Is your team down in the dumps this week?

I've worked with a few retailers this week, done some shopping and carried out some mystery shops and everywhere I go, people are down in the dumps. It's not a great week - the weather is awful (and possibly dangerous  if you live in parts of the North) and the process of stretching your pay packet always hurts more in January.

After all the events and promotions of pre-Christmas and the Boxing Day sales, it can be difficult to get your team going for another set of events. However, I think that an event may just be what is needed right now to lift your weary team and their collective spirit. There is Valentines Day just around the corner but something could fill the gap. It doesn't have to be customer-facing - just something that gets your team going again. I've seen ideas such as-

• A "thank you" buffet for the hard work over Christmas
• A dress down day
• A bingo card for selling a particular product with prizes for a full card

It's about doing something rewarding, a little lower-key than the Christmas promotions and hopefully some fun. Think about doing something that lifts the spirits of your team - it's important for them to have something that takes their mind off the gloom and doom that's in the news.

It's also time to ramp up your colleague engagement at this time. Spending quality time with your team is another sure fire way of lifting their morale. It's true leadership to be there with your team, discussing the upcoming plans when you don't really feel that great yourself.

Remember this as we fight through the rest of January and you will be in a position to reap the rewards.It's at this time of year that people start to look for a new job or a new start. If you have put yourself in a position that your team are happy, satisfied and productive then you can head a lot of this off at the pass.Team members that are happy and recognised are much less likely to look elsewhere. This will save you money on recruitment and training for new starters, which is an unnecessary expense at this time.

Make sure that you know your team and everyone is as happy as they can be. It's good for business in the long run.

Stop team members becoming invisible and motivate to success

I've been working with a management team this week and been looking at employee engagement. One of the things that has really struck me was the feeling from some of team that they are invisible, particularly to their management structure above them. This isn't a feeling from the newer team members, who seem to get a lot of time and attention as they learn the ropes and settle in. It is a feeling that is harboured by team members who have been there for quite some time, know their job inside out and just come in and get on with it. At first I found this to be a bit of a surprise, that the reliable team members were feeling invisible. But on further thought it felt true. If someone just comes on and does there bit then it is often only noticed when they are in holiday, off sick or leave. There's this gaping hole where the employee used to be. The problem is twofold - management teams not leaving colleagues feeling invisible, and colleagues being motivated to keep coming back for more. Now this is an issue for management teams all over the world-

How do you motivate team members who have been doing the same job for years.

And I must admit it's been a problem for me in my work career. I often get bored if doing the same thing over and over. I've changed jobs, changed companies, changed locations and changed industries when I feel like it's time to do something different.

Managers

The fact that team members don't feel recognised is down to management complacency. And as a team manager, it's about being present on the coal face every day. As a manager, you should have a conversation with every team member every day. They should feel that you understand what is happening to them today and if there's anything you can help with. To appreciate someone's contribution can often just be about saying "thank you." Along with a genuine, meaningful reason of why you are thanking them, this can have a massive effect - no more invisible employees!

Colleagues

If you're not in the management team and perhaps feel invisible or demotivated then works to your line manager. A conversation can be started by you, as much as by your line manager. Tell them your concerns and see what can be done about them. By being frank and discussing the situation, you can establish what to do next.

Do organisations have an obligation to people other than their shareholders?

I ask this question because, as I grow older, read more about the world and experience life with more and more organisations I see things that perhaps I hadn't seen before.

I've recently read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi and one of the  overwhelming themes was living on what you need to get by.

I would put it to you that many, many multinational organisations gather in vastly more resources than they need and yet their staff at the bottom level struggle to exist on the minimum wage. The question emerges - do the leaders of the organisation at the top have more of an obligation to look after their employees (higher wages, more annual leave and better benefits) than their obligation to their shareholders (lower costs, greater profit and better dividends)?

And it's not just with wages that I feel organisations need to look at their obligations. I read this article yesterday with some interest-

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/boots-to-cut-700-office-jobs-in-the-uk-10305508.html?origin=internalSearch

A genuine "restructure" where a company redeploys it's resources into different parts of the business for commercial reasons makes sense. Adapting the online offering, moving people from traditional marketing to the social media team or moving people from one store to another to react to customer demand all make sense.

The euphemistic restructuring that companies use as a buzzword now means job cuts and a drive to reduce the overheads a business faces - at the detriment of the workers who lose jobs, have hours cut, have to relocate, are under-employed or don't deal with the change very well, sometimes because they aren't supported through this change by the organisation that brought it about.

Again, it begs the question of where the company's priority obligation lies.

I've often thought that there are enough people in the UK that believe in equality and fairness and they could be mobilised to buy shares in a company and apply pressure on the policies that the company has, in terms of salaries, environmtal considerations and ethical business practices.

How do you transition you and your team back after time off?

I'm back at work today after 11 days off and I always find this the toughest few days of the year. As I come away from time with the family and look on to time with my work colleagues it always takes a little time for my body and my mood to settle into a normal routine. And I think that "normal" changes every time I go back after a period of time off. 

So, how do you make that transition easier?

How do you get back into the swing if things as quickly as possible, without too much turmoil?

There are a few ways of helping this, and a few things to avoid.

Sleep patterns

I think that a major change in your sleep patterns when you are not at work will bring about a more painful transition when you go back to work. For example, I usually start the day's work at 7:30am and I get up around 5:50am to get ready to work. I try not to get up any later than 6:30am during my time off, and the transition back to 5:50am starts isn't a difficult one. If I laid in bed until 8am or later, then I'm sure I would have much more trouble in getting up and getting motivated to work today.

Doing a job you want to do

This is a massive help, and will probably out-drive any other motives I list here. If you are doing a job that you enjoy, then you've probably most of the way there. It will make an instant impact on the fact that you will have that ready motivation to get up and go after a break. I have a job the I genuinely enjoy and the fact that I have missed a week fills me with a little excitement and I want to get back and see what's going on. This leads me to the next thing, which I think also helps-

Taking a complete break

I believe that not having anything to do with work facilitates a better transition back into work. It may sound strange, but a large part if your time off is being completely away from work and all the distractions and stresses it brings. I go to the extent of not going to the same town, and avoiding the same route on my travels. I think that all of these things help to rest and recuperate and provide you with the refreshing experience that time away from work should bring. The fact that you go back to work cold can be a little worrying but the fact that you have recharged your batteries offsets this. When you're ready to work and ready to get stuck into it, the work moves along quickly and you can easily catch up with colleagues over the course of the first few days.

Lifestyle

As well as keeping a similar sleeping pattern during your time off, it makes sense to keep similar lifestyle patterns - eat at the same time, drink the same amount, at a similar time, exercise at the same time, etc. Having a similar life pattern each day helps the body and mind to operate at it's fullest. It also helps to promote a consistent mood and aids recovery from exercise and illness. All of this will help you to get back into the swing of things as you return to work, as it keeps the culture shock element of your return to a minimum.

Try these tips to help you return - it's helping me today!

How do you retain your talent?

Retailers, how do you keep hold of your talented employees. In my experience in UK retail, there are always a large proportion of the team that are students, those returning to work, those doing this whilst they look for something else. Often these are talented and valuable members of your team, and you've spent time and money in recruiting and training these people. Your customers build a rapport with them and they know your business well. I don't think that there are ways of keeping 100% of these employees happy or a single way to make a large swathe of them stay but there are methods to make each individual have a higher propensity to stay.

If you are in retail, your traditional armoury in this area can often be limited. You will probably have restrictions on pay rises, bonuses, overtime, promotion, transfers and formal training. This doesn't mean that you should give up. There are other means and ways of improving and maintaining employee morale and this means that each member of your team is more likely to stay. And in this sentence lies the first such thing that you can do to help.

If you treat each member of your team as an individual then you will immediately increase their happiness at work. It sounds simple, but I can tell you from experience that not every manager or business owner does this. A large part of feeling valued by an employer is feeling that they understand you and care about you - not just in your job role but in your life. One of the very best mangers I've worked with had a fantastic memory for what her team had told her and could recall those little details that meant something to you. Mention that you were going away for the weekend in a few months and she would wish you a nice weekend just before and ask you how it went just after. Whether this was genuine interest or a faked act it went a long way to ensuring that the team worked really well for her and respected her hugely.

I'd say a similar but distinct thing is to ensure that your team feel appreciated. Money isn't the only form of appreciation here - just saying "thank you" really does go a very long way. Allowing a valued team member to go 5 minutes early to catch their children's school play or a similar act ensures that feeling of value and trust.

There is the issue of promotion that can be a major factor here, particularly with your student population. By promotion, I don't just refer to the straight up and down promotion lines of sales assistant, team leader, assistant manager, store manager that traditional stores have as their structure. Other, sometimes more subtle, changes to someone's job role can add to their interest and commitment to the business. Key holding duties, involvement in special projects, leasing a small team in a specific task or learning new parts of the operation all add to the interest level. And this, in turn, adds to the chance that your team member could stay.

Now these are ways to attract and retain quality employees from whatever their background. Never underestimate how interesting and rewarding the job is on how much your team want to stay. And that goes for all of your team, no matter what their background.

How do you reward your high flyers?

It struck me again this week something that has come to me time and time again during my time in retail. It's a question of reward.

Now if you're an entrepreneur, a single shop owner (as I hope many if my readers are) then don't start to worth at the word reward. The reward I'm putting forward as the most valuable is one that costs you nothing but time.

It's the simple "well done" or "thank you" and it's worth it's weight in gold. I witnessed this week a team member being told that their work was "awesome" and their area "had never looked so good." These comments had that team member bouncing all day and their work improve de enmity than the "awesome" level that had been achieved earlier in the week.

It's comments such as the "well done" or "thank you" put into your own words that make a huge difference to your team. I was a store manager a long time ago and it was part of the daily routine to thank every team member at the end of every day. The store doubled it's sales in a 12 month period. Now there were other factors at play here, but a team feeling recognised and valued were part of the motivation that enabled them to enact the other changes that made us successful. If the team were not feeling valued, they may not have been as receptive to other ideas.

It seems so basic, to talk to your team at every opportunity, but it's so often missed. I've worked in retail organisations where the store management team are hardly seen. They are office managers, who occasionally have to leave their office to pass out a task to a team member but spend the vast majority of their time cooped up in an office carrying out administration tasks or even less. In this experience, the team self-manage and tend to get the tasks done that they want to do, and some if the less favoured tasks just don't get done. It's a huge leap of faith to have in your team, to leave then to their own devices, and not one i'd take. I always want to have contact with my team and customers and I want an employer that empowers me to do that.

Look after your team as well as your customers this week

It's Christmas week and my short message today is to remember your team as well as your customers. It's all to easy to just focus in the task in hand, especially if you're busy with those last sales before Christmas. But remember that as busy as you are in your professional and personal life, your team will be just as busy. Leaving a few minutes early to catch the kids school nativity play or an extra fee minutes on a lunch hour to get groceries for Christmas dinner should be something that's given appreciation for.

Also think about the environment you work in. A non-uniform day or a themed dress day, maybe for charity will lift the spirits and do some good. Laying on snacks, particularly festive snacks, will also keep the team's spirit high going into those last few days before Christmas.

I've written before in this blog that team spirit makes a big difference to your customers, and eventually your bottom line. People do business with people, not special offers or price promotions. Ensuring that your people are fully motivated and feeling valued will ensure that your customers want to do business with them.

I was watching a version of A Christmas Carol yesterday and a line jumped out at me that I'd never noticed before. Ebenezer Scrooge said  to the ghost of Christmas yet to come "I'll try to keep Christmas all year round." I thought that this sentiment rang true for this particular blog. All of the above, keeping the team motivated, etc is something that you should try to keep all year round. It's important to have a well motivated team at all points if the year.

Where does the dynamic in your team come from?

Where does the dynamic in your team come from?

It's not always you, as the business owner, leader or manager - and that's not always a problem! Sometimes the spirit of the store can be a colleague or team member, and it's often their knowledge or ability to enthuse that sets them apart. As long as this person is enthusing people to do the right things (and not poison the well) then use their influence. You can let them lead and inspire the team in their natural way.

I have worked in many retail companies where the powerful influence hasn't been the manager. Some managers respect this and accept the fact that they can still be a manager and leader. Some managers hate this and fight it tooth and nail - I call these "title managers." Title managers need everything to come from them and through them, they hate any idea of influence coming from anywhere else and hunt down any other influential people - with intent to destroy them. It creates a hostile, negative atmosphere. And, in my experience, these managers are usually the ones that don't know a great deal about the business and have a low level of creativity. This stifles the natural creativity of the team and creates a vacuum, where nobody steps into the creative void for fear of the title manager's response.

I say that it is always positive to embrace motivation from within your team, wherever it comes from. An empowered, confident team are far more productive and resourceful than a team afraid to step on the toes of those in power.

Please think about how you want your team to operate - with of without you there.

Set up conversations determine the quality of delegated tasks

What action do you take when a team member doesn't complete a task in the time set?

You set a task, and give one of your team a certain amount of the in which to complete it. They don't get it done in the time you've set them. What do you do next?

In sure this happens in retail all the time, and I'm sure that people deal with it in many different ways, with differing degrees of success.

I set out below the way in which I would deal with it, and hopefully this will give you a framework to deal with any similar situations-

Understand the delay

You need to ask questions as to why the task wasn't completed on time. Were there more customers than first though? as dealing with customers is a priority. Did another team member not pull their weight? Did the team member fully understand the task? Did you actually give aside enough time for it in the first place?

All of these factors can hugely influence the task and the following discussion.

Setting it up for next time

Once you have an understanding of the situation that has just happened, you will have an idea of how to set up the team member for the next task. This is going back as step or two but the set up conversation is key to the task. You can avoid a lot of these incomplete tasks by getting the set up conversations right in the first place.

This is a confidence-builder for both you (you understand that the task is more likely to be done) and the team member (they fully understand what they are doing.)

Giving feedback

It's not just the task being finished in time, but it being done correctly. The feedback (positive and negative) will allow you and your team to move forward with confidence.

Thinking about rewarding your team at this time of year

Little treats can make big differences to the morale of your team and how they work for you and interact with your customers - in the long-term this will mean more goodwill, trade and sales for you.

I have worked for many retail organisations, big and small; worked with retailers in an advisory role and run my own retail business.  Where you have people working for you, their morale implants heavily on their commitment to worm and their interactions with your customers. Approaching Christmas is a time where employers often look at rewarding their teams in various ways. I have experienced the following-

*10% of a weekly wage as a bonus. This smacks of a lack of inspiration and thought and unfairly penalises part-time and weekend-only team members

*a choice from a pre-set list of gifts. This takes a little more organisation, but can have the "wow" effect if the gifts are of a good quality.

*a team night out. This will have the added bonus of some team building, but each out for situations arising from too much alcohol.

*a day off work paid for Christmas shopping. The idea is great, but often the time just gets mixed up with annual leave. Try to mix it with a shopping voucher or an afternoon tea at a nice tea room in the local town to ensure it's fully enjoyed for what it's supposed to be.

*a box of chocolates, a box of biscuits or a bottle of wine. This can start to go down the same route as the money route at the top of the list.

In sure that all you inventive entrepreneurs can come up with really great ways of celebrating your teams contribution at this time of year, and inspiring them to greater things in the future.

A short note on inspiration

You can be inspired in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people.  Some of my inspirations are as follows-

Music
I love the music of Hootie and the Blowfish, and their lead singer Darius Rucker.  They can be found all over You Tube, but they also have a jukebox on their website-

http://www.hootie.com/internal.asp?catID=21218#content

I also love the music of Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and David Gray.

Art
I love all types of art and have been to many art museums in cities all over the World.  My favourite artist is Mark Rothko.  I don't get into the whole modern art debate, I just like his paintings-

Television

I think that TV is starting to take over from the movies as the premium entertainment vehicle of it's genre. Recent programmes that have caught my attention include True Detective, Hannibal and the recent Dr Who

series have been excellent.  My favourite show has just finished airing in the UK, it's the US version of The Office.  The characters had more depth and more time to develop than the UK predecessor, and the programme was witty, funny and hugely entertaining every single week.




I think that originality and creativity runs through the likes I have for all of these things, and I hope that shows in my work. How about you?

Celebrate every small win, as they add up

I've been thinking about how to motivate your team at a low level in a regular basis. It's important to know they you are appreciated and that your efforts mean something to colleagues, customers, management and the company as a whole. People need to feel valued, and for me, the biggest way you handle this happen is verbally and non-financially.

I know some companies where every 'appreciation' has to be given through the payroll. This just doesn't have the same impact. In the moment feedback is invaluable. Actually saying to someone how well they've dealt with a customer, straight after the event is worth so much more than speaking to your colleague later, or even rewarding them financially at the end of the month in their pay packet.

And I'm talking about celebrating all the small wins that add up to the big win at the end of your trading period-

Getting a big delivery dealt with

Solving a problem for a customer

Closing a difficult sale

Cross-selling items to a customer

Tenerchandising a section to make it look much better

It's only when your team feel involved, motivated and free to have the confidence in their abilities that they will fire on all cylinders and produce their best work for you.

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.

How do you measure your success in the immediacy?

Measuring success

With so many external factors at play in the retail market, how do you measure your success?  Simple sales targets don't always tell the whole story. Staffing shortages, roadworks, parking problems, competitors opening or closing nearby and other factors can have a major influence on your sales but aren't necessarily under your influence.

Inputs as well as outcomes

Your input with your team as a leader is just as important (possibly moreso) than the outcomes. There are many situations I have come across where a store has improved year-on-year and against target, but with little input from the store manager. A good manager will constantly look at ways of improving the store and their team, day by day.

What other measures?

I have been part of focus groups in the past where we have looked at other measures and KPI's to establish a measure of success.  Some include-

• Number of team members progressing to the management programme as a measure of developing your team
• Average basket size as a measure if getting the most out of the customers you already have
• Sales per man hour as a measure of productivity
• How many customers you sign up for your store card as a measure of driving loyalty

A suite of measures

As a rounded retailer, you will have a series of well-thought-out measures to ensure that you are measuring a well-rounded leader. Each measure will inspire your team(s) to achieve the shared goals of your company, and they will be more motivational than a "sales at all costs" target.

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