Victoria Gill

I attribute all my success to the team I work with here at Weiler Abrasives. I've been very fortunate to work with a great group of individuals on my team. They're so loyal and dedicated. They come in every day with a good work ethic, and it's just been my honor to work with them. Throughout my career, I've also been blessed to have excellent mentorship, particularly from my manager Justin Palys, who I've worked with for a long time. He's been a terrific mentor with an open-door policy, and he's always been someone that if you get stuck, you can always go to him, and he'll help you get unstuck. The best career advice I ever received was from Carl Weiler, who taught me to be a good listener and to not try and interject my thoughts or feelings when someone is speaking, but to allow them to share what they want. In continuous improvement, when someone says they're having a problem with something, that's usually a flag that goes up that says here's an opportunity to make an improvement.

The best career advice I ever received came from two important mentors in my life. Carl Weiler taught me to be a good listener and to not try and interject my thoughts or feelings to someone, but to allow them to speak and share what they want. When it comes to continuous improvement, when someone says they're having a problem with something, that's usually a flag that goes up that says here's an opportunity to make an improvement. My father also gave me invaluable advice many years ago to always look ahead at the next step in your career that you want to go to, and start preparing for it while you're in your current career. All those experiences and opportunities that you learn throughout your career, it all leads you up to where you are today.

My advice is to always look ahead at the next step in your career that you want to go to, and start preparing for it while you're in your current career. While I was here at Weiler, going through being a maintenance mechanic, a machinist, a tool maker, then a supervisor, and then continuous improvement team supervisor, all those experiences and opportunities that you learn throughout your career, it all leads you up to where you are today. I want to pioneer a little bit for other women who may not step up into some of the fields that I did. Some other women might say, yeah, I'm not going to go to machine shop one, machine shop two, or do a welding course, or learn about hydraulics, or do a tool and die apprenticeship for 4 years. But it is an opportunity for women to get into fields that are outside their comfort zone. I've always found that when something is uncomfortable to me, that's something I want to challenge myself to do, and do well, and take away that uncomfortableness. Don't be afraid to step into non-traditional fields like machine shops, welding, and tool and die work.

One of the biggest challenges in continuous improvement is making sure that the solutions you want to implement are going to give you the return on investment. Sometimes you'll try something, so we always say, if you're going to do it, try it and fail early. Because if you put too much time and effort into something, and then it fails, you've wasted all that. You want to make sure that what you're trying to do is going to make that improvement that you need, and that improvement is going to give you back the return for what you've implemented. On the opportunity side, I see tremendous potential for opening doors for other women to enter non-traditional fields. There are opportunities for women to get into fields that are outside their comfort zone, like machine shops, welding, and tool and die apprenticeships. I want to pioneer a path for other women who may not have considered stepping up into some of these fields.

The values most important to me center around being a good listener, having integrity in my work, and maintaining a strong work ethic. I believe in the importance of allowing people to speak and share what they want without interjecting my own thoughts prematurely. When someone comes to me with a problem, I really enjoy trying to help them find the solution for it, and the satisfaction I get when I've made something better for them, made their workday safer, easier, and more productive. Seeing how they're satisfied with the resolution and how it's made things better for them gives me satisfaction. I also value continuous growth and challenging myself. I've always found that when something is uncomfortable to me, that's something I want to challenge myself to do, and do well, and take away that uncomfortableness. Working with a dedicated team is incredibly important to me. I've been fortunate to work with loyal and dedicated individuals who come in every day with a good work ethic. I also believe strongly in the 3C philosophy at Weiler: advocating for the customer, the coworker, and the community, because if you advocate for those three things, you will be good stewards of the business.