Hi everyone, I am James Burgess. I live in Charlotte, NC and have been in the Maritime industry on the Container Ship handling side for the last 16 years. I currently lead a team of 11 that are located across the globe. I was in retail management before this for 10 years so while comfortable with managing others, the concept of leading others has been a life changing event for me. My current company sent me to a leading others class last year that was inspiring for me and really got me to decide to come back to school and formalize all that I know and will learn moving forward. I am in a solid middle management role with the company, but a BS is a good addition to assist me in moving up the ladder and begin to lead leaders.
I have been in a technical role for the last 5-10 years and have always thought, just do it myself if I want it done right, but now I really am starting to understand how to coach others and help them develop a strong work ethic to achieve goals. This is what has inspired me to move forward as a leader. My long term goal is to have an influence, laterally, across other departments and move into a position where I can create a change in our work culture.
Favorite quote as of today?
“A leader’s job is not to do the work for others, it’s to help others figure out how to do it themselves, to get things done, and to succeed beyond what they thought possible.”
-Simon Sinek
While in my first week long leadership siminar, we were shown the TED talk that Simon did to Start with the why http://go.ted.com/byBY. I then looked at his why good leaders make you feel safe and ended up buying both books. At this point I realized that I can have an impact on my team and beyond to help us move forward.
My Job requires me to not only manage (lead) the team, but to also be a participant in the daily activities which require 50-75% travel. I am beginning this class for the first week in Los Angeles, and by week 3 I will be in Sweden. This make it both fun and quite the challenge!
I am 45, married for 11 years, and have a 5 year old daughter
Brian Redmond says
It is great to have you in class James. The beauty of online education is that you can do it from anywhere. I often teach on the road when I’m traveling to conferences and the like. I look forward to working with you.
–Brian