Career Growth at Energizer Holdings – A Chat with Rassau Plant Manager Becky Mathers

Sitting at a desk adorned with just about every Armor All product you could imagine, we recently sat down with Rassau Plant Manager Becky Mathers to talk about her career path at Energizer Holdings. She'll celebrate her 19th year with the organization this November, and she’s progressed from a part-time receptionist in 2004 to leading our U.K. Auto Care facility.

What advice would you give you someone starting out in their career? I’ll keep things simple – think of where you’ve come from, where you are now and where you want your career to go in the future. This perspective can help shape what you do and how you go about managing your career.

What has been key to helping you progress and succeed in your career so far? One core thing is that you should always build relationships with people throughout your organization. It’s good if you can really get to know people who truly understand the business so you can pick their brains and ask lots of questions so you can keep learning and growing. ?

What’s your definition of success? Right now, success means that everybody goes home safe and happy at the end of the day. If you have the opportunity to help somebody out or make their day in some way, do it. We all go through tough times, but as long as we’re there for each other that’s what counts. ??

Is there a key personality trait leaders should have? We’re individuals who are made up differently, so we’ll each have to figure out how our traits will work well as leaders. And it’s important to know that we’re not always going to get it right – but we learn and make adjustments based on different situations.

So how do you manage when things might be a bit tougher than you’d like? The colleagues here are so special; it’s these people that make you smile and help you figure things out when you might be overanalyzing a situation. People here reassure each other while you their commitment and dedication. There’s always a sense of “we can do it together” so we know there’s always a way forward.

What makes you excited about your current role? This role is challenging, reward and exciting all at once. I have lots of interactions with the team around the globe, and we get the chance to collaborate on different projects. And to see those projects, that work, come to fruition is great. I’ll also say it’s incredible to be able to promote individuals from within our team and see where their career is going and progressing.

Have there been any mentors or role models in your career that really stand out? My late mother is my inspiration. She’s the person who told me that if I wanted something, I could go and get it. She told me to always believe in myself.

In work and in life, things don’t always go as planned. How do you manage? I struggled with this for many years, with failure being something I didn’t want to accept. In recent years, though, I’ve realized that if I try my best and our team here has done everything we can, then we can view problems as opportunities to learn and grow together.