Retail leadership: the number of books and articles written on this topic line the shelves of bookstores business sections: mostly by non-retailers.........mostly by academic types.
There is supposed to be something magical about it:..........
You need courses to learn how to do it..........
Often military leaders are pointed to as examples of leadership:
men follow to their deaths: they believe so strongly in the message of the golden leader.
And of course the argument comes up whether true leaders are born or developed.
My first day on the job as a store manager I asked my district manager what advice he could give me to be successful and he replied: Do Business.
Do Business.
Thats the same direction he gave everyone. He never said another word. Never gave another minute of training. Because at the end of the day: thats all that counted.
Many of you will remember good old Phil Gardiner from Windsor: of the now defunct Rizzo and Rizzo: Belinda and Brother shoe store chain.
Some said he was tyrant: others were shocked at his tactics.
Phil was known to arrive at your store: look at the numbers and tear the store apart.
Phil was known to look at the numbers during a sidewalk sale and walk across the street and ask the first person he saw to come over and try on shoes.
Phil was not shy: He put money in the till whatever way he had to do it.
Anyone who worked for Phil never forgot him.
His leadership by example was simple:
Sell things. Make money.
But even earlier than Phil I worked as a teen for the US Shoe Corporation:
headed by Bernie Gutman.
One day out of the blue Bernie walked into our new store. Not knowing who he was, when he headed for the stock room, I, at the bold age of 17, asked the President of the worlds then largest shoe company for identification. Lol........
Bernie picked up a shoe box and pointed to the coding system:
(years before bar codes:)
and explained the numbers and what they meant.
Simple: each number stood for a letter of the alphabet: and all 10 letters spelled out:
MAKE PROFIT
DO BUSINESS: MAKE PROFIT
Two fantastic leaders: two simple retail messages.
The Goal of the Game.
Thats really all you need to know to be successful in retail.
Thats all a leader has to communicate to his staff: the goals of the game called retail.
Both of these men lived and breathed these goals: it was their identity.
They were happy if that is all you remembered about them: Do Business: Make Profit
How you achieve these goals:
well thats open to debate:
innovation
customer service
pricing
creative visual merchandising
Doesnt matter.
The strategy of how to best play the game can be taught.
The mental mindset of living the goals is another thing.
I am from the school that believes the fire in the belly for retail work is inborn.
It cannot be taught.......
anymore than you can teach a true retailer to be happy as an accountant crunching numbers in a cubicle all day isolated from others.
That internal fire: the love of the game: the get up and go to achieve goals day after day: the thrill of the deal: or the sale
thats natural.
Retailers are sprinters:
they love daily races:
they love contests
they love challenge
and crave victory
Your staff has it or they dont.
You cant "leadership" your way to making them love the game of retail.
I always cringe at the words: How do you Motivate your staff?
Are you kidding? If you have to "motivate" retail staff:
then you have the wrong staff.
Its more often: How do you manage retail staff who always want to win and race and never do the daily and necessary grunt work of stocking, etc.
All the best retailers want to play the game at full force:
they hate slow sales days
they hate no challenge
It doesnt matter if they are in head office merchandising roles or on the sales floor:
The Deal: making the Deal: closing the Sale: thats what they live for.
Because its their nature. They race because they are racehorses.
Leadership as social work doesnt belong in retail. What belongs in retail is an entire team of racehorses: Nordstroms is the perfect example of hiring racehorses.
Best Buy is a great example with their policy of Results Only.......for staff.
its a policy of "we wont manage and motivate you"
You do that yourself:..........and the results will speak for you.
Get the job done: You are accountable to get the job done: whatever way you can........whatever hours you need: few or many: whenever you feel the time is right:.....you pick your own hours.
A smart policy of hiring true retailers has given Best Buy fantastic productivity results. So staggering in fact: this policy of not managing and leading: just hiring right: they want to find a way to implement it into store level as well.
Because the "leadership" message is: Do Business.
Thats all the leadership you need in retail. Do Business: make profit.
No comments:
Post a Comment