Keep your team challenged and supported

I write this as a warning to all you retail managers and entrepreneurs out there.  You must keep your team engaged, interested, challenged and supported.

If you don't then things may start to get out of your control…

I tell the tale of someone who I used to work alongside and then found out was having a disciplinary investigation carried out on him in another store.  When I spoke to him after it had all been settled he told me of his immense frustration at working in a store with little management supervision.  He had worked alongside people who had put in little or no effort and not been pulled up about it by absent management.  His efforts were overlooked and some of his behaviour became slightly niggling and destructive.

The outcome was a lot of bad feeling, a lot of lost time in dealing with the disciplinary, re-training and starting again with motivating a demoralised team member.

The message I'm trying to get across is that you have to keep the job interesting to keep your employees interested.  Be out there with your team, lead them, inspire them and keep then fresh.