships with tech partners working together on multiple enhancements
· Worked to build cross functional relationships with Engineering communicating frequently w/various contacts (Randy Daniels, Josh Burris, and many others in various regions) for assistance with capital project review & to confirm progress updates on planned capital projects
· 11 years experience reading & interpreting RR agmts since all JF transactions managed are supported by a rr contract - no 2 are alike
· Provide support to various internal business partners whenever needed
· Analytical skills
· Demonstrated ability to handle multiple projects with competing deadlines
· Self-starter that has taken on day-job plus opportunities with consistent track record of strong performance management ratings
Railroad Agreements
· Received a large maintenance invoice from FR for 100% burdened expense
· Pulled agmt and discovered we were only responsible for 50%
· Contacted FR notifying them of the error and offered them the option to revise the invoice with the correction or we could short pay
· FR responded with corrected invoice with 50% proportion for processing
Influencing Others/Challenging Status Quo
· For several years in JF AR aging was an issue often discussed but never acted on
· Upon receiving technology responsibilities for the team, I decided to try to fix
· I outlined a vision of the ideal automated process to notify FRs via email of outstanding AR
· Technology agreed my proposal was feasible, and assisted in its creation, resulting in our now fully automated AR notification process that uses the days past due to notify FRs of all past due outstanding JF balances with copies of associated invoices attached
Adapting to Changing Priorities: please describe a time when you decided to try a new and creative approach to handling an old or familiar problem.
· In 2013, we had a combined team of around 16 covering contact & compensation 50/50. In 2017 our billing side reduced from 8 to 5, and in 2019 from 5 to 3
· During the 2019 transition, we had to navigate transitioning 475 additional facilities to our team of 3
· Considering the additional work that would be coming, and our teams monthly accrual metric goal of no more than 2 months accrued, I decided to tighten my personal goal to no more than 1 month accrued to create a cushion of sorts
· By implementing my personal goal of 1 month accrued, I was able to keep a great deal of this newly absorbed work moving, delivering team lifting results to bridge the gap until we could formally transition a full split of these additional joint facilities in our system
Decision Making/Anticipating Consequences:
· One example is our Annual Rate Escalation Program, as failure to be very attentive to the accuracy of the driving index table can result in incorrect rates
· I have managed this program since 2018, and have identified many preventable issues that can occur, and if something goes wrong-it can perpetuate into forever if it’s not caught and corrected
· One of the largest vulnerabilities I have discovered is related to the index tables themselves (as we share them with other groups), and on more than one occasion, I have loaded the new indexes upon receiving around April every year – ahead of running the program (most of our rates escalate in July). Fortunately, I checked the indexes to find many values had been changed since I originally entered, and I had to correct prior to running the program
· By recognizing the potentially, highly impactful consequences that would have resulted, I make sure to confirm all loaded index values are correct minutes before running the program to prevent an issue with all of our rates calculating incorrectly – the cleanup of an error like that could be massive
Overcoming Obstacles: Please describe a time you had to produce a quality product under resource time constraints.
· Ahead of the Pan Am transition, uncertain of the volume of agreements we would receive
· I decided our Agmt Entry Process needed to be improved, as it was excessively manual, time consuming, and confusing
· I went through the entire process identifying steps that could be automated and/or removed completely, creating mock up screens with desired functionality needed and presented to technology
· Technology agreed with all my proposed changes, and implemented all of my requested enhancements. Everything tested functional as intended, and we now have a greatly improved Contract Entry Process that now saves a lot of time without the confusion
Please describe a recent situation in which you had to analyze data in order to make a decision.
· Last year I was contacted by a new person at NS regarding a long list of short paid haulage invoice balances in an effort to collect
· I had previously notified the original/primary NS haulage contact of these short payments due to bad data on the NS side and considered closed when I received no response
· Upon receiving this inquiry, I did a few spot checks across this unpaid activity to confirm my original position, however I discovered some of the cars were legitimate (and were not picked up by my comparison report), but many were definitely invalid cars
· With this information, I responded to NS proposing a 50/50 split settlement of these balances due to both age and the extremely manual nature of the research
· NS responded in agreement with my proposal, and we were able to completely close the issue
Crisis Management:
· I was contacted by one of our FRs furious that we were “trying to hide something” and underpaying what we owed – threatening to sue, which it turns out had happened before
· They were angry bc during a portion of the 2017 cuts, we cut a Clerk that had been working in that area they had apparently claimed as their own, tasking him with counting our cars and matching detail with this “overshared” activity report (specifically instructed not to provide) by a JF person that was also cut that year. The detail in this overshared report was not directed by our contract to provide and this road had been using our own Clerk to audit our activity against this overly specific activity report - until I was managing this facility again.
· I assured the FR that I would do everything in my power to remedy this situation in the appropriate way, and collaborated with Legal for their input and blessing. We agreed the full detail report produced too much exposure, and was not directed by the contract – so we decided to offer a true up payment using a new data source, and instead of using any Empty count, we would instead double the load count to fully capture the empties that can be challenging to capture for any road.
· I presented this offer to the foreign road, and they accepted-recognizing we were doing everything we could to fairly compensate them
Relationships:
· Within my immediate team, I try to get to know each person as an individual and understand their needs. Some specific ways I demonstrate this is by (1) being responsive, (2) being available, and (3) being consistent.
· External to my team, these are the people I do not interact with daily or weekly or even monthly, so the best way I build relationships with external colleagues is by being consistent and reliable.
· Building relationships is not a one-way street, and if I will need to rely on other areas of the company to assist me with tasks – I choose to demonstrate the same helpfulness I hope to receive when needed. I legitimately enjoy helping external colleagues if I have the knowledge & access to answer to their question.
· Personal pet peeve
· I have worked to build additional relationships with various people in our Engineering group for their assistance in our capital project plans among other things. This past year I met Randy Daniels in Chicago at the UP facility to high rail the Villa Grove joint line to get an idea of what capital improvements we anticipate in the coming year.
· I also rely on assistance from several field guys in various regions to confirm completion or progress on several diamond installations planned for the year to ensure the appropriate proportions were billed to our foreign counterparts appropriately, as these are high dollar expenses
· To further contribute, and expand my relationships outside my immediate group, I also participated in several Clean Sweeps as multiple locations working side by side Jaime Purl, Will Roseborough, and many other Engineering colleagues from all levels in a wide variety of positions all over the company.
How would you describe your Leadership style? Are you able to provide a specific example? When you deviate from your style, what are some reasons that led you to deviate?
· Leadership is about collaboration and inspiring others to do their best work. I aim to be direct and collaborate with my team members delegating tasks, leading by example, and making sure they know I care
· We have bi-weekly 1:1s, providing an ongoing open line of communication (for issues needing more urgent attention). I provide them space to complete their work- trusting with meeting our deadlines and monthly KPIs. If a performance issue occurred, our KPIs would reveal the guilty party initiating further explanation. I believe personal validation of my team as individuals is essential to demonstrate my acknowledgement of and value for their unique concerns, ideas, or challenges.
Some examples of my leadership style could be:
· I want my team to know they have a voice, and I value their input. During interviews for a manager position on my team, I asked Jack to participate in the interview process explaining that it was important to me to hear his thoughts about the potential candidates for a position that he would be working closely with as his counterpart. Based on his reaction to my request, I knew it was the right move as it was very clear that he was excited to be involved in the process (and appreciated my value for his personal input).
· We are not robots. I believe it is also important to take the time to know your team a bit more personally. To demonstrate this, upon the Manager offer being accepted, I reached out to our new team member and invited him to a one-on-one lunch before his start date. I wanted him to know I was excited to have him on my team, let him tell me a bit more about himself, and to share more information about our team and the position he would be starting. Our lunch went very well and provided a foundation of sorts for his official start date on our team.
One example of what I think would be a deviation:
· It is important that my team understands the importance of owning our mistakes, and upon the first opportunity when I discovered an error that I personally made while reconciling a complicated adjustment and prior to correcting my error – I contacted our new manager on the team (that I coincidentally had been training on this process); and showed him what was done incorrectly as an opportunity to learn. I wanted to demonstrate the behaviors that I request of my team and lead by example. We own our mistakes, correct them, learn from them, and work to prevent them moving forward. It is not every day your manager says, “Hey! I want you to look at my mistake…” I was trying to make a point.
