Store Management Effectiveness!There many topics that could be covered and if you peruse your local bookstore you will find books with pages numbering in the hundreds about store management. Most books on the subject would have us thinking that success in store management is akin to building a rocket. There are some very simple tools that can make the job easier which I have posted in Store Management Resources but our biggest asset is going to be our ability to be disciplined in our execution of some timeless principles. The methods I explain are not fancy and they certainly do not make a great sound byte on which to hinge a career. There are plenty of sites where extreme effort has been taken to make this topic as complicated as humanly possible. The are very good looking sites and are loaded with buzzwords. They are also easy to find because they are selling a lot of stuff. For marketing purposes many would have us believe the job needs to be complicated and the skills subtle. How is anyone going to get paid to tell you the methods if they are simple and not 'new' at all? Truth is the job is more about fortitude than footwork.
Some examples; -Motivating people to perform well is now 'employee engagement'. Under the tab 'People Management' I explain how the engagement of your staff is less about barbecues and motivational tricks than it is about removing the 'barriers to engagement'. No number of motivational speeches or tricks is going to make your employees forget that you are unfair, disorganized and moody. -Taking care of the customer is now 'customer centricity'. Heck, even Wikipedia redirects us to Customer Service. There is no tab for 'Customer Service' as taking care of the basics in the other four tabs will usually guarantee a quality customer experience. Some posts will address this as well but not so much from why the metric is so important. I will expound on how the basics can be executed with greater proficiency. -Quality control became the monster of profit 'six sigma'. A great product is produced by people who are 'engaged' in the production process. Go look at a law library for evidence that we continue to create less clarity when we attempt to 'spell out' every scenario. By making the process to business success so specific and complicated we have created less engagement, not more. Personal accountability has been an area of opportunity in the business world for some time and 'doing the right thing' is very rarely described but we do a fantastic job of spelling out exactly what can't be done. This philosophy creates the popular 'loophole'. The answer is not more rules but a philosophy of empowerment and trust! Some would tell you that they already 'trust but verify'. We do not verify because we do not trust, we verify so that we can trust. A classic oxymoron that your people see through immediately. It is this kind of terminology that can seriously undermine your credibility with your people. It insults rather than insulates. There are literally hundreds of buzzwords and there will be hundreds more so long as many people believe that the path to results can be made shorter by changing the words without changing the basics. Effective store management requires we keep it simple. You can make a career out of regurgitating buzzwords, I know a lot of people that have done it, but that is not effective store Simplicity is an art! Employee engagement was supposed to improve job satisfaction, among other things, and we all know how much better that got as soon as the new thought process rolled out. All we really did was start measuring it. Go to most stores and look for the 'employee engagement action plan' and you will not find it. If you do, it is not updated or followed through with. Customer centricity was supposed to improve customer service. If you have been to a big box retailer in the past couple of years you would think this 'new' process did not change a thing. Some of the biggest are really shouting the buzzword but they have the lowest customer satisfaction scores. New terminology is supposed to be a precursor to new behaviors, most stop at the terminology. Six sigma was supposed to reduce defects to 3.4 per million. Guess I was the lucky one to get all 3.4 defective products that cycle. This was a big money maker in the day when we were still had a manufacturing economy. Folks still flaunt these credentials and for good reason! They cost someone's company a bundle of money. Some recommended reading, below, if you enjoy books on leadership or management. It has been said that 'a great manager is always an effective leader but a great leader is rarely an effective manager'. I would agree, because I have said it many times. There are a lot of buzzwords in these books but I still loan these out the most.
What I am going to share are the simple and time proven methods that work. Make no mistake, I know technology has added a lot of tools and we need to use them. Truth is the concepts and strategies for success did not change. In all cases the new tools or words give a false impression that less effort is now required and causes the people who are responsible for the processes to relax for a bit or take their eye off the basics, which makes the problem worse. I am not keen on buzzwords (you have probably figured this out already) so if I use the term people management rather than performance management or people development, forgive me. I would have to write many extra pages to incorporate all the buzzword that mean the exact same thing. The communication of ideas is critical and not helped by changing the terminology all the time. Just to follow one company over 3 years with regard to customer service; first it was 'customer service' then it became 'customer first' then it became 'customer centricity'! All they got in the stores was a bunch of new signing and then a payroll cut across all stores. Customer service scores dropped and so did sales. They had fallen victim to the myth of improved productivity through new terminology. Technology can definitely improve productivity but terminology, alone, is a placating move to make it appear that something is being done. Many companies will continue to build monuments to new buzzwords in the hopes of greater productivity and change through less effort but they will save the pedestal for the next one. Stanislaw Lec made a fine observation of things. One of those observations is applicable to buzzwords! When smashing monuments, save the pedestals. They always come in handy. -Stanislaw Lec, 1909-1996
There are just a few, basic concepts, that we need to be great at to excel at store management; -Prioritization. What is first and rules we should follow in deciding. -Time Management. Being effective and creating more time. -People Management. Getting the most done through the right people. -Problem Solving. Effectively solving problems for good.
There are only a few tools we need to be great when executing these basic concepts; -Note pad or note taking device and pen/pencil. Check the posts page. -An effective filing system, electronic or paper. On the posts page as well. All the other mail and office supplies/applications are generally furnished by the company but I will make recommendations on the posts page. Store management is really very simple but requires a huge investment in personal discipline. |
