Empower, Develop Your Staff With This Advice
BY FLORA DELANEY
As a store owner or manager, you dream of a loyal staff you can rely on to make good decisions when you are not around. Shoppers who recognize — and shop — at your store because they love the experience and the products you sell. A feeling of success and progress so you can sleep well at night.
You might think you cannot control those things. But the truth is you can get all of that when you employ the power of coaching.
Coaching is not managing. Managing includes prioritizing tasks, assigning duties to employees, and removing obstacles. That is what a manager does. And you need managers on your staff.
But to build a completely empowered and developing staff, coaching delivers the goods. Think of a coach. A coach does not play on the field. A coach does not throw the football for the quarterback or step up to the plate for the batter.
Coaches watch their players and provide guidance throughout the game, so the players can use their own unique skills and talents to improve and win. A coach knows their job is to take the team they have and through practice and adjustments, make it the best it can be.
As your store’s coach, your first job is putting yourself in a position to notice. It is difficult — but necessary — to set aside and value the time you spend simply watching your team and evaluating your players.
So, your priority is to open your day from tasks so you can stand back and observe your team. Being able to notice means watching how your staff interacts with shoppers. That is what a coach does.
Look for their strengths. When you recognize what your employee is good at, ratchet up that skill to make them excellent. That is what being able to notice means.
Note: YOU must be the one who makes these observations. You cannot rely on or even respond to what other people saw or tell you about. You must build time in your schedule — and overlap with your team’s schedules — to make these observations yourself.
It is hard to stop yourself from stepping into a conversation between an employee and a customer when you see it starting to go off the rails. But guard against going into the game.
Instead, see how your employee solves problems or answers questions. Find something that they did well and comment on how they could become even better. Coaching is about building people up — not eroding their confidence.
It is both difficult and wonderful that retail is in real time. Retail is like a sports game. It is happening NOW, which means you can adjust now.
For example, a coach does not wait until the game is over to call a player into their office to have a chat. Coaching happens in the moment and is most effective when it occurs immediately.
There is a moment when a shopper leaves an employee and the employee’s mind starts to focus on “what should I do next.” That is the perfect time to have a coaching conversation with them. Have this moment when the dialog is fresh in their mind.
Start by asking, “What did you think about the engagement with that last customer?” It is a neutral statement and does not steer the conversation to what went right or what could have gone better.
Those are excellent follow-up questions. If you can start each coaching conversation with the question about customer engagement, over time, your staff will become accustomed to reviewing each customer interaction themselves.
Coaching should sound like a conversation. It needs to be brisk, even, and regular since it happens in the public space of your store’s sales floor.
This is not a performance review. You cannot have a coaching conversation that takes 20 minutes. A coaching conversation needs to be under four minutes. Here are two examples.
“Janice, I noticed when you went to each cash register lane that had customers that you smiled at the shoppers and made conversation with them. That’s wonderful — exactly what they expect when they shop here. Keep it up.”
OR
“Dave, I noticed that when you were putting up new price signs that you talked with all the male shoppers, but not the women. Did you realize that?”
These are short conversations that focus on helping the employee reflect on their behaviors with the previous shopper. It is a chance to point out how they are playing the game and what they could do to make it even better. And importantly, these conversations are specific. They focus on one thing at a time. As a coach, you are looking for the small, controllable adjustments your team can make on their next interaction with a shopper.
Coaching during the game is not the time to catalog every development you want your players to make in the weight room or with their diet.
If you ever played a sport, you know coaches love practice drills. Those drills focus on one specific element of the game. Like a coach, you need to have your players focus on one thing they could improve and then give them space and freedom to practice.
For example, you may have a shy employee who finds it difficult to open a conversation. Perhaps, just getting them to smile and offer an authentic greeting is all they should focus on for an entire shift.
Acknowledge the effort they make and encourage them every time you see them push themselves out of their comfort zone. End their shift by recognizing their growth, and they will see you as helping them achieve more instead of criticizing their performance.
These short conversations can have a chilling effect if you do not use them as chances to reinforce your confidence in them. This is a time to say you know they can do it and appreciate how they are improving each day. Every coaching conversation should end with reinforcing your belief that they can knock it out of the park for your customers.
As you give them space to practice and improve, let them know you will check in with them at a specific time to talk more about it. Whether it is the end of the shift or in a week, make sure you are disciplined about following up. That follow-up effort will help them recognize you are serious about their improvements.
Do you wish you had a better team? Remember, it begins with better coaching.
