In retail, it’s easy to react, especially in the rush of the moment or the chaos of a busy floor. But this often has the opposite effect of what’s intended. Reactive statements like “That’s not possible” or “You’re blowing this out of proportion” land with judgment. In return, they often lead to quick, defensive remarks…
When it comes to effective negotiation practices, there’s no shortage of theories, philosophies and techniques out there. But retail, particularly for the large organizations we work with, is a unique environment: The pace is faster: Anyone who has worked in retailing knows the pace in general moves faster than other industries, and the same goes…
Just what is “leadership presence”? In their book, Leadership Presence, The Ariel Group’s founders Belle Linda Halpern and Kathy Lubar use real client stories from the company’s experience in working with leaders across industries to help define leadership presence. They put real meat on the bones of the elusive idea. One element that contributes to…
At the store level, execution during the fall/holiday season is everything. This means your store leaders have to be able to communicate the specifics and importance of what to focus on. They have to coach and reinforce sales and service behaviors. They have to be prepared to address their teams as soon as they see…
When we talk about motivation, we think of it as an outcome, not an input. If you’re a retail multiunit manager, one of the most effective ways to improve motivation is to help your team become more competent in how to do their job well. Based on our research, there are four factors that make…
While the merits of Holacracy have been hotly debated (particularly in relation to Zappos’ high-profile pivot to a “peer-to-peer workplace”), most of the interest in management skills for non-managers that we’ve seen lately doesn’t involve this kind of extreme shift to a flat organization. Instead, it centers around the trend towards more highly collaborative and…
One of the primary aspects of the retail store manager’s role is helping associates maximize their own potential and performance. That’s why it’s so important for your leadership training to address the issues of associate engagement and motivation. Here are 4 leadership best practices from our research that will help unleash motivation to drive higher…
In working with retailers to develop their store leaders’ interpersonal skills over the years, one question seemed to come up again and again: What about the other leaders in the organization, like those in the distribution centers and home offices? There’s no shortage of leadership development programs out there, but the retail ecosystem is unique. Management…
Are you a manager or leader? Which should you strive to be? And what’s the difference? Retailers often ask us whether their learning and development strategies should center around management or leadership skills. In many industries, those lines of responsibilities are clear and specific, so separating the two makes sense. But retail is unique. More often…
We had just finished debriefing the results of a store manager survey with the regional and district teams from a major retail client. The insights and ahas were everywhere. As the SVP, Store Ops had said when kicking off the meeting, “We want this time to be a healthy reflection on each of us as…
