90% of their time on the sales floor!
Randy went on to say that the unit managers at Ralph’s do little to no administrative work.
Let me repeat that
Unit Managers did little to no administrative work
They just stayed on the sales floor taking care of their customers and their associates while keeping a watch over their business.
This is exactly what we have been asking you guys to do - so we have the code to get to 70% or above…we just have to execute it - put it into play!
This is a culture change too and I asked Randy how can we change this. I said our guys have been very successful managing their business - their stores the way they been managing and we’re asking them to change.
He said it all comes down to how you receive your gratification from your job. He said many of us receive our gratification from working hard - busting our butts…putting in long hours…working 6 to 7 days a week…and when we get home we are like, “Whew…I worked hard today, this week, the month…. I am really good at what I do.” Many of us are like this and we receive gratification from being able to tell these wars stories to our spouse, our friends, our co-workers - to anyone that will listen. We work hard!
But then Randy went on to tell a story about himself and I do not believe he would mind me re-telling it. He said when he was a young store manager he worked hard and ran a good store…ran a really good store. He said his DM came in one day and they were talking and Randy said something like, “I have a very successful store here.” And the Dm replied, “You will never make the kind of money you could be making and you know why? It’s because of the way you manage.”
Randy was appalled.
He ran a great store.
The DM continued, “You order the bread, you order the milk, you are on the Front End - you are everywhere in your store handling the tasks. You are working so hard you are forgetting to lead.
You are working so hard that you are forgetting to lead
And your people are going to let you continue working hard if you let them.”
Wow
Randy said that conversation was the game-changer…the cultural changer for him.
His DM was right…Randy was working his tail off but was not accomplishing all that he could. Randy had failed to step back and look at the bigger picture - he couldn’t because he was working so hard.
Managers…and Department Managers - are you working so hard that you’re forgetting to lead?
Why?
Perhaps you are going to say that the rest of your team can’t do it. Well…Randy’s DM would reply to that with, “Because you have been working to hard to lead and develop your team.”
We must develop our team to handle the job in front of them. And guess what? Our team wants to be developed to handle the job in front of them. They want to be able to Make it Right for our customers.
We just have to let them.
We have to get out of the mindset that the physical labor is more important than the mental labor - the planning, preparation, development, and follow through.
This is what we need to do to create an environment that allows for success to happen in our stores.
Change your mind - change how you look at your store and your job.
I was listening to a leadership podcast the other day and these two CEOs were talking and they said something interesting. They first said that it is a myth that history repeats itself. They said in business, history never repeats itself and you either change or you’re dead.
We are being asked to change…to change how we view our jobs and what success looks like
We are being asked to trust…trust our people to make it right for our customers.
We are being asked to lead…to lead in ways that are different than how we’ve been leading but in ways that will make us more successful than ever.
We are being asked to Make It Right
Make It Right for ourselves
Make It Right for our teams
Make It Right for our customers.
And we can do this…by just changing your mind…
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