Bench

Bench is an interesting word used in management. Its definitions from the Dictionary are: a long seat for several persons; the quality and number of the players of a team who are usually used as substitutes…and so on. In any type of retail, it’s your back up to a manager. Any manager. Plain and simple. I recently read a quote that stated, “You are not a leader until you have produced another leader who can produce another leader.” These words should be EVERY manager’s mantra. Especially if you want to call yourself a “successful manager”.

Sure, having a strong business with positive comps is successful. Having a repeat customer is considered successful. Having beautiful window displays that draw in new customers is successful. Having over 10K followers, as a business, on social media is considered successful, but how are your teams?

Over the years, I have been incredibly lucky to work with some amazing and talented individuals. Many have gone on to be pretty special themselves. Nothing has made me prouder than to watch a new hire move up the ladder (this you have heard before). I have prided myself in the ability to observe a passion in someone and exploit it. I value the ability to recognize people’s strengths and push them to be the best version of themselves. This has never come easy. People need to have the desire to become a better, stronger version of themselves and YOU as their manager need to be able to assess these characteristics and develop them. Your sales team may not even know that you are doing this and that makes it even more special when they wake up and determine their own strengths and abilities. You need to be tough, direct and expectant of confrontation. To challenge is to not make friends, but to make leaders.

Asking questions of your team needs to be an ongoing theme in your life as a manager or owner of a small business for that matter. Getting to know your staff through conversation and observation are the key to their development. You need to look for another you. Someone to take your place someday. How are they with customers? Make sure they are scheduled peak hours on the sales floor. How are they with new hires? Schedule them to train on the first day of hire. How are they with store standards? Schedule them to do visual sets. How are they with organizing? Maybe they have a love of shipment processing. What do they want to do with their lives? Why did they take the job? These are just some questions you should be asking. Questions you should know the answers to and schedule accordingly.

In my opnion, managers today are getting lazy. Managers today are selfish. Managers today are missing the point in regards to what leadership is. Managers today are not being trained to make themselves a better leader. Managers today are lost without direction. Managers today are the future of business. So why aren’t they being invested in? Why aren’t your teams a priority? Remember why you were hired in the first place?

Something to think about. During your next TB or store meeting ask the questions. Ask your teams what THEY need. You’ll be surprised to know…it’s just you.

The Domino Effect

Tenure. It’s an amazing thing. There is nothing in the world like having a team that sticks around. As a manager or business owner, watching your people grow into roles is probably the most rewarding trait of being a successful manager. At least it was for me. Nothing made me prouder than to watch someone grow from a part timer into high level. How this happens is what I like to call the domino effect.

Your store is a breeding ground for amazingness…if you allow it. Some leaders don’t like seeing others succeed. I always found this odd, but I understood it. People fear strength. It’s true. Some managers like to keep people at a certain level to control them. This is a hard fact to consider, but it is something those managers need to recognize with in themselves. This can most certainly lead to losing good people and spread negativity like a cancer through the store. Your business’s environment is what YOU make it.

It all starts out with hiring. Are you hiring the right people? You should be looking for certain traits when interviewing candidates. Traits like motivation and belief in abilities. Starting at the part time level (we will get into interviewing later). When they’re hired, you are constantly observing and recognizing strengths and opportunities. As you adapt your training to match their abilities, you start to see potential. It is when you start noticing that same individual share your training and philosophies with others that the domino effect begins. When people feel empowered, supported and challenged they stick around. It makes the 4-walls more fun to work in. After all, when we spend most of our time in our businesses shouldn’t we WANT to be there? Shouldn’t there be a purpose to why we work long hours? Shouldn’t there be a positive reason to show up to work every day?

Not every person you hire will stick around. It is usually because it wasn’t just for them. Retail is hard. Some will have opportunities doing something else. It’s a free world. There are many choices for everyone, but always ask yourself…did you do everything in your power to make an impact on that person? Maybe you turned a shy seller into a top seller. Maybe you taught someone to become more organized. Maybe you impacted his or her thinking which in turn allowed them to open-up and become a better person. Believe it or not, you have the power to make these things happen. Just don’t ignore the one’s that got away. Look inside yourself and determine the whys.

Do you have any stories, experiences or comments? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Be A Chameleon

I love chameleons. They are such a unique species. As their skin adapts to their environments they are camouflaged from predators and invisible in nature. They are beautiful and interesting. All of you should adapt the idea of being a chameleon as inspiration to do the same.  Not that you need to hide from predators or blend into your stores’ or business’s environment, but you need to be able to reach several different types of people on many different levels to accomplish the same goals. These goals are success in business and a tenured well-rounded team.

Every person you manage or work side-by-side with during your career is unique. They look different from you, grew up in various environments from you and their approach to learning is unique from yours. So why would you ever try to train them and manage them all the same? These are some of the most frustrating things to hear from employees. “My manager just can’t communicate with me “.  “He/she just doesn’t get me”. “I wish my boss would just listen to what I have to say”. “I don’t understand what I am to do and I am afraid to ask questions”. Now I am not perfect, I have heard many, if not all of these examples directly, but I learned from them and forced myself to take the high road and become a better version of myself.

Going back to the previous blog “Know Your People Before You Manage Your People”, you have spent some time observing. You have seen how they handle customers, peers and tasks. Now you can start developing them. Remember, no person is alike. You must adapt your training mindset to that of the individual. Some like to take a lot of notes and some like to memorize through observing processes. Some hate technology and some are computer wizards. Most people are passive in new situations and need a lot of positive reinforcement to gain confidence. Others believe they know everything and really take offense to fresh ideas. All of this can be frustrating when running a business and it is easy to take your frustration out on your people. It doesn’t have to be. YOU need to adapt! You cannot be a strong, successful leader if you don’t.

Your employees look to you for guidance. It is important that you prove to them why you are in the position you are in. Ask a lot of questions and make sure what you are communicating is clear. Maintain an open mind and be open to learn something yourself, your management style and your temperment. That is the best part. Learning from your people. It challenges you and keeps the open communication flowing. Maybe it won't work on everyone, but don't give up. If you can develop just one person to be a better, stronger, well rounded individual then next time you can develop two people. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about? The domino effect gives any manager or business owner a sense of pride.

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….