Know Your People Before You Manage Your People

Have you ever been told when starting a new management position or getting promoted that you should just fire everyone and start fresh? Yeah, me too. My response always has been…” we’ll see, let me see what I can do first.” I have always been a believer in the philosophy of know your people before you manage your people. It wasn’t always that way, in fact, I learned it over the years. As I grew, so did my management skills and my management style. Both took on a life of their own. Whether my bosses liked it or not. I don’t think that, nor do I believe that people can’t change. I believe people WANT to be better. I believe people can be whatever they want to be if they have the right tools to get there. Tools can mean training, stronger leadership and positive store environment.

Being a store manager or any level of manager for that matter means you should be an observer first, developer second and then and only then can you decide whether a person fits the mold. If you don’t understand your people, how can you manage them? If you were promoted into the position, you already have a basic grasp of who each person is, how they respond to each other and how they learn. But now they work for you so you need to tread carefully as this adds a new dynamic to the store. If you enter the business as a new manager, especially new to the brand, you have big shoes to fill. There is a lot riding on your shoulders. You were brought in there to assert change, drive results, and breathe life into a store. This is not an easy task and to get there you need the support of your team.

Observing may sound simple enough, but it takes patience and time. You need to sit back and watch each member of your team in a variety of circumstances. You have-to let them make mistakes without interfering. You need to learn how they handle different types of situations. From these observations, you can determine how to develop. I usually observe for about a week. I try to schedule myself different shifts so I can experience the store during different parts of the day and the team interacting with different people. After observing, I like to meet with everyone. It could be all at once during a manager's meeting or what I always liked to do was talk to them randomly one-on-one when it wasn’t planned. The goal is to listen, ask questions and develop a rapport. This will start the process naturally and give you a fresh outlook.

Development comes next. Stay tuned for what I like to call being a chameleon….