Today I want to start off by talking about frustration. A frustration that comes from feeling like you are doing your best and yet this thing we call the grocery business is weighing you down…bending your shoulders…straining your back. You have so, so many things you are concerned with and so, so many numbers you have to make.
You are on two, three, four or more conference calls during a day asking you about OSAT, Green Half hours, Labor, Out of stocks, salesplans and other metrics.
You receive dozens upon dozens of emails each day asking you for this, giving you information about that…you need to enter interview times, we need you milk prices, where are your schedules, your hours…oh crap I forgot the fuel check.
You are trying to accomplish a mountain of things each day and your help is in seemingly short supply…I had call-outs, eschedule only scheduled me one person during this time frame…I only have 2 co-managers and one is on vacation.
It can be hard…
It can be tough…
It can be defeating.
We worry about shrink, we worry about sales…we worry about visits, we worry about sanitation and we worry about safety.
It’s a ton of stuff we are responsible for when we are running a store…a department.
It can be defeating.
Are you defeated?
I hear a lot of frustration when talking to store managers. I get it…I understand.
We all want to be successful. “Just give me the tools and I will be successful” I hear many say.
I get it
I understand
It can be defeating
Are you defeated?
Or do you take action…take control of the moment?
By taking control of this moment and then the next…it makes the next moment easier.
Then you take control of that moment and the next and pretty soon the moments are less frustrating and they become less troubling…less defeating.
As you take control your main weapon becomes your mind…your thoughts…your plans. You start to think clearer and options…positive options start to appear.
You are able to find ideas…and see results.
This stokes your competitive fire and soon you are attacking shrink, safety and those green half hours become something that is a challenge instead of a anchor around your body of your front end …around your store.
And OSAT…oh OSAT…it is a fun challenge…a puzzle to be solved…a perceived impossibility just as human flight once was…but we know different now. We don’t just look at numbers anymore…we look at behaviors and action. Action is the key word here…action - the word - implies motion…drive…it is making stuff happen and since we are in control we make stuff happen the way we intend…and not the way of the unintended.
We step forth with full confidence that we control our world and we will make it happen because we are not feeling defeated…we are not defeated.
We’re competing…
We are competing on a stage that we are in charge of and that will bend to our will…our desire…
Frustration gets us no where except into the depths of further frustration and despair. Action…confidence…taking control…planning…leading…achieving…
That is where our purpose is found…this is where we want to be…
So make today the last day of your frustration. Throw it away…stomp it to nothing. Grab control of your thoughts and by doing so grab control of your world…and your store. Know that you and your store team have the ability to achieve anything…everything…
Go make stuff happen today…compete…and win…and the victory is the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.
So go out there…take action…make stuff happen.
You are not defeated…you are just getting started.
