Heart

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. The sound of a heartbeat is the truest sign of being alive. We talk about that when it comes to the human body, but what about looking at it from another angle…your business. Stores need heart.

A store needs the pumping of empowerment and the circulating of ideas. 

Have you ever had an employee that just radiates love? Love of the brand. Love of their peers. Love of the customer. You should. Stores can’t be successful without them. These are people who have stuck through it all; through crisis, rotational and dysfunctional management and brand struggles. They shine during high and low volume days, high level visits and customer interactions. The best thing about having heart… they believe in you and all that comes with you. They see the light in you even when things couldn’t get any worse. They provide you with calm when everything around you is in chaos. They embody positivity, integrity and honesty. And the best part of having heart, they aren’t afraid to tell you like it is. Pure honest and direct feedback. Good and bad.

Heart in the store environment will build a strong store culture. It helps by getting rid of dysfunction and disarray pushing you to be a more impactful leader. These employees give you a unique perspective into the temperature of not only your team, but the customer as well.

I walked into a very flawed retail environment. Poor visuals, an uncleanliness I have never witnessed, a “who cares” about the customer mentality and serious theft; both internal and external. I asked myself repeatedly, “What have I gotten myself into?”  I knew there were some issues. I knew this role would test everything I have ever learned about managing stores.  It was going to take a lot of time to turn this store around and the higher ups had HUGE expectations of me. So, what did I do? I ignored all the issues and focused on the people working in the building. Believe me, it did not go over well with the person who hired me. My boss wanted a strategic outline with bullet points on how I was going to turn business and the store round. Afterall, holiday was right around the corner and the clock was ticking.

There was a light. A bright shiny, rainbow hiding in the bowels of this place. Tenure. A heartbeat so loud that it shook my management philosophy to its core and reignited the passion I had sitting in my 3-hour interview.

All the flaws I experienced went on the back burner (for now) and I started sitting down with every tenured employee to learn and revisit their experiences through their eyes. As it turns out, they were forgotten. All of them. In the years of tenure with this team, many of them were leaders themselves, top producers, creative merchants and customer service super stars. All forgotten for a “new and improved” staff led by managers that could have cared less about who they were or what they could bring to the table.  Just a number mentality. They cut back on their hours and pushed them into the shadows. I did the opposite. I knew these tenured employees understood their role because they lived through all the ups and downs. They understood that a store is nothing without its people.

In doing so, I discovered a heartbeat for the brand and store. So, I exploited it! I gave them set schedules at interesting times of the day. I partnered them with new hires, put them in the fitting rooms on the busiest days, added them to the merchandising team and entrusted them to be direct and honest with me. No topic was off limits. I stood there and listened to all of it.  Guess what happened? The store started to thrive. The culture started to shift. Customers started to come back. Their pride flowed through the store. With change beginning to happen on its own, I now had time to strengthen my role and start focusing on the dysfunctionality of the stores systems and bad reputation. I included them in decision making and asked for their opinions on tough tasks.  I looked to them for guidance in hiring the right team. Asked a lot of tough questions and got a lot of hard to hear answers. It all started to work. I no longer needed a bullet point presentation on how I would turn the business around. You experienced it when you walked in the front door. You could feel it.

It sounds simple, right? I’m sure every store has heart, right? Thinking back on your past, perhaps you ignored the heart and that’s ok, but in looking at your present, are you embracing yourself as a leader who can be open? Or do you find yourself looking for a way to push them out because you’re afraid of what they might say? Running a store is hard. Lead with your heart and you’ll win every time.