Huddle Talk - Let's Hear About Greatness!

Everyday when we get to our stores we hear stories. 

Stories about many different things like the time the guy came in at 3:00 am wearing a dress and carrying a ferret.  Stories about how the night stock crew reached their targets.  Stories about how we do not have enough hours. 

Stories, stories, stories, stories, stories. 

Now,  if you were to make a list each day of the stories you hear and then divide the stories into two lists – one a list of positive stories and one a list of the negative stories, which list do you believe would be longer? 

Yup…the negative list.

Why is that?  Well, misery loves company.  People love to dish dirt.  It’s fun to talk about others.  However, what do these stories do to your store, your people, you? 

You know the answer.

What if we focused only on the positive?  What if the only stories we hear are about the great things that occur in our stores each day?  What if we share these stories with other stores?  Can you imagine the impact this would have?  Talk about engagement! 

We could transform our stores into palaces of positivity! 

This positivity will breed more positivity and more and more and more.

Easier said than done of course but it is an easy process to begin…just start it yourself. 

When you talk with folks, keep your conversation positive.  If you have to speak about “opportunities” your store has, frame these conversations in the positive.  “We have a chance to build business, teams and relationships and all we have to do is engage our guests and each other more often!  Help me come up with some ideas on how we can accomplish this and inspire others.”  It’s that simple.

Create an avenue in your store to celebrate the greatness. 

We have communication boards in every department.  Perhaps add a section on these boards called, “Greatness!”   Then you get to communicate as often as you would like the great things that happen in your store – in each department of your store.

We can’t let the minutia of the job keep us from celebrating the good things that happen everyday.  You cannot put a dollar amount on promoting the goodness.  Try it and you will see the energy in your store go up, the productivity go up and your store will become an even friendlier place than it is already.

Dilbert on Leadership

Dilbert

• Sun, Mar 9
  

Bean

Happy!

Andrew Carnegie

I have two parts to the blog today.  The first part is from Seth Godin and the second part is just from little ol' me.  Both parts reference stories attributed to Andrew Carnegie

From Seth Godin’s blog…

 Losing Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie apparently said, "Take away my people, but leave my factories and soon grass will grow on the factory floors......Take away my factories, but leave my people and soon we will have a new and better factory."

Is there a typical large corporation working today that still believes this?

Most organizations now have it backwards. The factory, the infrastructure, the systems, the patents, the process, the manual... that's king. In fact, shareholders demand it.

It turns out that success is coming from the atypical organizations, the ones that can get back to embracing irreplaceable people, the linchpins, the ones that make a difference. Anything else can be replicated cheaper by someone else.

(http://sethgodin.typepad.com/)

Part Two of this Blog Post...

Mining Gold

I want to tell you a little story I heard the other day.  

Back over 100 years ago a reporter asked Andrew Carnegie – one of the first industrialist our country ever produced...

“You have 43 millionaires working for you.  How did you attract 43 millionaires?”

Carnegie replied, “They were not millionaires before they worked for me.” 

The other man said, “Wow! Well how in the devil did you develop 43 individuals in such a way that allowed them to become millionaires?”

Carnegie stated that you develop people the same way you mine for gold.

You move loads and loads of dirt to get to the gold.

You also must remember when mining for gold that you are not looking for the dirt – you are focused on finding the gold!

Everyone on our team has gold within them.  There may be a lot of dirt in the way of the gold but it’s there.  It is easy to get distracted by the dirt but if we focus on that dirt where is the benefit?  Where is the benefit to the team and where is the benefit to the individual?  There isn’t one.  However, if we focus on the gold and what it will take to get to it, well…there’s a lot of benefits there! 

Develop people the way you mine for gold.

Don't Drain Motivation

(Thank you to @LeadershipFreak for sharing this photo)

My Job

I have often been asked...

What do you do?

I usually reply that I walk around and try to look like I know what I'm doing and hope that nobody notices that I have no clue.

But...

That's only partly true.

When asked again I reply that...

My job is to create an environment that allows for success.

Then, if asked for clarification I answer...

My job is to take an egg, incubate it, hatch it and help it grow into a fully formed, well-rounded being...be that the store...the associates...the team.

My job is to create a village...a community center...that just happens to sell groceries.

My job is to tweak the thermostat of the store keeping it at the perfect temperature to allow everyone to have an environment that allows them to do what they do...turning the temp up or down as needed.

My job is to be careful not to de-motivate the great people we have - starting from the 1st day courtesy clerk to the 40th year produce guy - and give them the tools they need to be successful then get the heck out of their way and let them do what they do.

My job is to trust.

My job is to build and strengthen the bond between the store and the community.

My job is to create a culture of energy, excitement, achievement and service.  Service to both our external and internal customers - and each other!

My job

is to

Create an Environment that Allows for Success 

(and then walk around and look like I know what I'm doing!)