I am supporting 2 stores in my market as well as performing in the role of a Market Expert. Right now I spend part of the time supporting a store that is considered operationally excellent, and part of the time in a store that has some opportunities for improvement until we have permanent HR in place at both locations.
The stores are about 10 miles from eachother. Both stores are run by tenured Store Managers, both stores have fresh off-the-campus department managers, and both stores have me in their HR department. Despite those similarities, it's amazing how different the environments are...but that's a completely different post!
Anyhoo, today we had the HQ Stores Assurance visit in the store that's considered operationally excellent; however, the store did not get the overall ranking that was expected. While the score was not below standards, it certainly wasn't what they were used to. So the general feeling was that HQ had just swooped down and called our baby ugly...plain ol ugly. And everybody knows you can't just call somebody's baby ugly!
My workcenter ended up being great but I can't say the same for my peers' various workcenters. This was the first time they've ever been through a situation like this and they are all fairly new in role. After each visit, there's always a recap where the people who assessed your area will go over your wins and the things that could use improvement. These recaps are supposed to be upbeat, helpful, "learning experiences" to help you to understand what happened. But at the same time, thanks to cognitive dissonance, their feedback (and intent) often falls on deaf rookie ears.
We gathered as a peer group in my office to talk about the days happenings. I watched as they moped and talked about how disappointed they were. They talked about how hard they worked and didn't want this to hurt their reputation and their relationship with the boss. They mentioned how when they delivered the "news" to their teams, the team was shocked. I listened but I couldn't help but feel like I had to step up and give them perspective. I let them know that this wasn't the end of the world, and completely fixable. I told stories of the Stores Assurance nightmares I had been through. I told them that this is what management was about. I assured them that their careers were fine and that SURELY the boss would be in to reiterate the same message! And then, I waited...
I waited for our boss to come in and in a paternal fashion, acknowledge their disappointment and use all his wisdom from DECADES of management to tell us the takeaway from all this. I waited for our boss to recap with us. To reshape our outlook so that when we left, we left with the same pride we came in with. But he didn't. He sat in his office ALONE and moped and talked about how disappointed he was. He ignored us and did not want to talk about what happened. He eventually just told us to go home and we did.
He's been on my mind all day, not because I'm worried about him but mainly because I feel like he missed out on a huge opportunity. Most bosses search high and low for caring souls like the team I worked with today. Most bosses would love to have people on the team who pay attention to seemingly insignificant visits because EVERYTHING matters to them. Today I got the feeling that my boss doesn't want any of that. If he did, he would've realized that he sets the tone for communication in the building, and that he has an emotional responsibility to his team. We are dependent on his leadership and the burden is ALWAYS on the boss to make any conversation an open and positive one.
It's tough to be a good boss, but its even tougher to keep a good team...
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