eKourier Oct 2010

5 Questions... With Lynda Walsh

a new home, but I couldn’t give her up. So instead I bought her a little friend from the RSPCA called Alvin. Strangely enough the cats and rabbits all get along really well.

What are you currently working on? As well as my normal daily duties of looking after 14 centres I have been given the exciting opportunity to open our new centre at Penrith. Another interesting element of my role is project management; we get to work on many different areas of the business. It’s refreshing to be encouraged to share ideas and identify new income opportunities. I’m currently working on our billboard company “OrangeAds”, an energy efficiency program and our wine cellaring. The past 3 years I have introduced a lot of fitness into my life. It’s become an important part of my daily routine. I have a personal trainer twice a week and we do boxing, weights and cardio. I’ve also recently started Brazilian Samba and Bollywood dance classes twice a week. I enjoy concerts and stage shows. A great place to see live music is at the Basement. I’ve seen David Campbell, Tina Arena, Marcia Hines, Jersey Boys, Kate Ceberano, Carl Risely and many more... I love all animals! I have two cats and two rabbits. I recently rescued and rehabilitated my first rabbit, Thumper. She was emaciated, only had three legs, a torn nose and her coat was covered with dreadlocks. She is now de-sexed, double her weight and her coat was shaved to remove the dreadlocks. I planned on finding her Tell us about your love for animals. Hobbies and Pastimes?

Tell us about your history with Kennards Self Storage.

I started with KSS in Feb 2005 in South Australia. My first role was as the Assistant Manager at Panorama before I moved into the Manager’s position at Thebarton. I’d been at Thebarton for a year and I had my sights set on becoming an Operations Manager. I knew to get this position I would have to move to Sydney. It felt like a big dream at the time and it was a scary move, but it turned out to be the best decision of my life! I moved to Sydney in September 2006 to manage Homebush. I set my goal to become an Operations Manager within 5 years. I was fortunate that the position become available within 4 months. Getting the role wasn’t easy, but after 6 weeks, three interviews and psychometric testing I had my dream role! What was your work history before Kennards? During high school I worked at McDonalds and Toys R Us. After school I worked at Australia Post for 5 years. I started in the bulk mail section and Post Shops. Eventually I spent three years in an area that took over corporate or government mailing houses, like SGIC and Adelaide Uni. By staffing the mail houses with Australia Post teams we were able to significantly cut costs and increase the service standards. Whilst working at Australia Post I also worked nights and weekends at the Glenelg Golf course in the bar, bistro and restaurant. I was enjoying hospitality and decided to move into a full time role at the Clare Country Club as the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager. I moved back to my home town, Clare Valley for this role. Whist I enjoyed the role I didn’t enjoy living in the country whilst I was so young and my friends and family were all back in the city, so I applied for a role with Kennards and the rest is history.

TRAINING HUBS!

Since the introduction of the Training Hubs, the hubs have been reviewing & fine tuning the process. Recently the training manual was completely revamped, making it more user friendly & has been used successfully with recent new employees. During August there was a Training Hub Huddle where Sandra Anderson (Fortitude Valley) emphasised the use of DISC in the training process. It is a valuable training tool helping the trainers to understand the different learning, listening & recording habits of the trainees. Also how decisions & performance are affected by the questioning & logic focused D & C verses the more accepting & people focused I & S styles. On that day we had guest speaker Goran Begovski, who gave an inspired presentation on accelerating human performance in business. The highlight was a practical demonstration of the impact that motivated staff has on customers. The day ended with Jeff Xanthos giving us an overview of the new web site and the upgrade of Storman. Phil Howe & Maria Katselas

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Kennards Kourier October 2010