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High Point University > Access to Innovators > Former Chick-fil-A V.P. Mentors HPU Business Students

Former Chick-fil-A V.P. Mentors HPU Business Students
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Feb 21st, 2022

Former Chick-fil-A V.P. Mentors HPU Business Students

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High Point University welcomed Dee Ann Turner, Talent Acquisition Expert in Residence and Chick-fil-A’s former Vice President for Talent, back to campus on Feb. 16 to mentor business students. She spoke to entrepreneurship majors in the Belk Entrepreneurship Center.

HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 21, 2022 – High Point University welcomed Dee Ann Turner, Talent Acquisition Expert in Residence and Chick-fil-A’s former Vice President for Talent, back to campus on Feb. 16 to mentor business students.

Turner spoke to several groups around campus, including the Principles of Management and Organization Behavior class, where she shared a special presentation titled “Creating a Culture of Care.” She also held a Q&A with entrepreneur students in the Belk Entrepreneurship Center and recorded a podcast with HPU student and L.I.F.T. Fellow Madison Drobny.

Dee Ann Turner 3
Pictured is HPU student and L.I.F.T. Fellow Madison Drobny interviewing Turner for HPU’s Access to Innovators podcast.

In the Q&A microsession, Turner offered three pieces of advice for students as they begin their careers.

  1. Responsibility: Take on a new project. Step in to take on more work if someone has left. Do whatever you can to take on additional responsibility.
  2. Competency: Take advantage of all the training opportunities. If your company doesn’t offer that, do it yourself. Go home at night and take an online course to add more skills to your resume.
  3. Results: In any interview know the expectations of how to be successful in that role. On the first week of the job, ask your supervisor for clarity on what it takes to be successful. You can’t achieve the results if you don’t know what’s expected.

Turner also shared a key lesson she’s learned about the idea of work-life balance.

“Don’t achieve balance, achieve presence,” Turner told students. “It’s a hard lesson to learn that no matter what, you will never achieve balance, but you can achieve presence. If you’re working, be present there to the fullest extent that you can. If you’re home, the same thing applies. There were times at my kid’s game when I was on my phone texting and they knew that I wasn’t paying attention. This concept of being present I learned much later.”

Dee Ann Turner 2
Turner spoke to several groups around campus, including the Principles of Management and Organization Behavior class pictured here.

Students asked Turner insightful questions throughout the day, such as how to navigate unexpected challenges in one’s career.

“As she answered our questions with examples from her lived experience, I felt like I was reliving it and learning the lessons with her,” said Kema Leonard, a sophomore from Greensboro, North Carolina. “For anyone hesitant to follow their passions in their career, Turner is living proof that, yes, it can work. And as a student entrepreneur, that is much needed encouragement.”