We all know the power of being present. As a retail district manager or regional field leader, when you’re able to be present both mentally and physically, it magnifies the opportunity to influence and affect behavior. Of course, when you’re leading from a distance, the lion’s share of your communication doesn’t happen face to face. And that means…
When people talk about technology in retail, invariably they’re focused on things like omnichannel, mobile payments, robots and automation, product displays, and data analytics, among other digital tools and solutions. But there’s another way technology influences everything that happens in the retail environment, and that’s through internal communication. Particularly for multiunit retail managers like district…
If you ever doubted that retail is its own breed, take a generic leadership development course. You’ll quickly discover that what applies in other types of organizations doesn’t necessarily translate. It’s not just the setting — although the environment certainly is a factor — it’s the nature of the challenges, the dynamics of the different people…
One of the biggest challenges of so-called “soft skills” behavior-based training is measuring return on investment. Did the time and money spent on the training deliver dividends back to the business? And how can we sustain and keep building on that value? This is a big concern for retailers when they take leaders away from…
We’re often asked what key skills and behaviors store managers, district leaders, and other retail leaders need to succeed in today’s challenging retail environment. While the retail world continues to go through disruption and upheaval, we’ve seen through our continuing research over the years that there are a few core, foundational attributes that are consistently…
Whether it’s preparing for the holiday ramp-up or gearing up for peak demand seasons that affect your niche — like the busy spring season for home improvement stores — at various points in the year, retail managers will turn their attention to recruiting and interviewing to staff up. When there’s a tight labor market, this task can…
The National Retail Federation’s Big Show is upon us, and once again, the digital transformation of retail is front and center: Topics like the latest disruptive technologies, artificial intelligence, and innovative apps and new ecommerce developments abound. At the same time, we know that tech, on its own, isn’t the cure-all for retail’s latest disruptive…
When you begin a new job or get a promotion, it’s always helpful to have a role model to emulate. You can pick up a lot of insight by following the lead of those who’ve “been there and done that.” And certainly, being a role model is a critical part of leadership. Through their behavior,…
When you send a district manager or retail store leader through a training program, it’s an investment—of time, money, and effort, not to mention the fact that they’re going to be away from their daily responsibilities. But it’s also an investment in the future of the business. It’s a down payment on the results and…
Every new technology announcement in the world of retail is guaranteed to generate a lot of buzz. Take Amazon’s Dash Button, for example. Press a button, and you’ve instantly placed an order for those common, high-volume commodity items. Convenience for the consumer, more valuable data on customer buying habits for Amazon, more talk of robots taking…
