Mentorship Research Outline

MENTORSHIP PROJECT 1

Mentor Project

William Silva and Employees – Act Fast Delivery Inc.

Kyle Weitzel

Leadership and Development

Dr. Ramirez

12/1/2014


William Silva and Employees – Act Fast Delivery Inc.

About Fast Act Delivery Inc. - What they do - Introduction

Act Fast Delivery is a smaller, yet very unique company in the courier field. They operate

with 33 offices in 14 states and differentiate themselves from their more ordinary competitors

simply, yet intricately, which is landmark to their success. Unlike big brand courier companies

such as UPS or Fed Ex., Act Fast not only delivers their clients packages to a particular address,

but the exact room, office, building, area, at the exact time, minute, second their clients desires it.

As a smaller company they have the ability to narrow down and accomplish this timing

technique. While their competitors only deliver to basic addresses, Act fast counters their

business in local areas, and has the ability to build life long, and fruitful relationships with their

clients.

At any given time there are 60 plus drivers, consisting of both dedicated workers and stat

drivers, a courier term for employed drivers that have a particular route and work at any time for

the company. Act Fast is engaged and working in many different industries where their services

are needed. Some of the more particular industries they are currently involved with in the Coastal

Bend include, but by no means limited to dealerships, hospice, banking, and natural gas and oil.

The following bullets below give more detail about what Act Fast is concerned with in those

industries:

Dealerships (Particularly Parts Departments) OEM – Original Equipment

Manufacturer, drivers located at dealerships as well

Hospice / Nursing Homes - Medication, medical supplies, body parts, organs,

specimens


o Example - Large hospital - impacting people’s lives. Presents a very

rewarding feeling

o Handling with care ( Important to allow for trust in your employees)

Banking/ Mailing – Checks, return checks ( Courier level charter plain unloads bags in

san Antonio, fly’s back to Corpus Christie and loads up again) Fast Act Deliver Inc.

Handles the transportation of those checks and letters from the bank to the air station.

Natural gas/ Oil industry – The cost of not having a particular part their operation needs

is far greater than the cost of replacing it and getting it shipped directly where they

need it!

Their primary market channels are simple, yet effective. Act Fast builds off of existing

accounts where they are needed or could be of further use. They acquire accounts through very

ordinary and traditional methods, Craig’s list, business to business word of mouth or reference,

newspaper ads and posts, or even a simply leaving a business card with existing or promising

contact. What they do for their clients, going beyond the scope of expectation, and delivering a

quality service, is what make Act fast so successful.

I have had the honor of working with and observing one of Act Fasts valued employees

who operates in the Coastal Bend and surrounding area. Mr. William Silva, a veteran in the

company, has served as an employee for 14 years, and has been in Corpus for little over 4 years

now. He started with the company as a driver at the very bottom and has made his way to

regional manager from Victoria to Three Rivers, gaining quite a reputation for locating issues

that others struggle to in troubled offices.

William mentioned his start as a young manager working San Antonio, his home town,

under a regional manager who was something like what William has become to me. William was


told to shadow his mentor, but keep quit and practice listening. At the time Williams mentor, the

son of an owner of the company was pursuing something the company had never undertook, a

large freight operation into and out of San Antonio. This was his, “claim to fame”, although a

costly one. When performance was poor, William was there to buckle up, and lay it down. Will

investigated the possibility that the offices pay out was too much for their operating income, and

the operation collapsed.

In an interview with William, he did not have to explain his leadership ability, it was

evident. A strong speaker and intelligent mind; Will has the ability to understand issues and

think them through logically. A manager of 5 administrative employees within his office, and

over 60 plus contracted drivers, he has his work cut out for him. Yet, in an intelligent effort to

accomplish his goals he deploys his employees strategically.

Amber. Amber is pleasant young lady, with a kind demeanor. She is nearly a client’s

first impression of Act Fast as they enter the office. She works as a dispatcher for Act Fast’s

clients. Their clients reach her when they call, and she effectively communicates the client’s

needs. Amber has lived in Corpus her entire life. Before working for William she was a

warehouse manager at Automation for 5 years which confirms her knowledge of automotive

parts department.

Not only is Amber a valued employee at Act Fast Deliver, she is Williams’s treasured

wife of three years; together they have a 5 year old and a 6 month old. When Amber was asked

about their home life she was hesitant but answered truthfully explaining that William was a

strong home leader who gets his points across carefully. She disclosed that William was a very

smart man, and was able to speak with people very well, a characteristic she found she did not

necessarily possess but admired in William.


Cathy.In a short interview with Cathy it was evident that she was very playful. It was not

hard to conclude that Act Fast Delivery was a thriving environment for her as many of the

employees have this same personality. Cathy has worked for Act Fast for 4 and a half years now

and says her experience has been wonderful. She works for William as a medical stat driver with

the dedicated route for Wells Fargo in many surrounding cities. She added that Wells Fargo only

ever speaks to William, when there is a major issue, a delegation and privilege that William

allows most all of his employees.

Cathy really enjoys William as a friend and employee. In her 4 and a half years working

for him she confidently admitted that she has never had an issue with him, a statement she

summed us as, “if your do right by William, William will do right by you.” When asked if there

was anything she liked or disliked about working for William, she explained that obviously in

the industry you will have fast and slow days, which brings pay fluctuations as well. On the flip

side, there’s quit a bit of down time which allows her to run errands and get her work completed

without too much stress, which William allows to happen.

Victoria Salazar. Victoria is a strong women, with a firm conduct that reflects in her home

and work life, a trait admired by many. Early in the mentorship while discussing William’s

employee, he mentioned that Victoria was something like a “right arm,” in the operation. She

started in the company in 2012, and has now climbed to an office manager in April of 2013.

When asked what she does, she basic remarked, “What don’t I do,” In a savvy voice. To

conclude, she does the hiring, firing, replacement, interviews, and oversees administrative duties

as well.

As a driver she gained valuable knowledge, which has landed her the responsibility of acting

as a sort of liaison between William and his contracted drivers. In many ways William and


Victoria do not always see eye to eye on ideas, but this only confirms the strength of their

relationship at work. Victoria explained that she admires Williams go getter attitude and how

knowledgeable he was in the industry. However, She did not necessarily relate to his big heart,

which she remarked could get in the way of business at times, a statement she laughed about

playfully shortly after.

Although with this said, for some reason William has to kick her out because she stays late,

which indicates that she values hard work and punctuation, just as William does. With a 16, 14,

and 2 year old she still has aspirations to go back to school and pursue her dreams of becoming a

special education teacher. She continues to stay because Act Fast Deliver in her livelihood, she is

surrounded by family, and the environment and people help her stay agile.

Role of Heredity – Family

Early in the mentorship William disclosed a fair bit of information about his family and

childhood. Growing up in San Antonio with his mother, father, and older sister, William was the

youngest of the family. William spoke highly about his parents. He mentioned that he watched

them as a kid and how they struggled but prevailed, even as Mexican nationals. Through

language barriers, culture differences and raising 2 kids, he admired their courage and

determination to gain a better life for their family, a quality William has certainly possessed

himself. Heavily influenced by his parents, William has sought to do the same with his family.

He has aspirations to stay committed to his position at Act Fast by becoming a part owner in the

company. Later in the mentorship he disclosed that the reason he would like to pursue such an

accomplishment would primarily be for his son, something he could pass down to his successor.


William attended high school in San Antonio and later attended Saint Phillips College to

study restaurant management. A chef by trade, he mentioned in his interview that Act Fast was a

very unexpected step for him. Prior to Act Fast he worked for another courier company called

Nobel Logistics as a deliverer, where he gained quite a bit of knowledge in the business.

Although he has pursued his career in the business, he constantly relates that it is never too late

for another experience, and could possibly seeing himself going back to school to earn that

degree.

When asked about his goals we discussed sales. William has never gone down in sales, a

performance anybody could be proud of. In short, his goal was to eclipse $300,000 in sales

monthly. Once he noticed the impression he had left, William opened up by reviewing trends and

a very impressive client sheet with me. For the long run becoming and owner of the company

would be a pleasure for him. He expressed his concern with becoming an owner, something he

had been going back and forth in his head about for quite some time.

After a brief discussion, the question on how William changed or developed over years to

get where he was now arose. The ability to listen effectively, having patience, proactivness, the

ability to start analyzing, discovering future issues, and reading were just a few of the qualities

he rattled off. William supplemented this with his interest in Zig Ziglar and his exceptional

leadership advice.

Personality – ESTJ

Early in the mentorship. William was asked to take the Myers Briggs exam. It was

discovered that William was an ESTJ. Effectively, the components consist of Extroverted,

Sensing, Thinking, and Judging. This makes William a sort of overseer, because he is very


aware of his external environment. Although they live in a world of facts, and can be very

concrete, they are very dutiful, and energetic about life, community, and family. They are very

self-confident and because they are have a clear vision, they very much like to take charge,

which comes naturally.

Some of their strengths include dedication, strong willingness, being direct and honest,

loyalty, patience, reliability, and great organizational skills. On the other hand some of their

weaknesses include being inflexible and stubborn at times, being judgmental, difficulty relaxing,

and trouble expressing emotion. Some of these characteristic were noted more than others, some

were not prevalent at all although somewhat out of the scope of the project.

What was noted though was many of the positives of an ESTJ personality. William was

unmistakably a likable guy. He was funny and very good at speaking publicly and openly with

others. William was very direct and honest about his feeling. Although he never tried never to

overstep his boundaries, it was understood by many of his co-workers that he had a tendency to

be direct and straight forward. Another great characteristic was the fact that William was in fact

very organized and planned well. Organizing his drivers, managing and auditing his accounts,

and organizing his employees in a fashion that would enable them to bring something to the table

was very impressive.

Later in the mentorship there was a bit of fun to be had with the Myers Briggs test.

Williams’s wife, Amber took the exam. They laughed about the similarities and disagreements

between their personalities, which was interesting to watch especially after knowing them for

such a short period of time. There was also a plan to administer Victoria the exam. There was an

increasing interest in acquiring Victoria’s personality because of the many disagreements

between Williams and herself. This was also amusing because Victoria was known to have a


very aggressive and passionate personality which would have been interesting to see what the

Myers-Briggs exam could uncover about it.

Organizational Culture models - Hall’s Culture context –

Act Fast Delivery is very much an environment with built around trust, strong

relationships and open opinions. The administrative employees, a few which were listed above

certainly reflect the atmosphere. Many the employees know each other very well, and thus feel

very comfortable confronting one another about their concerns. Although with this said, there is

a certain aspect of accountability that takes place. While each of them are very confident that the

other will do their job, it is important to be punctual to avoid making a major mistake from

leaving a minor detail out that is so crucial to what they do.

For this aspect, it was appropriate to include Hall’s culture context. Hall’s culture context

model

“divides communication styles within cultures into two groups: high and low context” (Hall,

1976; Hall and Hall, 1990). William in particular has a very low context form of leadership

communication. He is very specific about what he would like to see, what he expects from his

employees, and his needs, and can express this very well. The business depends on this in fact.

One miscommunication can lead to delivery not being made, or late, or even forgotten which can

escalate very quickly into a regrettable issue.

The flip of this is that Act Fast is very much a close community within themselves. They

know very much about how one another will react, what they expect, and how they are feeling.

This is a great source of the high context nature of Hall’s model. Just by observation, within


themselves it was evident that an expression is just as communicated as a flat out, “yes,” or “no”,

which was always very interesting to watch.

Culture and Charisma

William very much has an aspect of charisma to him. A very natural speaker, honest and

intelligent about his surrounding, he is able to inspire people through conversation. At one point

in the mentorship, William introduced me to a video he thought might interest me called “Sold

one of the best door-to-door salesman ever”. He explained that in sales, which is primarily what

Act Fact does when they acquire an account, is not always about the facts, it’s about personality.

A great portion of the time, the product is the personality.

William on Power

William did not seem like a power hungry leader, but as the boss he made demands. He

seemed very lenient, but driven to accomplish the job and control his company financially and

strategically. French and Raven’s Sources of Individual Power is a great model to explore

because William possesses a fair bit of each form of power listed.

For example, William had a clear legitimate power, it was understood that he holds the

position of Regional Manager. His employees respected this, never once was there a question

about it, very direct. William also had the power to reward, or punish his employees. William

was primarily in charge of the accounting function of Act Fast Delivery at his location and

region. Many times, after asking what he was doing, he would respond, “tightening up the

books,” or something along those lines.

For example, William is currently faced with the issue of an escalating payout that he

would like to diminish. He had to make decisions whether to cut employees pay as a result of


abuse of time. Williams’s particular task was to analyze each route, measure their performance

and evaluate whether to cut pay, or let slide because that particular driver had a greater value to

the job. This form of power extends into the form of positive coercive power where William has

the ability to punish as well.

At one point William was considering outsourcing the function to another company who

could give him access to contracted drivers at a lower cost. Many decisions like this were made

constantly for the betterment of the company. William explained that, “a lot of this just comes

from experience, the only thing that can trump that is knowledge.” This is a strong example of

Williams’s expert power. After all, William has spent 14 years with the company doing every

function, learning every skill, and being successful to add.

The last form of power is that of referent power. Referent power, is “based on a person

attractiveness to a friendship with others” (Nahavandi, pg148). As explained earlier, reference

power is a big part of the culture at Act Fast that makes them such an effective team.

Williams Leadership Style

After researching Williams’s tendencies, character, and personality, the next thing to do

was to tie it to a leadership style that was discussed in class. Examining some of the examples

and stories that were discussed throughout the duration of the mentorship, along with simple

observations really made a huge impact. As a manager William does possess the tendencies of

transactional leader. As a leader on theory in particular had many great comparisons to that of

Williams. It was Bernard Bass’s Transformational leadership theory.

There are three key factors that transformational leadership theory revolves around.

These are charisma and inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration.


William has had great success in taking existing offices and turning them around. He mentioned

an example of a friend who he once introduced to the company who now runs her own operation

in San Antonio. He admires here practices and how she has completely transformed the

operation by coming in with her own ideas and crafting a dysfunctional office into an enterprise

that has taken on more than it ever has before. Business is about change, adapting to issues in

your environment and prospering through those changes, a piece of advice William summarized

in 5 words, “Learn, Adapt, Apply, Lead, and Prosper”.

The first of the three elements, charisma and inspiration is unknowingly how William

reduces resistance to change between his employees. He has a strong relationship with his

employees, one that encompasses loyalty and respect above all throughout changes. The

employees around him are family, close friends, and people who admire him for his knowledge

in the industry. He also stressed the importance of surrounding yourself around people who

revitalize you and bring new ideas to your business, what he termed as, “drafting a team”. This

is what has triggered the idea of intellectual stimulation, the second element of transformational

leadership.

Intellectual stimulations is how a leader motivates their followers to come up with new

ways to solve problems, encourage them by empowering them with responsibility, and challenge

them. In an interview with William, the general question of how William motivated his

employees was asked. Williams’s response began with one word as he liked to do,

“empowerment”. The ability to delegate a task to an employee with trust is a very valuable tool

in a manager’s arsenal. He admitted that someone could micro-manage their employees, but why

not give them something of their own because without it there is no creativity. With every

employee interviewed there was a commonality amongst every one of them. Between Act Fast’s


clients and William there was a buffer, themselves. Only if there was an issue that could not be

resolved immediately, did they need Williams’s assistance.

The last of the three elements is that of individual consideration, or how a leader develops

a personal relationship with each one of his followers. This was very much prevalent in

Williams’s leadership style. William matched each employees according to their skills and

abilities to the needs of the office. When ask about his employees William explained his

reasoning for brining each one to Act Fast.

For example, William brought his wife to Act Fast delivery not only to be closer to her,

but also because she has had extensive experience in automotive parts management. When

Victoria was asked about how the employees operate within each other, she admitted that

bringing in Amber was a great relief for her on the administrative and customer service side.

Victoria was drafted because of her wide knowledge of the contracted driving positon. As

mentioned earlier, she handles most of the interactions between William and his drivers in order

to avoid miscommunication or bias, and to help counter any disagreements or changes in the

relationship. William cleverly made another connection. With Victoria’s background as an

aspiring teacher, this was a major advantage for Act Fast in training their employees.

Cathy brings a very valuable personality to Act Fast. She has had much experience in the

courier industry and possess a very likable personality. Customer service is becoming a huge

function of business that really separates the good from the great. For Cathy, this is natural. In

an interview with her, she mentioned that her customers get angry when another driver shows up

on her route. Over time, their customers begin to except and expect those relationships, and

apparently Act Fast has done and exceptional job at maintaining this competitive advantage.


Conclusion

William is a live, existing example of this form of leadership, and it is proven in his

work. The ability to take an opportunity and transform it into something that thrives through

existing resources, personnel, experience and knowledge is a gift that many people have, yet lack

the means to do so. Starting with the conclusion in mind, transformational leadership is how

intelligent minded people make a living and see that their dreams become a reality. Whether

given the opportunity, finding an issue in need of transformation, or creating something from

nothing, we are all given the chance to be our own transformational leader. The notion that keeps

transformational leadership afloat is that one must teach, as well as learn from others.


References

Nahavandi, A. (1997). The art and science of leadership (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Mentorship Research Outline

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