We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Anecki a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
What my parents did right, would be that they successfully co-parented me and my older siblings with love, respect and open-mindedness. Society calls a family of divorce a ‘broken’ family but that’s not my story. My parents were able to put their differences aside to focus on their three wonderful children. I can’t speak for my older siblings because they may have remembered a time of when they were together versus separated. However, my upbringing is what allowed me to broaden my horizon from knowledge to experiences. I remember applying for colleges my senior year of high school and the advice my dad gave me, “Don’t settle for a degree, if your not interested in a topic anymore, change it. Don’t worry about the time or money spent, this is your life, this is your education, this is your forever.” That advice allowed me to unforgivingly take a wide range of courses in my college career to really pinpoint what I was interested in. I took accounting, art history, political science, biology, medical terminology, forensics and psychology classes but graduated with a BA in Anthropology. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the degree, and I honestly didn’t know what jobs would even be out there. So, I browsed the job postings and nothing was catching my attention. I pondered my college experiences and thought back to the classes that had me excited to attend. Turned out, it was the science/medical based classes. Did I really want to pursue another degree? When I spoke to my mom about advancing my education, her advice was, “The one thing you will take to your grave that no one can take away from you is your education.” I took that advice and ran with it, where I received my MS in Biotechnology. I started as a Blood Bank assistant, moved to a technologists, now I am currently a Blood Bank Supervisor, with the motivation to become the Manager and then eventually become the Director or Chief Operating Officer. Right now, my life is full of love and joy with my husband and child (with another on the way). I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the support and advice I received from my parents growing up.
Ashley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
A Medical Technology specialist perform high compexity testing in transfusion services, located within a hospital setting. Blood work is vital for diagnosis and treatment plans, working closely with medical professionals and other laboratory staff to ensure a high level of efficiency and safety in our operations. We conduct the necessary testing on blood specimens, such as: blood typing, antibody screening, and compatibility testing. We collaborate with healthcare professionals to provide consultation and support in blood bank related matters. I enjoy the fact we support, help and impact the patients life behind the scene. We treat every patient as if they were our family member to ensure they receive the same attention, care, and accuracy that we would want for our loved ones.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Managing a team is not a ‘one-size-fits-all,’ you will have multiple personalities that you will need to adjust to. People learn differently, they receive constructive criticism differently, they receive praise differently. As a manager, you will have to identify how each individual receives news in order to enhance their performance and capabilities and allow them to become their best self, inside and outside of work. We would love to have our employees stay with us forever but you have to treat them and train them as if we are sending g them out into the world to do bigger and better things. Investment in our employees is an investment in our work.
Maintaining high morale is difficult, but the easiest thing is coming into work with a positive attitude and an open-door policy. I keep communication open and I will not lie to my employees. That allows them to feel safe to come to my office and vent or express their concerns, which also makes them feel heard and understood and boosts their morale in the workplace.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
I don’t think I would choose the same profession, only because if I’ve already done it then I know the outcome. I would want to see what else I could accomplish.
