In honor of Mother’s Day, here’s some advice my mother might give if she was part of your management team.
“We get what we expect from people. The worst thing I could have done as a mother is to lower my expectations of my children. Instead, I taught them how to achieve more. As leaders, we should do the same with our staff.”
“I worked well in to my seventies because I loved the people I worked with. As a matter of fact, I still help out there every now and then. The effort you put into building a great team and being a great place to work directly impacts your sales and customer experience.”
“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Never underestimate the power of being nice to your staff, your customers, and even your competitors. By the way, you’re still being nice when you expect more from your team.”
“Leave work on time to be with your family. There’s always time to do paperwork and other tasks, but you’ll never replace the time you missed with your spouse and children.”
“Most people’s day doesn’t go as planned because they never had a plan. Invest the first 10-15 minutes of your day mapping out how you and your team will exceed your customer’s expectations and be wildly successful. By the way, that’s not a to-do list. It’s an action list for the staff to put into practice with their customers.”
“Lack of accountability leads to problems at home and in your store. If you tell a teenager to be home by 11pm, but there are no consequences when he doesn’t walk in the door until 11:30, you can be sure that next weekend he won’t be home until midnight – or won’t come home at all. Accountability is a good thing, especially when it comes to delivering a effective and memorable sales experience.”
“You can’t pick your family, but you can most certainly pick your employees. Hiring is one of the most important things we do to create or impede our success. Your mother probably told you not to be picky about what you eat, but you need to be incredibly picky about who you hire. I like to hire people who really want to work at my store.”
“Chase your dreams. William James once said that most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they have a second. He also said that when you give your dreams all you have, you will be amazed at the energy that comes out of the effort. Are you chasing hard enough?”
“Thank you for reading Doug’s Retail Contrarian blog. I had to listen to him for his first 21 years and it just about wore me out. I appreciate you helping me out.”
“Happy Mother’s Day.”
Signed, Aura (Doug’s mother)
