The Power of Words

I was reading on my work's social media site the other day and came across a post from an associate who was the target of some harsh, unfair and unkind words from her supervisor.  I read through some of the posts that this associate had shared throughout the year and found a seemingly upbeat, energetic, loyal person.

Why the harsh words from her supervisor?

It has made me really stop and think about the power of words.

If you are in a supervisory role - and we all are in some aspect of our lives - we must pay attention to the words we speak.

They hold more power than what we think.

A seemingly innocent comment can be taken as very serious and potentially crush an individual.  Am I being too dramatic?  Can our words really CRUSH an individual?

Yes

Very easily

They can certainly crush the motivation right out of a person.  They can crush the loyalty out of a person.  They can crush the desire right out of a person.

I have often counseled that it's not our main job as a leader to motivate people. Nope - most folks come in wanting to do a good job.  They are excited about starting something new.

Our main job is to not De-Motivate

Step one for this job is to know the power of our words and choose them carefully.

This is hard to do but with practice it becomes less hard.  I say "less hard" because I haven't mastered it yet and probably never will but as long as I am aware...I have a shot at success!

As for the associate mentioned above - many reached out to her through the social media site and I know she is going to be ok.  I believe you get what you put out into the world.  She puts out positivity.  She is going to be fine.

Cart Valet

Below is a picture of a store associate, Ellis Sentoso, from a Ralph's grocery store.  You do not even have to read anything about her to notice the

ENERGY
&
EXCITEMENT

pouring from her.  She is (literally) a picture of the perfect customer service representative.

AND THEN YOU READ THE CAPTION!

WOW!

I found this on the social media network that we use at Kroger and I thank Adam Williamson for sharing it with the entire company.

Now I'm going to go try to find a Ellis Sentoso for my store!

Huddle Talk - Attitude is the Difference

Make Customer Service a Hobby!

And there is very little difference between our competitors and us but that little difference makes a big difference and that big difference is

OUR PEOPLE!

And to keep this big difference we must have a

POSITIVE ATTITUDE!

And that Positive Attitude will lead us to

GREAT SERVICE!

The way we keep our customers and make new customers is through the FANTASTIC service we can and must provide.

When I hire people for my store I do not look at experience at all.  I couldn't care less if the applicant has worked in a grocery store or a retail environment before.  I just want to know if they have

ENERGY

EXCITEMENT

POSITIVITY

EEP - Energy, Excitement, Positivity

(reminds me of an old Jetsons cartoon where Jet Screamer sang a song "Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah means I love you" click here to see the song performed)

EEP means the applicant will LOVE putting our customer first!  EEP is born through and can only exist with a

POSITIVE ATTITUDE!

The attitude you bring with you will determine if you have success, if the store has success and if the company has success.

Attitude is the BIG Difference!

A Nice Reminder...

"Fixin to About to"

“Fixin’ to about to clean up my room!”  

These words were the answer from my daughter to the question 

“What are you doing?”  

I had to laugh!  

"Fixin’ to about to…”  

I’m getting ready to get ready to do something!

Talk about procrastination!

She was about 6 or 7 when she said this.  She is now 25. I have thought a lot about her statement over the years.  The reason I have thought about it is because we hear a version of this statement just about everyday, either from ourselves or someone else in our life. 

“Fixin’ to about to…” 

“I need to do that.” 

“I am planning to do that.” 

“I was just getting ready to start.” 

“I am going to do that someday.”

What would happen if we quit “fixin’ to” and just did? 

Some might have the excuse that they do not have time to do everything they want to do.  But just think – by doing you are slowing things down, scratching things off your “to do” list.  You will not have to worry anymore about having to get things done

You’re Doing Them!

I am a firm believer in taking action.  I think planning is important but too much planning can become paralysis.  You will never have enough time, you will never have enough money, you will never have enough help.  As Seth Godin says, "You have to ship."

It is amazing what will happen if you…just…do…it.  (Thanks Nike!) Take action even if you believe you might not have enough of this and that.  Taking action allows you to have control over your life.

“Fixin’ to about to…” means you have no control…

I Wonder...

I wonder what this day will bring

I wonder who I will meet today

I wonder what I will learn today

I wonder what I will experience today

I wonder what I will love today

I wonder what will be planted in my soul today

I wonder...

Overall Satisfaction, Out of Stocks and Snow!

Whew...

We made it through another Snowpocolypse and then an earthquake.  We kept our store open the entire time and served each customer that came into our store in a friendly manner.

It was fun!

The customers appreciated that we were open when our competitors were not.

Our Overall Satisfaction score TANKED

Why?

Out of Stocks

My first reaction was to get upset and fuss a little bit.  Didn't the customers understand what we were going through - that we couldn't get trucks, that we set a record sales day, that we couldn't get people into the store?

Yes, I think they did understand this.

What I wasn't understanding is that they still wanted what they wanted and were not going to be

HIGHLY SATISFIED

without being able to purchase what they wanted to purchase.

This has taken me a few days to reconcile in my mind but it makes perfect sense now and it really demonstrates the direct connection between out of stocks and OSAT and that is our lesson!

So...

This experience has made me more determined to attack our out of stocks and

ELIMINATE THEM

It took two snow events to make me understand this fully.  Both times our OSAT score dropped tremendously.  While I will probably not be able to prevent out of stocks during the next snow event I can certainly prevent them on a daily basis during our normal business patterns.

Give the customers what they want when they want them...

Can it be that easy?

There's No Business Like Snow Business!

Wow!

What a week...and what a Team we have in Loganville, Georgia.

For those of you who read this blog from somewhere other than Georgia you may not know but we had a big snow/ice event here this past week.  Snow and ice sort of shuts down roads here in Georgia and it creates an urge to go shopping for food in the days leading up to the snow.

It's quite a phenomenon!

About 48 hours before the event hit we had our 2nd biggest sales day EVER in our little grocery store.  The two days surrounding this HUGE day were also very big sales days.  It was the biggest three days EVER for our store.

Then the snow and ice hit!

Everything stopped

well almost...

People still wanted their cigarettes and beer.

It was a little unbelievable the amount of cigarettes we sold on the day of the snow/ice.  Seemingly everybody that came into our store - which wasn't a huge amount of people - purchased cigarettes.

The power of addiction in action.

I want to thank some folks who really put in some time during the event.  I arrived at the store Tuesday afternoon and did not leave the store until Thursday afternoon.  A few other people did the same thing:

Joe Worman

John Darnell

Ricci Turpin

These guys were absolute

WARRIORS

A couple of other guys put in a lot of hours and their dedication allowed our store to remain open as they were able to run our front end operations:

Donnie Veado

James Richards

And we were able to keep our Pharmacy open the entire time because of

Carmen Sezonov

and

Steve Barnett

This was significant because there wasn't another pharmacy open in the area.

I like to give a shout out to a couple of other guys.  These guys are part of the younger generation that everyone says is lazy and shows no loyalty.  Well these two guys

Kiminzki Flint

and

Marcus Gregory

Came in when called and helped us out tremendously.

Two guys came in as well in kept our Meat and Seafood department going...

Tracy Flannery

and

Tim Harrison

And Jim Grey came in early on Wednesday and made our store so fresh and so clean!

All in all it was a great week and we came through it well.  When the rest of the store's associates were able to thaw out and come into work they did and helped us rebuild our shelves so we could take care of the Valentine's Day customers.

It was a truly wonderful sight to see and proved yet again how great the entire team is here in good ol' Loganville, Georgia!

Thank you guys for everything!  I won't say it was fun but it certainly was rewarding.

Something to just enjoy!

This has absolutely nothing to do with Kroger or business or leadership but...it's cute and funny.  Actually there might be a leadership lesson in here somewhere about not being scared of your shadows...or perhaps beware of shadows...or...nevermind...just enjoy!

Director of First Impressions

I heard of this title given to a receptionist at a big company.  As soon as I heard these words…

Director of First Impressions

I said 

WOW!

Those words…that title struck me like the proverbial

Ton of Bricks!

Director of First Impressions

It says so much to me.  

We have said numerous times in past conversations that you only have one time to make a good first impression but what do we really do about it?   

Do we change our behavior?

Do we change our team’s behavior?

What would happen if we we had a Director of First Impressions in our operation?  

What impact could this person have on everything?

That person could inspect our parking lot and make sure it is giving a great first impression for anyone coming to visit our place of business.  The would inspect our foyer and make sure it is inviting.  They would notice the dress of all our associates and make sure that it presents a neat, clean appearance.  They would notice everything because you never know where a customer will have their first encounter - their first experience in our store.

Now...

What if 

EVERYONE

was the 

Director of First Impressions?

EVERYONE would inspect our parking lot.  Everyone would inspect our foyer.  EVERYONE would notice the dress of our associates - and themselves.  EVERYONE would notice...

EVERYTHING

The Director of First Impressions

I like it

I LOVE IT

I think I will take the position

Will You?

The Rent Axiom

Success is Never Owned; It is Only Rented and the Rent is Due Everyday

This is a great mindset and it comes from Rory Vaden, author of the book Take the Stairs.  He also suggest you can replace the word "success" with other things like "A Happy Marriage, " "Weight Control, " etc.

A Pep Talk from Kid President to You

You may have seen this before as it has been out awhile but it is and will always be

AWESOME!

The Lost Art of Punctuality

I was reading Steve Keating's blog and came across this little nugget.  We all deal with tardiness issues at work - shoot in our personal lives too!

I like the line, and I am paraphrasing, where he writes about when someone calls another to let them know that his own time is more important than theirs...

I have always said that tardiness is laziness...it can be fixed if you want to fix it.

Enjoy the read!

http://stevekeating.me/2014/02/02/the-lost-art-of-punctuality/

Huddle Talk - Ladies and Gentlemen

Huddle Talk

Make Customer Service a Hobby!

“We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.”  

This is motto of the Ritz Carlton Hotels.  

What a great statement this is for engagement.  

If we see ourselves as Ladies and Gentlemen does it change how we hold ourselves?  Does it change our body language, our spoken language, our walk, our dress, how we represent The Kroger Company, everything we do?  

Of course!

In viewing all of our guests as Ladies and Gentlemen does it change how we see them, how we treat them, how we engage them? 

 Another…Of Course!  

They cease to be just customers and become our guests and our friends. (This ties into the previous Huddle Talk about “Help People, Make Friends, Have Fun”)

So, when you are feeling a little run down during the week, energize yourself by figuratively placing your top hat on your head if you’re a gentleman or your long white gloves on for you ladies and then take a lap through your store greeting your guest in the most proper manner. 

It’ll change your mood instantly.

We ARE Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.

Huddle Talk: Help People, Make Friends, Have Fun

Dillanos Coffee Roaster's Mission Statement is "Help People, Make Friends, Have Fun."

Very Simple

Easily Understood

Perfect

If we live up to this mission statement - even though it's not ours - I believe that everything else that has to do with business will come together and we will be successful.

Help People - if we work together and take care of each other both as co-workers and as associates serving our customers then the sky is the limit.  If we approach work with the mindset that we are going to help people and keep this mindset throughout the day just think of the things we can accomplish...too often we get so caught up in our own tasks that we forget or worse make the conscious decision to not help others.  This is sort of like the opposite of "pay it forward" as the next person decides to "not help" as well and so on...and so on...  This is definitely not what we want.  Help People...everyday...

Make Friends - Too often people will say, "I'm not here to make friends I'm here to get the job done."  Hmmm...why can't you make friends and get the work done?  I know I like working with my friends.  It makes work more fun which leads to the last part of Dillanos Mission Statement...

Have Fun - we spend soooo much time at work that if we're not having fun then we are going to be miserable!!!  Again, some people will say, "Work is work.  It ain't supposed to be fun."

WRONG!

Dillanos have grown their business by living this Mission Statement.

It works!

Just something to think about...

(www.dillanos.com)

Snow Angels!

We made it through the snow event that occurred here in Georgia!

The weather is always interesting in Georgia.  I have often heard that if you don't like the weather just wait fifteen minutes...it'll change.  This was very true this past week.  Snow and ice, temperatures in single digits on Wednesday.  On Saturday I'm sitting on my deck with my feet up drinking a beverage while grilling some steaks.  As I type this the temperature is sitting in the high 50s.

We made it through the snow due to some GREAT folks that work at the store.  They braved the conditions - mostly ice on the roads - and came into to work to take care of our customers.

Let me present our Snow Angels!

Pat, John D., Ricci, David, Elijah, Donnie, James, Kiminzki, Lisa, Tabitha, Linda, Mandy, Savannah, Jessica, Andrew, Jo Jo, Jailyn, Devin, Teresa, Denise, Mark, Ellie, Steve, Elie, Lindsey, Aaron, Jill, Monique, Greg and Becky

It was a FUN day and a day full of ENERGY!!!

Thanks Guys!