"Last year my team lead noticed I was not following her preferred method for preparing certain dishes. I trained under her when I arrived at the company, but my experience extends beyond what she taught me. As a result, I developed my own method to help me prepare the dishes faster.

She was upset that I went rogue and asked me to return to doing things her way. I respected her as the team lead and I immediately honored her request until the end of my shift and then asked if she was free to talk. I explained I had not changed things out of disrespect and that I was taking the opportunity to use skills I had gained under previous employment. I apologized for not coming to her to discuss it first and asked if she would be open to my sharing the details of the efficiencies I was able to make.

My team lead listened and was open to my ideas. We set up a time to talk again and ultimately developed a new method that included several of my ideas while maintaining the integrity of pieces of the process she felt very strongly about. In hindsight, I learned that it would have been better to discuss my ideas first before deciding on my own to implement them, but I am grateful that a calm, respectful, and positive approach worked out to serve the team in the end."