Do you want to learn about working in the port of Houston?
Do you want to know what skills it takes to be a great manager?
Then stay tuned as we interview Chris Morgan, the Terminal Manager at a Materials Handling Company.
By Set on a Hill
HOUSTON, TX- In life we have the opportunity to choose others over ourselves. We can either choose to leave those we love behind for an upper management position that may be more impersonal, or we can choose to carry other and their worth as a priority. Chris Morgan has exemplified a selfless, hard working lifestyle at work and with his family.
Chris grew up in a single parent household in the 70s with a hard working mother, who knew how to expose her children to opportunities at an early age. Chris began his first job at age 7, yes age 7. He was paid by his mom, who worked at a convenience store and he earned about $1 per hour. At an early age, he got the opportunity to work with people who were older than him. Chris says, “At that age, the world is in front of you. You still believe anything is possible. If you learn at that age to deal with different types of people, it made it easy when I got older to work and manage people older than me.”
That is just what Chris did. After ambitiously getting his drivers license at age 15, he worked as a waiter in high school and earned money for himself. He got his license so early because he applied for what is called a hardship license. That means, if your family shows need for a younger child to drive, they are granted the opportunity to apply for a drivers license earlier than age 16. At age 17 Chris graduated from high school and got a job at Radcliff, which is a Road materials plant. At Radcliff he moved up from a Truck driver to Plant Operator where he lead other men who were 40 years old. He never felt inferior to anyone, and felt like he was treated as an equal. Chris attributes his self-esteem and attitude toward adults from his early experience at the convenience store.
Chris moved to a Marine Facility where he continued his material handling experience. He then got a job opportunity at a larger Material Handling Company, where he moved up the ranks from Heavy Equipment Operator to Office Manager. The skills he used in this job was math. He had to determine the weight of each load on each side of the truck to make sure each truck was ready and safe to transport on the road or through a waterway. Through his hard work and experience he became a Terminal Manager where he set up a material handling plant to serve a still mill nearby. Chris chose to continue to assist other locations in his company with their operations as a Terminal Manager. “It is hard to find someone with the business knowledge and the plant knowledge to be a good Terminal Manager. Once you find someone for the position, your company will do their best to keep you,” said Chris. Chris enjoys working with people instead of choosing to move to a higher management position. He didn’t want to lose touch with his employees, as he enjoyed serving their needs as they served his department. “Sometimes in a higher position, you can lose touch with people, and it becomes more about numbers. But as a Terminal Manager, I have a great job where I get to serve and be served in a cohesive team environment, ” said Chris.
Early on as a Terminal Manager, Chris had to set up the new business venture for his company from scratch, serving an entirely new customer base for his company. They built new warehouses, he had to take on a Human Resource role and hire 80 people, and he had to handle all customer complaints and inquiries. He was pushed to his core, but he always put his customer first. “I lived by the motto, the customer is always right,” says Chris. Putting the customer first always worked out in the end for Chris, because when it came to talking to his boss, his customers ONLY had good things to say about him. Again, we can see here, that Chris chose to put others first instead of himself.
During his career, he found his one and only wife, Ann. During one of his work trips to Illinois, Chris chose to invest in his wife’s education and worked to allow her to finish school, instead of going to school himself. He chose to postpone his education in order to focus on his family. He and his wife paid off her student loans and Chris says it was the best investment he ever made in his life. He has seen the return on his marriage, on his work life, and on his joy. Chris is now an established Terminal Manager and is finishing his degree at Lamar University after taking care of his wife and children. He believes in education, but also believes in putting others first. Chris is a great example of how education is often a family decision and many times it can be a great investment for a family.
Do you have any questions for Chris? Ask them below.
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