Published in the March 14 – 27, 2018 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Morgan Hill City Manager Christina Turner in her office at City Hall.
Morgan Hill Life file photo
In 2018, I set myself on a mission to spotlight for the South Valley the dynamic women leaders of Morgan Hill and Gilroy. This is the first column sharing the profiles of local women who make a difference in enhancing the quality of life for our communities.
Women around the world are looking beyond barriers and boundaries set by others. They’re now choosing to stand on a foundation that empowers them to accomplish whatever it is they set their minds to achieve. Morgan Hill City Manager Christina Turner exemplifies this growing movement for women.
The mosaic of Turner’s life reveals with crystal clarity that serving and adding value to others is foundational in her success.
For those who follow my work, you know that I live and breathe the fact that leadership is founded on four pillars: Everything rises and falls with leadership. Leadership is influence, nothing more and nothing less. The highest responsibility of leadership is self-leadership. The most important responsibility of leadership is adding value to others.
These are all nice words. Put in practice, in order for the pillars to stay standing they require the mortar produced by two essential values: Getting up when you get knocked down and living out leadership with a “service heart.”
(I prefer “servant’s heart.” However, I am concerned that some people may not be able to sit into the positive aspects of servanthood. This topic’s expansion is for another time.)
Our interview lasted more than an hour, yet it felt as if it were just a handful of minutes. The following are a few of my favorite questions and responses paired with a few comments in compliment:
What is the life story that has made you who you are?
My faith. My husband is a cancer survivor. We enjoyed life and seized the moment.
What was your first job?
First, outside babysitting job, was working at a restaurant. I stepped in and helped friends by hostessing. This was my introduction to the food and hospitality industry — through high school on to the first part of college.
Turner served in multiple restaurant hospitality positions from hostess, to serving tables, to managing.
With a smile and passionate conviction Turner shared, “Working in a restaurant is probably one of the best jobs for high schoolers because you really learn to multitask and experience the whole customer aspect of working in restaurants, like multitasking. So much going on, so much to remember that requires your memory and being able to jump in to intense situations from the customer perspective you’re there to help customers to enjoy their time.”
I loved the story Turner shared about when she went for her first accounting job interview. The interviewers didn’t want to hear about her industry-related experience in accounting, they wanted to hear about her restaurant experience.
In my 4 Pillars of Success workshop, I teach that the most important value of leadership is adding value to others. Turner’s service industry experience exemplifies this pillar.
Turner shares that her restaurant experience taught her the values of service, how to initiate a conversation, how to talk with someone to resolve conflict, how to handle situations under pressure and how to smile through it at the same time.
What are some questions that you ask yourself as a leader?
How can I help others? How can I as a leader help them do their job and help them empower their teams [and] use my position to help them so that we can be most effective?
My true desire is that you hear the power in Turner’s response as to what she asks herself as a leader — leadership founded by way of a “service heart.”
Morgan Hill resident Diana Wood is president and CEO of Wood Motivation, a certified independent John Maxwell Team coach. Reach her at [email protected].
