ASB Magazine

"Please turn off all electrical devices and fasten your seatbelt.

Look around for the exit door closest to you.

Blah, blah, blah blah ..."

Do you ever feel like your staff meetings have the dynamics of the announcements on board an airplane or ship? It’s important stuff that you’re saying; stuff your employees will wish they would have listened to, especially when it comes time to hand out bonuses or promotions. But during the meeting, you start to see that distant, glazed look in their eyes ... the glances toward the clock ... the whispers to each other. To be a more effective pilot for your business, you have to make sure your crew is on board with you, and that doesn’t only mean showing up on time and taking home a paycheck. Your crew members must be willing participants in your flight plan who are ready to go the extra mile for your business. The best way to get your crew on board starts at the top. Be a better captain, and your crew will follow.

THESE TIPS WILL GET YOU STARTED:

1. Give people plenty of notice before holding your meeting. Better yet, hold it at the same time every month (i.e., the first Saturday of the month, etc.). Attendance at at least one meeting a month should be mandatory attendance unless someone is on vacation.

2. Ask your staff if there are any topics, issues, or opportunities they would like to discuss. Remember, it’s a store meeting, not your meeting.

3. Have an agenda and stick to it. I’ve seen way too many store meetings either get off track or never really get started. Allot a certain amount of time to each item and then stick to it.

4. Have your management team and associates lead parts of the meeting. It is important that the store see your assistants in a leadership role during store meetings. I like to also have each store employee contribute at least once a year, if not more often, to the store meeting.

5. Start the meeting off with a positive message. Hopefully it is a discussion about sales but it can also be "happy" customer stories, customer experience or mystery shop results, etc.

6. Be sure the meeting is a dialogue and not just a download from you. This also means that you need to facilitate the meeting to keep it on track as well as ensure everyone is participating. Ask questions and engage those who aren’t actively involved.

7. Don’t let it become a gripe session. It’s amazing how quick a meeting can spiral down into a session complaining about a multitude of issues. Keep the focus on improving things rather than complaining.

8. One of the best tools to use in a store meeting is a force field diagram. This easy tool is a great way to resolve problems by weighing the pros and cons of any situation and coming to a conclusion everybody can work with. You can use it on everything from how the staff takes lunch to deciding if your current marketing plan is working.

9. Never miss the chance to improve staff skills or product knowledge during a store meeting. Too often I see managers use the meeting to communicate things that just as easily could have been communicated in a memo. Use this in-person time to do some role-playing so that the staff can learn from each other. Reward those employees who participate.

10. End on time and don’t run the meeting right up to the time to open the store. It upsets the customers to see the staff sitting around while they wait outside, and it’s also hectic for the staff who has to open the store.

11. Always end on an upbeat note. People should leave the meeting feeling pumped up and ready to go. Don’t get bogged down by one topic and spend all your available time beating it into the ground. The staff walks away from a meeting like that annoyed or mentally tired, which is certainly not how you want them to feel as they head out onto the sales floor.

12. Follow up on any issues that were raised at the meeting. Nothing frustrates a staff more than to be asked their opinions and thoughts and then see nothing happen. If the staff raises an issue that you determine can’t be changed at least go back and tell them so. A short memo a few days after the meeting is a great way to recap the session and bring closure to any outstanding issues.

Don’t let meetings become a gripe session.
It’s amazing how quick a meeting can spiral down
into a session complaining about a multitude of issues.

HERE ARE 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY (OR TOMORROW) TO BE A BETTER PILOT:

1. Take one of your employees out for a cup of coffee and spend some quality one-on-one time. Be sure to ask what you can do to improve the store and make it a more enjoyable place to work. Also ask what you can do to help them develop.

2. Watch and listen to your staff interact with customers, and then give them feedback. First tell them three things they did well. Then tell them three things they could have done better. Always end a feedback session expressing your confidence in them and your appreciation for their efforts.

3. Create a fun one-day contest that involves the whole staff. Here’s one that is fun to do and fun to watch. First, pick an area of focus. It could be selling products over a certain price point. Or it could be selling add-ons or complete solutions. One of my favorites is exhibiting a desired behavior. Purchase a bouquet of flowers and put it into a container in the backroom or on the back counter. Then with either plastic bottles or cups create a vase for each employee working that day. Every time an employee achieves the goal you’ve set they move a flower from the bouquet into their vase. At the end of the day the employee with the most flowers in their vase wins. The winner gets to take the flowers home as well as something like a gift certificate to a local restaurant.

4. Always, always, always, thank your employees for their contribution and efforts when they’re leaving for the day.

5. Spend 15 minutes working on your own development. Whether it’s reading a book, a magazine, or a newspaper, you must drive your own development. To develop as a leader we must always be expanding our own base of knowledge.

6. Straighten up your office. You can’t expect your employees to have spotless work spaces if you don’t.

7. Be the first one to clean this morning or at closing. It’s amazing how much your staff respects you when you join in and clean. I know you have a lot of other things to do but working side by side with your staff is invaluable.

8. One of the biggest mistakes store managers can make is to spend hours working in the office and then come out on to the floor and try to take charge. The best thing you can do when you come onto the floor is to ask the staff how you can help. So often I see a manager come out from the office, see a customer in the store and ask an employee if they’ve been helped. You know the employee is dying to tell the manager, “If you’d been on the floor you’d know that we’ve approached him twice.” Come out to help, not take charge.

9. Engage a customer and be the reference standard. Successful managers know there is no such thing as “do as I say and not as I do.” If the reference is to welcome every customer then the manager should be out front welcoming every customer. Leaders always go first.

10. Repeat the first nine things every day!

One of the biggest mistakes store managers can make is to spend hours working in the office and then come out on to the floor and try to take charge.