February 4, 2006

Marketing Today

Thoughts on management

Once upon a time, I worked in several hardware stores in San Francisco, two of which stand out for their exceptional management practices.

At one store, the owner constantly complained about slow business was and daily berated his managers (myself included) for failing to place the many notepads, tools, etc., at perfect right angles on the glass countertop that he insisted on keeping spotless. Training was non-existent, as were benefits or decent wages. Turnover was extremely high, especially among the more qualified people. Customer service was spotty at best because hardly anyone knew the inventory or how to help people solve their many problems, from replacing sink washers to wiring telephone extensions. That store limped along for many years and finally folded. It was sad driving by the empty building that once hosted my first real job since high school.

The last hardware store I worked at sells many of the same products, but that’s where the similarity ends. Each employee is responsible for their department (paint, plumbing, electrical, glass, etc.). New employees are assigned to senior employees in a department, fully trained and promoted when the senior person leaves. The person in charge of each department handles ordering, inventory, customer service, pricing, cleanup, the works. The master schedule rotates everyone through their departments and the cash wrap, ensuring enough people at the registers while giving everyone plenty of time to manage their own departments. Everyone is an expert in their area and refers customers to each other when a question exceeds their knowledge. Living wages, benefits and paid vacations are the norm. A surprising number of that store’s employees have been there well over a decade. Customers and workers are on a first-name basis. That store has been thriving year after year and recently expanded.

Here is the single most powerful secret you’ll ever learn about managing people: The more you put into them, the more you’ll get out of them. Here are just a few examples of what I’m talking about:

• Openly communicate your business’ goals and standards. Everyone wants, even needs, to belong to something. Give your people something to belong to and to strive for.

• Whenever possible, hire people who are just a little too junior for the position, mentor them and watch them grow.

• If you expect your employees to give you their full-time dedicated efforts, then give them the resources (pay, benefits, etc.) to do it. Forcing someone to work two or more jobs in order to afford food and shelter forces them to give you less than their best efforts.

• Set very clear expectations about the quantity and quality of work that must occur and hold everyone to the same standard (including yourself).

• Make your employees experts. Encourage them to share that expertise with each other and with your customers.

• Always treat your employees the way you would like to be treated. Fail to do so and, well, when the cat’s away ...

• Never tolerate drama. You are not in the therapy business. Well, maybe you are, but you get my point.

• Push your people to excel by keeping your standards high. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

• Mistakes happen to the best of us. If an employee makes a judgment call that proves wrong, heck, at least they took the initiative.

• Most employees are decent hardworking people; however, there are exceptions. Firing people sucks. The distraction and resentment wrought on an entire team by one bad apple sucks even worse.

• Be candid about the state of the business. Your employees are literally selling part of their lives to you and this lifetime may be the only one we get. They deserve nothing but the truth. Make them part of the solution. The intelligence and creativity at your disposal will amaze you.

• Recognize that your workers may have more detailed knowledge in specific areas than you do. I never saw Captain Kirk tell Scotty how to fix the warp engines.

• Praise publicly.

• Punish privately.

All this is a very long way of saying the obvious: Be firm. Be fair. Be a leader. If you can’t or won’t do that, then chances are very good that hiring employees could cause more harm than good. But if you can, then your business will see increased productivity, morale, job satisfaction and customer satisfaction while seeing less turnover, fewer complaints and sharply reduced losses (we’ll talk more about loss prevention next week). All of this adds up to one thing: Higher profits — the reason you’re in business in the first place.

I am thrilled to announce the imminent release of my new book, “The Enlightened Savage: Using Primal Instincts for Personal and Business Success,” which describes how ancient survival instincts are guiding everything we do — and how to use those instincts to our advantage.

I always welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions. Please e-mail me at anthony@coachanthony.com with your ideas and suggestions. My invitation for you to schedule a free session with me is always open and there is never any obligation. You may also visit me on the Web at www.coachanthony.com.

Anthony Hernandez is a local business consultant with more than 19 years of business and marketing experience. He lives in Ashland with his wife Robyn, son Logan, and their two dogs.