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| Management 101 |
Being a good leader means many
things and it can mean the world to someone who needs direction.
My first retail mentor was a retired
military man who thought that running a store should bring hardship to his 200
employees. He would make us work back-to-back shifts into the wee hours of the
morning with only two hours of sleep in between shifts. He created other
hardships as well, like approving a vacation and then jerking it from you two
days before you were to leave out on a jet plane. Of course, he got in trouble
for doing this, and brought major fines upon the company for breaking employment
laws.
As hard as he was to work for, I
thought that his style brought results, so that is how I led people in my early
career days. However, I didn’t like how that felt, so I learned a different way
of managing and leading people that gained respect, confidence in my abilities,
and one that built up leadership abilities in others.
One company that I worked for had
transferred me to Little Rock, Arkansas to take over a large district. This was
quite a challenge for me, but I managed to get the district cleaned up and
ranking at the top of the company of 26 stores. I had a lot of turnovers at
first because of all the thieving that was going on before I had arrived there,
leaving me no choice but to let many go.
Others were salvageable. I saw
value in them and their abilities, so I set out to mentor. Again, they didn’t’
know me from Adam, and they had to learn to trust me, know that I was a person
of my word, and know that I wanted the best for them.
One of the young men that worked for
me was our receiving person for the docks and handled maintenance and custodial
duties. This store was nestled on the side of a hill with lots of surrounding
trees. It was beautiful, but a bit messy in the fall.
I had asked him one day to go out
to the front of the store and rake up the leaves that were an eyesore and
danger for customers to maneuver as well as clean the docks as the drains
were being clogged with leaves.
He disappeared for a while, I
assumed to take care of the leaves. I eventually looked out the window to see
what he was doing. He had raked a pile of leaves, had a trash can, but was just
standing there looking at the pile. That’s all he was doing. I was kind of
wondering what was going on.
I went outside to see what the
holdup was. His answer made me chuckle. He didn’t know how to get the leaves
into the trash can!
I, in my dressy dress and high
heels, bent down and started picking up the leaves with my hands, no gloves,
and putting the leaves into the trash can while he stood there and watched.
He couldn’t believe I was doing
this all dressed up and without gloves! I told him hands are washable.
I also told him that I
would never ask him to do something that I wouldn’t do myself.
I gained a lot of his trust that day and he eventually would share a bit of his life with me and ask for advice.
Debra Lee | Author | Keynote Speaker | Biz & Life Coach
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