Ensure your team know exactly what you expect from them

As the title says, I urge you to let your team know exactly your expectations if them day-in, day-out. As a leader you should have a clear plan of your goals and ambitions for the store you are running and ALL of your team should know 1- what these are, and 2- how you will achieve them.

This should be brought about by taking several steps-

• Decide what exactly it is that you want to achieve
• Work out basic steps to get there
• Plan an overview meeting with your team at the outset to communicate the above
• Have regular progress discussions to keep your team informed and keep their actions on-track
• Have daily discussions with team members regarding their input into the longer term goals

Leadership style

For the good managers, this may seem quite basic, but it doesn't happen in a lot of retail environments. Your ability to clearly communicate what you want your team to do and how you want them to do it is the very basis of your motivating management style.  A stranger should be able to walk into your store and ask every one of your team what your expectations are and get the same answer.  Now ask yourself - is this true if you and your team?  If not, then please take a loom at the steps outlined above and work through them in order.  It will make you think about your business, your goals and your leadership style.  The right results will only come if everyone is working together to achieve them.

Adapting this style

Once you have this as an ongoing part of your team's day, as in working towards these goals, then the next step or adaptation is to get your team to have a greater input into the goals.  They can challenge you and each other and this, in turn, empowers them to inspire each other.  Taking on these challenges and taking risks within a supportive framework make the job more interesting and make the team more likely to grow together and stay together. The working relationship between your team is vital to the vibrancy if your offering to customers.  Anything you can do to nourish that is taking a massive stride forward.

Poundland's Steve Smith revisits his roots

I worked for Poundland in the days of Steve Smith and his enthusiasm was inspirational.  He had a passion for his business and was always looking for new ways to push things forward.  Without him at the helm, how has Poundland remained so successful for so long?

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27371167

It is far more than just price.  Low prices without structure, innovation and an innate sense of what your customer wants just wouldn't have worked for that long.

Poundland have had to move with the times and realise that what they were selling for £1 over 20 years ago will have been eroded by inflation and may have gone out of fashion.  In my days there we sold loads if "large plastics" which consisted of washing baskets, buckets an mops but so many if then broke in transit that their export was stopped.

They have done deals with major suppliers to make their products at a size to match the price point rather than the price fitting the product.  This level of innovation has helped the company stay ahead of the competition and has forced suppliers to recognise Poundland as a serious player in the retail world.

I'm sure that there's another 20 years plus in Poundland and that whatever Steve Smith turns his hand to will be driven forward by his energy.

Football Fever at Amazon - get ready for the World Cup!

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.

Some of the best days are when you just leave your team to do their job

As the title states, I think that some of the best days are when you have a team that you have trained, skilled and motivated to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Sometimes all you need to do is point people in the right direction and let them get on with what they do best - no interference, no questioning. Yesterday was one of those days where the operations guy knew exactly where he wanted to be after a heavy weekend trade (see payday weekend blog from Saturday.) The customer service team had nothing other to do than give great customer service and weren't hindered by taking on extra tasks. The shop ran well, sales were up and everyone enjoyed their day. For things you can't buy on the High Street - Kindle edition of Philomena: The True Story of the Film (Film Tie-in Edition): The True Story of a Mother and the Son She Had to Give Away

Your enthusiasm infects your team - and your customers

The best managers have boundless enthusiasm (mixed in with some focus.). When you are enthusiastic about your job, your company and have a clear direction for this enthusiasm then your team will feed on this.  They will work better for you, share your goals and share their ideas.  Nourish these and you have a winning team and a great place to work.

I worked with a manager with great energy, enthusiasm for the job and a clear view of where they wanted their store to be - with a sense of what order things had to happen to achieve this.  It was a job that I jumped out of bed to work in.

And your customers feel it too!

Some things you can't buy on the High Street - Amazon Prime

Introduction

Hello

This is a short introduction to an ongoing series of short blogs on retail.  I have worked in retail for over 20 years and in this blog I'll share my experiences and show how these can be fitted to a plan for a retailer to move forward.  I also mention in the blog name about saving the High Street in the UK.  There is much debate about whether it can be saved or should be saved.  It has been the centre of life for many towns for over a hundred years.  It has to change and adapt to survive, but yes - it is worth saving.

I won't reveal my name at any stage my name, the name of any of my colleagues or any of my employers, past or present, as I don't think that this is fair for anyone or any company involved.  I still work in retail, so I value my anonymity.

I will take specific examples from my working life and apply them to a strategy to ensure that retailers have a better time of things (this is specifically vague, as I don't necessarily mean more profit, as this may mean less money in the pocket of you or I) and the High Street is returned to a vibrant place to work, shop and spend time.

Hope this makes a little sense ans starts to get your interest.  All of my blogs will be fairly short and on a single topic, so would make good weekly reading for any retailer, shopper or entrepreneur out there.

Thanks for reading!