Retail Manager — Productivity and Developing Your Team

Retail Managers have a lot of information to process in the course of one day. They must decide what to act on now and what to save for later. Most of us are still expected to sell, be a leader and a team member at the same time. Depending on your management style and work ethic you may find yourself having more to do then time in a day. Letting go of some tasks may be a hard pill to swallow, but giving your team some of the control will free up some time for you to complete more important action items to achieve strategic goals, while developing a stronger team. As a manager your sole purpose for existing is to create sales. Therefore you should spend most of your time moving towards and creating that reality, not doing the same old thing every day.

Should it Be Done Now?

Priority (Now) vs. Goal Accomplishment (In between!) vs. Task (Later)

As all Retail Managers know, there is always something happening or changing at the last minute creating havoc in your life. New programs, promotions, meetings, conference calls, someone calling in sick and the list goes on as you know it. These are priority items which may need attention right away.

In between havoc and control are your goals. You are paid to create sales. \"How\" you do that are the actions you take every day relative to the respective goals. Managers must spend the most amount of time on these items as possible.

Tasks, your every day routine items. Tracking payroll, sales, statistics, maintaining organization and control of your environment and such. Preparing for meetings, conference calls and store visits from your boss all are routine tasks which should be done after priority and goal action items.

Who Should Be Doing This?

The first question you should ask yourself every time you do something is, \"Should I be doing this?\" Next, \"Am I the right person for the job?\" Then, \"Is this moving me towards accomplishing my goals\" and lastly, \"Who would be better suited to do it and when?\"

You may have to take some time to give clear instructions or training on the task at hand but consider it an investment of your time versus wasting your time when you do the task yourself. Next time this task must be completed you can point and shoot. Delegate it and move on!

The benefits are many. You have someone doing the task for you and they know more because of it. If you were to leave your store right now, would the ship sail forward or sink? Your ability to develop your team is a measurement of your leadership. You owe it to your self to do the things every day that accomplish your goals while developing your team.

Craig Cook is a Retail Manager and Administrator of http://www.retailmanager.org, a resource portal for Retail Managers.

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