Last week I described the top five things the retailers I've worked and engaged with in 2009 learned and developed throughout the year. I hope you invested the time to identify your top five so that you can leverage them in 2010 and beyond.
But as I noted last week, it's just as important to see where you fell short, maybe missed an opportunity, or didn't take action when you should have or could have. I know a few people won't look at these shortcomings because it makes feel like they failed.
I think it's only a failure when you don't address areas that need improved. Call it a delayed reaction! It's all perspective isn't it?
So here are the top five things the retailers I've been engaged with this year need to improve on as they move into 2010.
1. Be more strategic in how they run their businesses. While this is true for both high-performing and struggling retailers, it's vital for those stores who aren't doing as well as they hoped. I still see too many companies that are in a slow death spiral and no one is working a well-defined plan to reverse it.
2. Address a major problem that is having a negative on the company and results. Most of the time this is a person, and sometimes it's a family member. Problems rarely go away on their own, no matter how much you try to avoid them or sweep them under the rug. It's not fun to deal with people issues but the pain of not dealing with them is a whole lot worse.
3. Become more aggressive in capturing and using customer contact information. Maybe obsessive is a better word. If you're not obsessive about building and adding to a customer database, you're not maximizing your opportunities and leaving money on the table.
4. Hold people more accountable. Way too many managers and owners let employees opt out of what are supposedly required activities and behaviors. If there's no accountability and consequences then those behaviors and actions are not required, they're optional. Rewarding and recognizing people is also important to maintaining high expectations and high performance.
5. Continue to challenge the staff to become even better. At the end of every month (or quarter) you should be able to review with every employee how he/she has grown and developed. A lot of people do this with under-performing employees, but they don't always push the good or great employees to become even better. It's amazing how great people can be if leaders encourage and lead them.
What about you? What can you learn from in 2009 and do better in 2010? Again, I encourage you to write them down and share them with someone else. Even more important, determine what one or two actions you'll take on each one to ensure you create the success you deserve.
So let me ask, as you close the books on 2009 are you ready to parlay that into an extraordinary 2010?
But as I noted last week, it's just as important to see where you fell short, maybe missed an opportunity, or didn't take action when you should have or could have. I know a few people won't look at these shortcomings because it makes feel like they failed.
I think it's only a failure when you don't address areas that need improved. Call it a delayed reaction! It's all perspective isn't it?
So here are the top five things the retailers I've been engaged with this year need to improve on as they move into 2010.
1. Be more strategic in how they run their businesses. While this is true for both high-performing and struggling retailers, it's vital for those stores who aren't doing as well as they hoped. I still see too many companies that are in a slow death spiral and no one is working a well-defined plan to reverse it.
2. Address a major problem that is having a negative on the company and results. Most of the time this is a person, and sometimes it's a family member. Problems rarely go away on their own, no matter how much you try to avoid them or sweep them under the rug. It's not fun to deal with people issues but the pain of not dealing with them is a whole lot worse.
3. Become more aggressive in capturing and using customer contact information. Maybe obsessive is a better word. If you're not obsessive about building and adding to a customer database, you're not maximizing your opportunities and leaving money on the table.
4. Hold people more accountable. Way too many managers and owners let employees opt out of what are supposedly required activities and behaviors. If there's no accountability and consequences then those behaviors and actions are not required, they're optional. Rewarding and recognizing people is also important to maintaining high expectations and high performance.
5. Continue to challenge the staff to become even better. At the end of every month (or quarter) you should be able to review with every employee how he/she has grown and developed. A lot of people do this with under-performing employees, but they don't always push the good or great employees to become even better. It's amazing how great people can be if leaders encourage and lead them.
What about you? What can you learn from in 2009 and do better in 2010? Again, I encourage you to write them down and share them with someone else. Even more important, determine what one or two actions you'll take on each one to ensure you create the success you deserve.
So let me ask, as you close the books on 2009 are you ready to parlay that into an extraordinary 2010?
It is indeed important to address the areas that need improvement. Companies should be able to correct the errors of the past and overcome them so that they won't repeat them in the future.
Posted by: POP Ed | January 12, 2010 at 11:55 PM