As I worked with a regional chain one particular store manager's name seemed to come up in conversation after conversation. She was able to consistently hit goal although the chain was having some challenges. She rarely kept an assistant manager for more than a year because they were always promoted to run their own stores. I scheduled some time to talk with her so I could better understand why she was so successful while the chain itself was sputtering.
This woman was an absolute delight to talk with. Her passion, energy, and humility were amazing. She loved her job, her staff, the company, and most of all her customers. I figured that if I could learn what she does and how she does it that we could integrate that knowledge into the other stores.
When I asked her for the secret to her success she laughed and said, "There's no secret. No fancy theories." Then she told me the key to her success. And she was right about it not being a fancy theory or super secret. It's actually quite simple. She said, "All through the day I just keep asking myself if there is anything else I can do, and then I do it. That's all there is to it."
She explained that this simple approach guides her throughout the day. If sales are slow she figures out what she and her staff can do to make sales happen. She doesn't blame store traffic or stock outs; she takes action on what she can control. The most interesting part of our conversation was when she talked about coaching and developing employees. She always asks what she can do for the employee's development - and then she does it. Obviously the key to the high number of employees who are promoted from her store is due to the actions she took in their development.
For the next few days all I could think about was what she had said. "All through the day I just keep asking myself if there is anything else I can do, and then I do it." As simple as it is, that really is the key to success. Success comes from being responsible for your own outcomes and taking the appropriate actions to achieve them.
So let me ask, is there anything else you can do today and are you going to do it?
And by the way. . . .
Someone tried to tell me the other day that he tries to balance positive to critical feedback for his staff by a 5-1 ratio. So they want to praise someone five times for every one time they give them some critical feedback. I believe my response was, "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard" although I could have been even more blunt. There is no magic formula. We need to praise people when they deserve praise and give them feedback when we can help them improve. Some employees will get more praise than others because they've earned more praise than others. One of the biggest impediments to staff development is a manager who confuses constructive feedback with being critical. Employees can't improve unless we tell them how to improve. Skip the ratios and just keep the praise and developmental feedback flowing. If you care enough about your people that's really not hard to do.
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